Photo by Huskie Athletics

By Ryan Flaherty

Roddy Ross turns in solid third period

Huskies win road opener

Oct 7, 2022 | 11:13 PM

The Saskatchewan Huskies withstood a furious third period push from the Calgary Dinos to win their first road game of the season, 3-1 on Friday night.

The Dogs held a 2-1 lead after two periods but the final frame was largely controlled by the home team. However, goaltender Roddy Ross stopped all 14 shots he faced in the third to help the Huskies steer home the win, with Jaxan Kaluski scoring into an empty net with 1:12 remaining to provide some insurance.

The victory gave the Huskies a measure of payback on the Dinos, who eliminated them from the Canada West playoffs last season in Saskatoon.

“It’s competitive hockey and both teams have a dislike for each other in the arena but a respect for each other as well,” head coach Brandin Cote said. “They play hard, we play hard and I thought it was a well-played hockey game in terms of the competitiveness.”

Saskatchewan had a strong start to the game and their new captain got them going. Connor Hobbs netted his first goal of the season with a nifty backhand shortly after a Huskies power play had expired. The veteran defenceman’s tally stood as the only marker of the opening 20 minutes.

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The Huskies added to their lead at 14:25 of the second with Alec Zawatsky firing a shot that just got through Dinos netminder Carl Stankowski and trickled over the line.

It looked like the visitors would take a 2-0 lead into the second intermission but with less than 30 seconds left in the frame, a Sean Strange point shot found its way through traffic and past Ross to cut the lead in half.

However, the second-year Huskie would not let anything past him in the final frame and made several key stops down the stretch on a pair of late penalty kills.

“I felt really good in there. Obviously, you have that bad luck with the goal against but that’s the way she goes. All of us guys stuck to the plan and we ended up pulling out the win so it worked out,” Ross said.

With the victory the Huskies improve to 3-0-0 on the young season, while the Dinos fall to 1-2-0. The teams will square off again on Saturday with the opening faceoff scheduled for 6 p.m. at Father David Bauer Arena in Calgary.

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Twitter: @RFlahertypxp