Courtesy: Huskie Athletics

By Wray Morrison

Dinos outscore Huskies 4-1

Shorthanded goal lifts Dinos to victory

Oct 11, 2024 | 11:05 PM

Third period challenges hurt the Huskies on Friday night, as the Calgary Dinos defeated Saskatchewan 4-1 in the first game of a Thanksgiving weekend series at Merlis Belsher Place. “We hurt ourselves in that third period”, said U of S head coach Steve Kook. “For whatever reason we didn’t take accountability for when we were to manage the puck. We threw a lot of grenades to each other.”

The Dinos opened the scoring mid-way through the opening frame when Kate Wagner, a Saskatoon product, scored her first of the season. After a scoreless second period, in which the Huskies did find lanes and generated chances, the U of S tied the game in the third period. Kendra Zuchotzki’s point shot on the power play at the 6:49 mark found its way past goaltender Amelia Awad.

Saskatchewan had another power play chance late in the third period, however the Dinos cashed in on a turnover as Rebecca Clarke set up Jess Martens for the go-ahead, shorthanded goal with 2:31 to play. Saskatoon’s Sydney Mercier put the game out of reach with an empty net tally 1:10 later. Sophia Zuck buried another for Calgary with six seconds remaining.

Goaltender Clara Juca made 26 saves for the Huskies in her first Canada West start. “In the first period you could see there were some nerves there”, said Kook. “In the second period, with the way she handled the puck and made saves, she seemed to get more of her confidence back. In the third period, we didn’t help her very much there.” Amelia Awad made 28 saves in the Dino net for the win.

Each team took five minor penalties. Kook says it’s tough to manage the bench and get in to a flow of the game with either the penalty kill or the power play unit on the ice for that much time. “It doesn’t help when there are so many calls”, he said. “I thought a lot of the calls were soft tonight on both sides. If we are just in a special teams game, it’s hard to get your bench in to it.”

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The Huskies fall to 0-2 and 1 with the loss, While Calgary has a win, a loss and a shootout loss so far this season. The second game of the series is set for 5:00 PM on Saturday afternoon at Merlis Belsher Place and can be heard on the free HuskieFAN app.

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wray.morrison@pattisonmedia.com

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