Chantz Petruic had a goal and two assists in the Huskies' 6-2 win over UBC on November 17 in Vancouver. Photo Electric Umbrella/Liam Richards

By Ryan Flaherty

Statement win

Balanced attack leads Huskies to victory in Vancouver

Nov 18, 2023 | 2:24 AM

The depth of the Huskies men’s hockey team was on full display on Friday night as they humbled the first-place UBC Thunderbirds in their own barn with a 6-2 win.

Chantz Petruic led the way with a goal and two assists and Cole Jordan scored his first career U SPORTS goal as the Huskies rallied from a 2-1 deficit after one period to snap a three-game losing skid and improve to 10-3 on the season.

“Our guys really wanted it tonight, you could tell. We played a really strong team game and it was as full a 60-minute effort as you can get,” head coach Brandin Cote said.

The Dogs were looking for a better start after spotting the Calgary Dinos a 3-0 lead in back-to-back losses last weekend, and they got it as Raphael Pelletier buried his team-leading eighth goal of the season just 2:27 into the game. However, UBC’s conference-best power play would reply with goals by Liam Kindree and Scott Atkinson, the latter coming with less than two seconds left in the frame, to take a 2-1 lead into the intermission.

While the late goal could have been deflating, the Huskies instead redoubled their efforts in the second, and less than two minutes in, Petruic swatted a rebound out of mid-air and past Tbirds netminder Kaeden Lane to tie the game. The Moose Jaw native has recorded at least one point in nine straight games, collecting four goals and eight assists over that span.

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“Cotesy preaches a lot about getting to the net, especially against teams like this. It’s tough to score so I just went to the net and fortunately was able to bat it home. It doesn’t happen all the time but I’ll take it,” Petruic said.

The equalizer seemed to give the Huskies even more confidence and midway through the period, Carter Stebbings finished off a two-on-one rush with Liam Keeler to put Saskatchewan back in front.

Then it was the Huskies’ turn to stick a late dagger into their opponent. After a lengthy shift in the Thunderbirds zone, Petruic fed Vince Loschiavo in the slot and the veteran winger beat Lane for his seventh goal of the season with 39 seconds left in the period, staking the visitors to a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes of play.

Not content to sit on a two-goal lead against the conference’s highest scoring team, Saskatchewan continued to attack in the third period and the pressure paid off on a power play just over five minutes in as Jordan blasted a shot from just inside the line that eluded Lane to make it 5-2.

The Thunderbirds would pull Lane for an extra attacker with three and a half minutes left, but the Huskies held the fort and with 26 seconds left, Dawson Holt outhustled a UBC defender to a loose puck and swatted it into the open net to complete the scoring.

“We’re a deeper group this year than the past two years that I’ve been here and it’s games like these where you’ve gotta have guys step up on every single line and I think we did a great job tonight,” Petruic said.

In addition to Petruic’s three-point effort, four other Huskies had multi-point nights. Jordan and Stebbings each posted a goal and an assist while Colby Jaquet and Cade Hayes chipped in two assists apiece. Jaquet has found the scoresheet in all seven games that he’s played this season, for a total of one goal and nine assists.

While Cote was pleased with the balanced attack, he was also quick to highlight another player whose performance in his Huskies debut stood as a prime example of the team’s depth.

“You talk about the goal scoring but even other guys like Cohner Saleski, we didn’t know if he’d ever get a game in this year and just with some injuries here, now we’re down to Cohner and he did a great job. He skated, he contributed, he blocked some shots, he provided energy for our team,” Cote said. “He’s done everything we’ve asked of him and more in terms of being a great teammate, and he got a chance to play and he contributed too.”

Not to be overlooked, Roddy Ross was excellent once again in the Huskies net, stopping 31 of 33 shots and completely blanking the Thunderbirds at even strength to earn his Canada West-leading eighth win of the season. Lane made 23 saves in the loss.

The Huskies finished the night 1-for-4 on the power play while the Tbirds went 2-for-6.

Saskatchewan now trails UBC by just two points in the standings and can pull into a tie with the Tbirds if they can complete a sweep of the weekend series on Saturday. The rematch is set for 3 p.m. (5 p.m. in Saskatchewan) on HuskieFAN.

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