No one outworks the Dogs – Huskies upset Redmen 4-1

Josh Roach returned from injury to the Huskies.

    The underdog role seems to fit the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team just fine.

    On Friday at the University Cup in Fredericton, N.B., the Huskies never trailed as they put together one of their best performances of the season to down the third seeded McGill University Redmen 4-1 in a quarter-final match before 2,739 spectators at the Aitken University Centre. With the win, the Huskies advance to the “frozen four” semifinal round of the U Sports elite eight national championship tournament for a third straight year.

    Entering the University Cup, the Huskies were pegged as a team that could be eliminated in one game due to the fact they were playing without star goaltender Jordon Cooke due to a knee injury. Cooke was named the U Sports goaltender-of-the-year and a first team U Sports all-Canadian in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 campaigns.

    The Leduc, Alta., product claimed honours as the Canada West goaltender of the year for a third straight season this past campaign and he was named a second team U Sports all-Canadian.

    Taran Kozun started his fifth straight post-season game, and the rookie, who was the WHL goaltender of the year in the 2014-15 campaign while playing for the Seattle Thunderbirds, was stellar making 33 saves to pick up in goal for the Huskies.

    The Huskies had injuries to three key forwards in sophomore Wyatt Johnson, who is battling a concussion, and first liners Josh Roach and Michael Sofillas were pegged to possibly return from undisclosed ailments. Roach, who is in his fifth and final season with the Huskies and was the team’s scoring leader with 13 goals and 24 assists in 27 regular season games, had a higher likelihood of returning than Sofillas.

Connor Cox had a goal for the Huskies on Friday.

    Roach, who was a second team all-Canadian all-star, and Sofillas played and helped the Huskies go up 1-0 with a power-play goal at the 12:42 mark of the first period.

    Working the point, Roach fed the puck down low on the right side of the Redmen zone to centre Logan McVeigh. McVeigh passed the puck out front to Sofillas who knocked home the game’s first  goal.

    Just 63 seconds into the second, the Huskies entered the Redmen zone on a three-on-two rush. Defenceman Connor Cox drove down low to the left side of Redmen goal and fired home the rebound from a shot taken by right-winger Levi Cable to put the Huskies up 2-0.

    With 2:23 to play in the second, the Redmen cut the Huskies lead to 2-1, when forward Antoine Dufort-Plant potted the rebound from the point shot from defencemen Maximilian Daigle for a power-play goal.

    Huskies extended their lead to 3-1 at the 9:58 mark of the third on a bit of a positive bounce goal. A point shot from defenceman Jordan Fransoo deflected off the stick of Andrew Johnson, off Redmen defenceman Nathan Chiarlitti, flipped high in the air and as it was coming down was knocked into the Redmen goal by Huskies left-winger Carson Stadnyk.

Carson Stadnyk scored for the Huskies.

    Skilled centre Kohl Bauml iced the win for the Huskies scoring into an empty net with 65 seconds remaining in the third.

    Louis-Philip Guindon turned away 29-of-32 shots to take the setback in goal for the Redmen.

    The Redmen posted a 22-4-2 record in the regular season and a 7-2 mark in the OUA playoffs. The Huskies posted a 20-7-1 record during the regular season and 2-3 mark in the Canada West playoffs.

    The Huskies now advance to play their “forever rivals” in the second seeded University of Alberta Golden Bears in a semifinal on Saturday (1 p.m. Saskatchewan time, Sportsnet 360).
    Between the regular season and playoffs, the Golden Bears have won five of the six head-to-head meetings with the Huskies including sweeping the best-of-three Canada West championship series 2-0.

    The Golden Bears prevailed in their quarter-final match earlier on Friday 8-6 over the seventh seeded Acadia University Axemen.  

    Saturday’s earlier semifinal features the top seeded tournament host and defending University Cup champion University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds taking on the fifth seeded St. Francis Xavier University X-Men. The Varsity Red came into the tournament having won the Atlantic University Sport conference title.

Kohl Bauml had an empty-net goal for the Huskies.

    Last year, the Varsity Reds as the host squad defeated the Huskies 5-3 in the championship final of the University Cup.
    For the first time since the championship tournaments in both men’s and women’s hockey in U Sports switched to an elite eight format in the 2014-15 campaign, the Huskies have both their men’s and women’s teams qualified for the semifinal round in the same year.

    At the women’s tournament in London, Ont., the seventh seeded Huskies will take on the host and third seeded University of Western Ontario Mustangs in one semifinal on Saturday, while the other semifinal sees the top seeded University of Manitoba Bisons battle the fourth seeded Concordia University Stingers.

    The bronze medal and champion games for both elite eight tournaments are slated for Sunday.

@HuskiesMHKY have beaten @McGillAthletics 4-1, and advance to the @USPORTS_Hockey Semi-Finals! Watch it live on Sportsnet 360, and on Sportsnet NOW‼️

Les @HuskieAthletics ont battu les @HockeyRedmen 4-1 et accèdent à la demi-finale de hockey masculin U SPORTS! ✨#ChampSZN 🏆 pic.twitter.com/HGS24MD3AE

— Coupe U Cup (@coupeUcup) March 17, 2018

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Huskies will be underdogs at this year’s University Cup

Levi Cable, left, Taran Kozun and the Huskies are playing with house money.

