Courtesy: Liam Richards/Electric Umbrella/Huskie Athletics

By Wray Morrison

Camryn Drever among Huskie Graduating players

T-Birds defeat Huskies in consolation final

Mar 17, 2024 | 3:28 PM

The U of S Huskie women’s hockey team’s season came to an end on Sunday morning. The UBC Thunderbirds downed the U of S 4-1 in the consolation final of the 2024 GFL U SPORTS women’s hockey championships, presented by Connect Energy at Merlis Belsher Place.

Saskatchewan’s graduating captain, Kennedy Brown, tied the game at one with a goal at the 6:19 mark of the first period after Ashton Thrope opened the scoring for UBC. The Huskies then got into some penalty trouble and UBC took advantage. T-Bird veteran, Grace Elliott, was penalized for body checking, injuring Huskie defender Isabella Pozzi on the play. Brooklyn Stevely of the Huskies took exception and took a 4-minute penalty in the process. The Thunderbirds scored the first of two power-play goals when McKenzie McCallum scored at 12:25 to make it a 2-1 game.

The Thunderbirds outshot the Huskies 9-5 in the second period and scored an insurance goal on another power-play advantage. Elliott, who had 21 points for UBC in 28 regular-season games, beat Huskie goaltender Camryn Drever with 1:38 remaining in the middle frame to make it a 3-1 game after 40 minutes.

The shots on goal were 9-9 in the third period. Saskatchewan had one power play chance mid-way through final frame but could not capitalize. With two minutes remaining, Drever came out of the U of S net for the extra skater, but Cassidy Rhodes of the T-Birds slid the puck into the empty cage.

UBC goaltender, Elise Hugens, got the win with 17 saves. Drever, the 2023-24 Canada West player of the year and 2^nd team all-Canadian, made 23 saves. Drever, who had a conference best .954 save percentage in the regular season is one of six players graduating from the Huskie program.

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Camryn Drever among Huskie Graduating players

T-Birds defeat Huskies in consolation final

Mar 17, 2024

U of S head coach Steve Kook was asked about Drever’s contributions to the team. “She just sets a whole new level of expectations with her level of performance in that position. We are going to miss her as a person and as a leader.”

Brown along with Kara Kondrat, Kenzie Lausberg, Sophie Lalor and Isabella Pozzi are the graduating players from the program. “It’s a special group”, said Kook. “They’ve been through adversity and hard times. (Covid-19 pandemic) They’ve been to two national championships, some players don’t’ get to do that once in their careers. This day is really about them for sure.”

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The Concordia Stingers won their second U SPORTS women’s hockey championship in the last three years with a 3-1 win over the University of Toronto Blues in Sunday evening’s gold medal game at Merlis Belsher Place. Rosalie Begin-Cyr had a goal and an assist for the Stingers, while goaltender Jordyn Verbeek made 19 saves for the win.

The Montreal Carabins claimed the bronze medal on Saturday afternoon with a 2-1 shoot-out win over the Waterloo Warriors. After a 10-minute overtime session, Montreal’s Kelly-Ann Nadeau scored the only goal of the shoot-out.

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wray.morrison@pattisonmedia.com

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