Photo courtesy: Brynn Jarvis/Huskie Athletics

By Ryan Flaherty

one game left

Four-goal first period sinks Huskies in Winnipeg

Feb 14, 2025 | 11:07 PM

The Huskies women’s hockey team outscored the Manitoba Bisons over the final two periods but by then the damage had already been done as their hosts rode a hot start to a 5-2 victory on Friday in Winnipeg.

Aimee Patrick led the way with a hat trick, scoring twice in a four-goal opening frame to help the Bisons clinch second place in the East division and home ice for their opening round playoff series against Trinity Western next week.

The early deficit was simply too much to overcome for a Huskies team that has scored just 31 goals in 27 games this season.

In what proved to be something of a theme, Manitoba opened the scoring at the 7:48 mark as Hanna Bailey deposited a rebound past Huskies rookie goaltender Clara Juca, who was making her third career start and first since October 26. Less than three minutes later, Patrick tallied her first of the night on another rebound after getting inside position on the Huskies defence.

Late in the frame, the Bisons made it 3-0, this time on the power play as Patrick once again got to the edge of the crease for yet another rebound goal.

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“I told the team, I said, ‘Our blue paint, they think they own that.’ They were just in there at will. When you’ve got a team that just thinks they can run all over you, they’re coming,” Huskies head coach Steve Kook said.

The dagger came in the waning moments of the period. After Ashley Keller blocked a Huskies shot, the puck caromed back out to centre ice and Norah Collins raced after it, skating in alone and burying a wrister with just 0.3 seconds left on the clock.

The Dogs got on the board at 8:35 of the second period as Jessica Patterson converted a goalmouth feed from Jaiyana Nurani for her first career U SPORTS goal. The third-year forward had lots of jump all night and Kook was happy to see her rewarded for her efforts.

“I actually didn’t realize it was her first goal. I thought she was going to get a couple tonight, but that’s Patty. She works hard and she’s got so much speed,” Kook said.

The comeback effort did not last long, though, as less than two minutes later after a strong cycling shift in the Huskies zone, Patrick shoveled home a centering pass from in tight to complete her hat trick.

The third period saw the Bisons content to defend their four-goal lead, mixing in the occasional attacking foray. The Huskies managed to get one back with less than two minutes to play with Bronwyn Boucher tipping home her ninth goal of the season and conference-leading seventh on the power play, but that’s as close as the visitors would get.

Manitoba outshot Saskatchewan 27-8 on the night and converted one of three power play opportunities while the Huskies scored on their only advantage of the game.

The Huskies’ record now sits at 5-16-4 and they will look to close out the campaign on a winning note in Saturday’s rematch. Regardless of how the game turns out, Kook hopes to see some more fight in the Dogs.

“Eight teams in the league are going to be watching and they’re either going to be going, ‘Oh crap, there’s U of S, they fight back,’ or ‘Yep, we know those guys, we can just get up on them and roll over them,’ so we’ll figure out what we’ve got,” Kook said.

The season finale is scheduled for 4 p.m. and can be heard on HuskieFAN.

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