The University of Alberta Golden Bears dropped the University of Saskatchewan Huskies again on Saturday night at Merlis Belsher Place. (Katie Brickman-Young/HuskieFAN)

By Katie Brickman-Young

Team looks to regroup on bye week

Huskies men’s hockey fall to Golden Bears

Jan 22, 2022 | 11:15 PM

There was a lot riding on this game for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team and they didn’t have enough in the tank.

The Huskies dropped their second straight game, a 4-1 loss to the University of Alberta Golden Bears in Canada West hockey action on Saturday night at Merlis Belsher Place.

“I didn’t think we were as good as them. I thought they had more jump,” said Mike Babcock, head coach of the Huskies. “We had chances early on, on the power play, but didn’t finish enough. Got to give them credit, I thought they played good.”

The Golden Bears opened the scoring at 5:19 of the first period when Jared Freadrich tapped in a loose puck.

Huskies’ goaltender Roddy Ross made the initial save and then lost the puck in the scramble and couldn’t recover in time when Freadrich was able to shovel the puck past him. Ross was solid in the loss, stopping 22 of 25 shots on net.

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“I thought Roddy Ross was good tonight – we haven’t had goaltending like that all year. I thought we gave us a chance,” said Babcock.

The Huskies did strike back just two minutes after the Freadrich goal when Justin Ball notched his ninth of the season on the power play. He pounced on a rebound in the slot and was the lone Huskie to beat Taz Burman on the night. Burman finished with 31 saves in the win for the Golden Bears.

With six man advantage chances in the first period alone, the Huskies just couldn’t capitalize on their opportunities.

“We needed to be better on the power play and bury our chances. It was a frustrating loss,” said Huskies forward Wyatt Johnson. “I thought we shot ourselves in the foot. We were sloppy in the neutral zone, so that gave them all their speed. I think it was less about what they were doing and what we weren’t doing properly. They have a skilled team and when you give them a chance with the puck, they are going to do that.”

The two teams remained tied 1-1 after 40 minutes of play.

Early in the third period, Parker Gavlas, who started the game as a forward instead of in his natural position on defense was hauled down going to the net. He earned a penalty shot but wasn’t able to convert for the go-ahead goal.

Then, it all came crashing down on the Huskies when the Golden Bears scored goals just 24 seconds apart midway through the third period.

Gary Haden scored the eventual game-winner at 9:05 in thethird period on the power play. Noah Philp then scored on a breakaway that beat Ross glove side on a clean look just 24 seconds later. Tyler Preziuso added an empty-net goal late in the period to seal the victory for the visitors.

“We didn’t take care of the puck tonight and we end up in our own zone tired and that’s why you end up with plays that look like you don’t know what you’re doing – it’s because you are exhausted,” said Babcock. “Our puck management at the offensive blueline didn’t give us a chance to be as good as we could have been.”

The Huskies were dealt a blow at the end of the first period when Chantz Petruic left the ice in pain and struggled to put weight on his right leg. That injury resulted in Babcock having to double shift forwards Jared Dmytriw and Johnson in his place.

“I was riding JD (Dmytriw) hard and running him on two lines when we lost Petruic. That probably didn’t help. We overplayed some guys, and, in the end, we didn’t have enough juice to get it done,” said Babcock.

In his post-game remarks, Babcock said that Petruic will be out long-term as it “sounds like an ACL.”

He also shared that forward Dawson Holt will get surgery for a lower-body injury and will also be out for a while. Babcock is hoping the team will get captain Gordie Ballhorn back for the next series against MacEwan.

“I am hoping that we get Gordie back. He is a huge difference-maker for us,” said Babcock. “In saying that, everyone goes through injuries. The more depth you have on your roster, the more injuries you can have. We are a little thinner that way. But we have to have guys step in and find ways to keep going.”

With the loss, the Huskies drop to fourth place in the Canada West conference standings, while the University of Alberta is now in a tie for first place with UBC.

“Them and UBC are the two best teams we’ve played, and this is probably the deepest team we’ve played,” said Babcock. “I’m not trying to take away from anything they did or how they played – we had to manage the puck better than we did.”

The Huskies will have the bye weekend and they will be scoreboard watching. They will take the week to work on areas of concern and refocus for their next opponent – the MacEwan University Griffins in Edmonton, Alta. at the beginning of February.

“It is super frustrating. It was a huge weekend for us. It sucks for the standings, but we just have to keep improving our game,” said Johnson. “We just need to get back to our game. We need to get healthier. We know our game. We just need to regroup and try to stay positive after a brutal weekend for us.”