Huskies face T-Birds in semi-final series at Merlis Belsher Place
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The UBC Thunderbirds will visit the U of S Huskie men’s hockey team in the second round of the 2025 Canada West playoffs, beginning February 28th. Saskatchewan earned a first-round bye after finishing atop the conference’s overall standings, while UBC defeated the MacEwan Griffins, 2-1, in a best-of-three quarter-final. The U of S and UBC split their two 2024-25 regular-season meetings. The T-Birds blanked the U of S 3-0 on February 7th, the Huskies responded with a February 8th ,3-2 shoot-out, win in Vancouver.
The 23-5 Huskes, who claimed their first division title in six years, have two of the top goaltenders in the conference and both are in their fourth year of eligibility. Roddy Ross had the conferences best save percentage at .926 while Jordan Kooy, who won 10 of 11 games, has the best win percentage at .909. Saskatchewan also finished the regular season with the best power-play and the best penalty kill numbers in Canada West. Fourth year forward, Chantz Petruic, scored 12 of his 20 goals on the man advantage.
The Thunderbirds are the defending conference champions and finished the 2024-25 season with a record of 18-8-2, good enough for second place in the west division. Head coach Sven Butenschon has been behind the bench for nine seasons and is a two-time Canada West coach of the year. (2018 and 2024) Sasha Mutala is one of several offensive leaders on the team. He had 27 points in 24 regular season games and put up three points in the three-game series against MacEwan. Cole Schwebius had the bulk of the work in goal for UBC with 11 wins in 15 appearances.
Huskie head coach Brandin Cote joined Wray Morrison for this playoff edition of The Coach’s Show.
