Camryn Drever tied the Huskies single season wins record with her 14th victory as the Dogs beat Alberta 2-1 in a shootout on January 26. Photo credit: Electric Umbrella/Huskie Athletics

By Ryan Flaherty

shootout thriller

Huskies outlast Pandas for seventh straight win

Jan 27, 2024 | 1:29 AM

Sometimes heroes come from the unlikeliest of places. In just her seventh U SPORTS game, Ava Bergman scored the deciding goal in a shootout to lift the Huskies to a 2-1 win over the Alberta Pandas on Friday night in Edmonton.

The rookie forward took a cue from one of her veteran teammates to net the game winner, following Sara Kendall, who scored on Saskatchewan’s first shooutout attempt, with a near-carbon copy of Kendall’s goal, firing a shot top shelf over the glove hand of Alberta goaltender Halle Oswald.

“I knew I was going to shoot and then I think in the moment I saw that opening again and just went for it,” Bergman said. “Just seeing SK go and find that spot, I thought it would be a good one.”

The dramatic finish came after another hotly contested affair between two of the top teams in the Canada West. The Huskies are now 2-0-1 in the season series with Alberta with one more game to play against the Pandas on Saturday.

Saskatchewan grabbed an early lead less than six minutes in when a Kendra Zuchotzki blast from just inside the blueline handcuffed Oswald, popping out of her glove and into the net. Zuchotzki’s third goal of the season was also the Huskies first shot of the game.

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A relentless Alberta squad broke through late in the first as Cassidy Maplethorpe intercepted an outlet pass just outside the Huskies blueline before dancing around a defender and roofing a backhand over the shoulder of Camryn Drever to tie game at one. The Pandas outshot the Huskies 11-3 in the frame.

Any thought that two of the most defensively sound teams in the conference were in for a bit more offence than usual was wiped out as the game wore on and both sides clamped down in their own zone. In the second, each team fired nine shots on goal but none found the back of the net as Oswald and Drever, both leading contenders for Canada West goaltender of the year honours, stopped every puck sent their way.

After Alberta enjoyed the first three power plays of the game, the Huskies got the next five, but neither unit could break through. The Pandas finished the night 0/4 on the advantage while the Huskies went 0/5.

Kook was impressed with his team’s persistence as the game progressed.

“Sometimes it doesn’t go your way, especially when you’re on the road, and you’ve just gotta figure out how to hang in there, take a little chunk, take a little chunk, and I thought in the second we started to find our way and I thought the third was mostly our play,” he said.

Things tightened up even further in the third period as the teams combined for just eight shots on goal, sending the game to overtime.

In the five-minute three-on-three period, both teams had chances to win it, with Mallory Dyer getting the best opportunity on a breakaway, but her backhand shot was gloved by Oswald.

That sent the rivals to a shootout. The Pandas were first to shoot and Madison Willan looked to have Drever down and out after cutting across the goalmouth but the Huskies netminder managed to reach her glove hand out and prevent Willan’s shot from sliding across the goal line.

Then came Kendall and she wasted no time ripping a shot up high to put Saskatchewan in front.

After Natalie Kieser overskated the puck and didn’t even get a shot on Drever, the stage was set for Bergman’s heroics.

“I was freaking out a bit, not gonna lie. Scared, you know, but my teammates helped me, they just told me to be myself, do what I can do,” Bergman said.

“(It feels) incredible, knowing that this was a pretty big game for us, especially against U of A. Coming out with a win is definitely good and being able to score the goal and help the team win is a pretty good feeling.”

In a statistical quirk, Bergman now has a shootout winner on her Huskies resume before scoring her first official goal with the team.

“We do know that Bergy has some pretty good hands and just consulting with my coaches, I came down to a couple and both of them just said ‘Bergy.’ I said yep, let’s go for it, and then we just had to figure out where we were going to put her (in the shootout order),” Kook said. “Man, what a shot.”

Meanwhile at the other end of the ice, another outstanding performance by Drever moved her into a tie with Jessica Vance and Vanessa Frederick for the most regular season wins by a Huskies goaltender in one year, with 14. The Edmonton native also tied Vance for second on the program’s all-time wins list with her 38th career victory.

Most importantly, however, the win moved the Huskies into a tie with the Mount Royal Cougars for third place in the Canada West standings, and to within three points of the Pandas for second. The Huskies, now 17-4-2 on the season, still have a game in hand on the Cougars, who they will host next weekend. The Pandas, meanwhile, saw their 10-game win streak come to an end as they fall to 18-2-3.

The Huskies and Pandas wrap up their season series on Saturday at 2 p.m. MST. Catch the game on huskiefan.ca and the free HuskieFAN app.

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