The Huskies dropped a second straight 5-2 decision to the Alberta Golden Bears on Saturday in Edmonton. Photo: Matt Smith/Electric Umbrella

By Ryan Flaherty

back to back losses

New day, same result as Golden Bears sweep Huskies

Oct 19, 2024 | 11:44 PM

For a second straight night the Huskies men’s hockey team wound up on the wrong end of a 5-2 score as the Alberta Golden Bears completed a sweep of their weekend series in Edmonton.

Alex Thacker scored twice and Brett Hyland followed his Friday night hat trick with a goal and two assists as the Golden Bears delivered an early message to their archrivals by taking the first two games of the six-game season series.

“We were just a little off this weekend for whatever reason, execution-wise. I thought we got a little too wound up, maybe. (Alberta) played well,” head coach Brandin Cote said.

Just like a night earlier, it was Thacker who opened the scoring, using a nifty toe drag to get around a defender before firing the puck upstairs past Huskies netminder Jordan Kooy midway through the opening period. It was the only goal in the frame as Alberta took a 1-0 lead to the intermission.

Tempers started to flare in the second as the teams engaged in a series of post-whistle scrums, the largest of which broke out after Alberta’s Connor McClennon planted Gunner Kinniburgh into the boards. McClennon was assessed a two-minute minor penalty for checking from behind but the Huskies could not capitalize on the opportunity and shortly thereafter, the Golden Bears doubled their lead on a man advantage of their own with Josh Prokop burying a rebound chance at the 13:10 mark.

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Saskatchewan found the scoreboard 62 seconds into the third as Rhett Rhinehart intercepted a pass in the neutral zone, carried the puck down the wing and behind the Alberta net before feeding Keaton Sorensen in the slot for his first goal of the season. But the Golden Bears restored their two-goal lead a couple minutes later on their second power play marker of the night, this time off the stick of Canada West leading scorer Sean Tschigerl.

The Dogs cut the lead to one again at 6:10 when Liam Keeler tipped home a Rhinehart point shot for his second goal in as many nights. That’s as close as they would get though as Hyland took advantage of a failed clearing attempt to score his fourth goal of the weekend. Thacker added his second of the game into an empty net with just over two minutes remaining to complete the scoring.

“We come back in the third, 3-2 game, and then a couple mental errors and now it’s 5-2,” Cote said. “There’s some positive things that we can take out of it but we just didn’t execute. We didn’t play as well as we could have this weekend.”

Rookie goaltender Tyler Palmer stopped 22 shots to earn the win for Alberta while Kooy suffered his first loss of the season, making 31 saves. The Huskies power play was scoreless on four opportunities and the Golden Bears’ unit netted two goals on five chances.

With the loss the Huskies record now sits at 4-2. They’ll return home to host the 6-0 Mount Royal Cougars on Friday and Saturday. The games can be heard on the free HuskieFAN app.

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