    The University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team has nothing to lose and everything to gain at this year’s University Cup.

    The Huskies are usually viewed as one of the contenders at the U Sports national men’s hockey championship tournament when they get there. Last year, the Huskies advanced to the tournament’s championship game, where they fell 5-3 to the host University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds.

    This year is a little bit of a different story as the University Cup tournament returns to Fredericton, N.B., for a second consecutive time. The Dogs limp into the University Cup as a beat up team on the injury front.

    They will be without star netminder Jordon Cooke, who suffered a knee injury in a 6-4 playoff win over the University of Calgary Dinos on Feb. 22. Cooke went down after being crashed into in the Huskies goal.

    Cooke had been named the goalie-of-the-year for Canada West this season for a third straight year. He was the U Sports goaltender-of-the-year and a first team U Sports all-Canadian in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 campaigns.

Jesse Forsberg has been key in controlling the back end for the Huskies.

    The absence of the Leduc, Alta., product is a huge one without even adding in the fact he is the Huskies second all-time career leader in regular season wins (59) and saves (2,358).

    Sophomore forward Wyatt Johnson is battling a concussion. First line forwards Michael Sofillas and Josh Roach have also been battling injuries, but there is a chance they could be in the lineup for the Huskies. Roach has a higher likelihood of returning than Sofillas.

    Centre Logan McVeigh returned to the Huskies for the Canada West championships series after missing three games with a broken jaw, which is an injury he is playing with.

    Besides the injuries, the Huskies head to nationals after being swept in the best-of-three Canada West title series by the University of Alberta Golden Bears 2-0 in Edmonton.

    The Huskies had leads of 1-0 and 2-1 in Game 1 of that series played on March 2, before the Golden Bears rolled to a 5-2 victory. One night later in Game 2, the Golden Bears jumped out to a 5-0 lead before coasting to a 5-1 victory.

    Both of those emotionally charged contests attracted respective crowds of 2,896 and 2,963 to the Clare Drake Arena who likely wanted to see the Huskies lose as much as see the Golden Bears win on both of those nights.

Taran Kozun (#31) carries the load in goal for the Huskies.

    However, the “Madness of March” brings opportunity. In elite-eight single elimination tournaments like the University Cup, odds increase for underdog squads like the Huskies to produce upsets. The tournament kicks off with two quarter-final games on Thursday.

    The Huskies, who are seeded sixth, play in Friday’s second quarter-final game against the third seeded McGill University Redmen, who are the champions of the Ontario University Athletics conference.

    The Redmen posted a 22-4-2 record in the regular season and a 7-2 mark in the OUA playoffs. Centre Jerome Verrier topped the Redmen in regular season scoring with 12 goals and 29 assists. Second-year forward Christophe Lalonde topped the Redmen with 13 goals in the regular season, while also posting eight assists in 25 appearances.

    Defenceman Dominic Talbot-Tassi quarterbacked the Redmen’s offence on the back end topping all of the team’s rearguards in scoring with eight goals and 17 assists in the regular season.

Josh Roach has a good chance of returning from injury at nationals.

    Netminder Louis-Philip Guindon carries the load in goal as the start for the Redmen posting an 18-4-2 record, a 2.22 goals against average, a .917 save percentage and three shutouts.

    The Huskies posted a 20-7-1 record during the regular season and 2-3 mark in the Canada West playoffs.

    Roach led the Huskies in regular season scoring with 13 goals and 24 assists in 27 appearances. McVeigh was second in team scoring with seven goals and 22 assists in 27 appearances.

    Rookie Alex Forsberg had a strong season recording 11 goals and 12 assists in 24 regular season games. Older brother Jesse Forsberg was stellar on the back end leads all Huskies defencemen in scoring with five goals and 15 assists in 24 appearances.

    Alex Forsberg plays left wing on the Huskies grittiest line - which should likely be the team’s most noticeable line - with fifth-year veteran John Lawrence at centre and fourth-year veteran Parker Thomas at right wing.

    Taran Kozun will carry the load in goal for the Huskies in the absence of Cooke. In five regular season starts, Kozun posted a 4-0-1 record, a 2.00 goals against average, a .924 save percentage and one shutout. He was the WHL goaltender of the year in the 2014-15 campaign while playing for the Seattle Thunderbirds.

    The team is guided a stellar coaching staff led by longtime veteran head coach Dave Adolph who have pretty much seen everything.

The Huskies hope to celebrate a few magical goal moments at nationals.

    While the Huskies are beat up, they have enough depth to be a problem for any team they face. They still have the potential to be in one of the two semifinal games on Saturday playing the winner of quarter-final contest between the Golden Bears and the Acadia University Axemen and in Sunday’s gold medal game.

    The Huskies are playing with house money in this trip to nationals. It provides an opportunity to write a unique chapter in their storied history.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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