Photo credit: Electric Umbrella/Liam Richards/Huskie Athletics

By Ryan Flaherty

frustrating finish

Dinos stymie Huskies again to win quarterfinal series

Feb 18, 2024 | 5:41 PM

The Huskies women’s hockey team was held off the scoreboard for a second straight game as the Calgary Dinos claimed a 2-0 victory on Sunday at Merlis Belsher Place to win their Canada West quarterfinal two games to one. It’s the first time in program history that the Dinos have won a playoff series on the road.

After earning a 2-1 win in the series opener, the Huskies failed to score a single goal over the final seven periods and their offensive struggles proved too much to overcome. However, head coach Steve Kook said there was more to the defeat than just the lack of goals.

“Last night it was a couple mistakes on the puck and tonight it was a couple mistakes on the puck. I’m not displeased with how our team played. You look at the last half of the second period and the whole third period and it’s all offensive zone for us,” he said. “(Calgary) played with a level of desperation and that’s what you need to do in playoffs.”

In such a low-scoring series, the impact of the first goal was magnified and once again in Game 3, the Dinos produced it. In the dying moments of a power play, a Calgary shot was turned aside by Huskies netminder Camryn Drever but Josie McLeod was left unmarked at the back door and slotted the rebound home to give the Dinos the lead with five minutes left in the first period. Calgary’s power play finished the game one-for-three on the advantage and went two-for-eight in the series overall, while the Huskies power play did not score on 12 opportunities in the series including both chances in Game 3.

The Dogs had a chance to equalize midway through the second but a point shot by Kendra Zuchotzki felled her teammate Isabella Pozzi in front of the net and with Pozzi caught deep in the Dinos zone, Calgary’s Elizabeth Lang fed a streaking Courtney Kollman for a breakaway opportunity which she converted to extend the lead.

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Facing a two-goal deficit entering the the third, the Huskies dialed up the desperation even further, but a stout Calgary defence stood tall, blocking shots and clearing pucks out from in front of their net. When shots did get through, Gabby Durante was there to make the save. The Dinos netminder finished the night with 31 stops to record her second straight shutout win, while Drever made 22 saves in defeat.

“It is disappointing that we didn’t get any behind (Durante). But they had five people in front of her that were willing to block every single shot,” Kook said.

While the Huskies Canada West playoff run is officially over, their season is not. The Dogs will host the 2024 GFL U SPORTS Women’s Hockey Championship in March, but after Sunday’s loss they will likely be the lowest seed in the eight-team tournament and have to face the top-ranked team in the country in the opening round.

The only silver lining is they’ll have lots of time to prepare. But Kook doesn’t want his team to move on from the disappointment of being elimintated from the conference playoffs just yet.

“Normally we’ll go in (to the locker room) and we’ll say, hey you guys need to have a real short memory and let this get out of your brains but I think you need to let the sting of this sit. We have three games left and you don’t want this sting in any of those games,” he said.

The Huskies will get some rest before returning to the ice to prepare for the national championship. They’ll open the tournament at Merlis Belsher Place on March 14 at 7 p.m., against an opponent yet to be determined. Fans can catch the game on huskiefan.ca and the free HuskieFAN app.

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Twitter/X: @RFlahertypxp