Courtesy Ryan Flaherty

By Ryan Flaherty

Huskies ground Thunderbirds

Dogs are 4 and 1 following win in Vancouver

Oct 15, 2022 | 12:14 AM

Roddy Ross made 36 saves and his teammates gave him just enough support as the Huskies defeated the UBC Thunderbirds 4-2 to open a two-game weekend series in Vancouver.

In a game that saw both teams spend plenty of time in the penalty box it was the Huskies special teams that had a slight edge, scoring a shorthanded goal and a power play goal in the victory.

It wasn’t the prettiest of wins and head coach Brandin Cote made that clear afterward.

“Every win is a good win for sure and we did some good things but we didn’t play consistent enough. We kinda snuck it out,” he said. “Roddy played real good and we capitalized on some opportunities but we just need to clean up some of our mistakes with the puck.”

Jared Dmytriw broke the ice in the first period with the Huskies down a man, stealing the puck at his own line and breaking in alone before rifling a shot over the shoulder of Tbirds goaltender Kaeden Lane for his team-leading fourth goal of the season.

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It was the Huskies first shorthanded goal of the year, complementing a strong penalty kill unit that did not surrender a goal on seven Thunderbirds power play chances. The Dogs’ PK has allowed just two goals against in 28 opposition power plays this season to lead the Canada West in that department.

The T-birds tied it with a shorthanded marker of their own early in the second but midway through the frame the Dogs power play rebounded as Vince Loschiavo finished off a pretty passing play with a one-timer from the left circle. The winger’s third goal of the year put the Huskies back in front and they would not relinquish the lead again.

The Huskies finished the night one-for-seven on the power play.

Cote still sees plenty of room for improvement by his team.

“To be a playoff team and a championship team you have to be solid and structured in every area of the game and right now we’re still kind of in between. We’ll figure it out. The intentions are good, the guys are working, they’re listening but there’s definitely areas of our game we need to shore up,” he said.

Early in the third, Justin Ball added some insurance, going hard to the net to bury a rebound off the pads of Lane. That goal would prove to be huge as UBC’s Jake Lee scored with 2:58 remaining to make it 3-2.

But with Lane pulled for the extra attacker, Aiden Bulych and Cael Zimmerman combined to force a turnover at the Thunderbirds blue line and Zimmerman scored into the empty net to complete the scoring.

UBC outshot Saskatchewan 38-28 on the night. The Huskies captain was quick to praise Ross for keeping the Tbirds at bay.

“He was solid. It gives you confidence when you know you’re gonna get a stop on the back end, especially as a d-man, but we’ve gotta help him out more. Nobody’s invincible and he played really, really well tonight and hopefully we can give him some help tomorrow,” Connor Hobbs said.

The Huskies are now 4-1 on the year and will go for the weekend sweep on Saturday, with puck drop set for 3pm PDT from Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.

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Twitter: @RFlahertypxp