Huskies ruin home opener
Saskatchewan topples Manitoba 3-1
Romer Bautista, Staff
The Bisons’ Richard Wood and the Huskies’ Brett Novak prepare for a faceoff.
The atmosphere in the Max Bell Arena for Friday night’s men’s hockey home opener was electric. On Oct. 13, residence students battled to see who was the loudest, while the International Centre for Students held the third-annual Hockey Night with the Bisons, giving some international students their first taste of Canada’s beloved pastime. The only thing that would have made it better was a Bisons win. Unfortunately for the Bison faithful, the visiting Saskatchewan Huskies had other plans in mind.
Playing like the defending Canada West champions that they are, the Huskies took full-advantage of some costly Bisons penalties to pull out a 3-1 victory. The loss snapped the Bisons’ two-game win streak, and was Manitoba’s first defeat of the season.
“Saskatchewan is a good club, and we’re going to have to find a way to execute a little bit better in a lot of different areas, and just play a little bit smarter, because we took some questionable penalties tonight that put is in bad situations,” Bisons head coach Don MacGillivray said after the game.
Things looked promising for the Bisons in the opening minutes of the game, as the team came out and got the first two good scoring opportunities. Travis Kornelson and Kyle Howarth were each turned away by Huskies goaltender Russel Monette.
Momentum shifted 13 minutes into the period after Mark Olafson was called for a hooking penalty, giving the Huskies their first power play opportunity. Saskatchewan passed the puck around the zone perfectly, before Brent Twordik fed Steven Gillen in front of the net, and he one-timed it past Bisons goaltender Krister Toews.
Acton continued into the second period, with both teams playing evenly for the most part. The Bisons, however, were unable to capitalize on any of their chances. The Huskies, on the other hand, were making good on theirs, as they were able to take a two-goal lead eight minutes into the second. Brad Erickson took a pass from Jason Wager as he was streaking into the Bisons zone, and put it past Toews. The reigning CIS player of the week, Toews, was not at his sharpest on the night, allowing three goals on just 22 shots.
The Bisons looked like they had cut the deficit to one midway through the period, but Monette made another huge save, this time on Rob Smith. The save allowed the Huskies to maintain a 2-0 lead heading into the second intermission.
The Bisons came out in the third period much like they started the game — with a ton of energy. This time, that energy translated into a goal. Stephane Lenoski got the home team on the board, firing a shot from the top of the circle past a screened Monette.
With the Bisons back in the game, the home crowd started getting louder, urging their team on. The Bisons responded to the new found crowd energy by pushing the Huskies back on their heels with constant pressure. However, their efforts went for naught, as Monette and the Huskies defence kept the puck out of the net.
“That’s the best college crowd we’ve played in front of in a long time. I thought that was a great atmosphere for a college game,” said Huskies head coach Dave Adolph about the effect the crowd had on the game.
Whatever crowd energy was left was sucked out of the building at the 8:27 mark of the third period after the Huskies scored on another power play opportunity. Brent Twordik broke in on goal and fired a weak backhand shot that Toews was unable to handle.
Monette made a few more spectacular saves to keep the score 3-1 until the final horn sounded. He finished 26 saves for the win.
“I didn’t think we played with a lot of energy early in the game, for whatever reason. I thought we had a good third period, we started getting down to loose pucks, and made the game 2-1, and then gave up what I would consider a real soft goal to make it 3-1. Krister [Toews] would like to have that [goal] back, I’m sure,” MacGillivray said.
Despite the disappointing result for the Bisons, international student Ruoxin Wang from China, still enjoyed the nights festivities. “It’s a pretty awesome sport!” he said about his first hockey game. “[I learned] that you need a lot of strategy and you need to skate very well.”
The same two teams were back on the ice Saturday night for a rematch. Despite a better game from the Bisons, Saskatchewan was able to eek out a 4-3 victory. Huskies forward Mike Wallin scored the game-winner in the last minute of the third period.
The two wins keep the Huskies on top of the Great Plains division with a 4-0-0 record. The Bisons now drop to .500 with a 2-2-0 record. The Bisons have a conference bye this weekend, but will remain busy as they travel to the U.S. for a pair of exhibition games against the University of Nebraska-Omaha and the University of Canisius-Alabama.
