Courtesy: Liam Richards/Electric Umbrella/Huskie Athletics

By Wray Morrison

MRU pulls out OT thriller

Game two, in front of a record crowd, goes to extra-time

Mar 9, 2025 | 12:02 AM

The Mount Royal Cougars were both patient and resilient in game two of the Canada West men’s hockey final on Saturday night at Merlis Belsher Place. The Cougars overcame a 1-0 first period deficit, and killed off a late five-minute U of S power play, to post a 2-1 overtime win over the Huskies in the second game in the best of three series in front of a record crowd.

Teague Patton tipped in a Kyle Walker shot with 4:44 remaining in the third period to tie the game at one. The Cougars were in danger of ripping away their own momentum when Josh Tarzwell was called for check to the head of Huskie Liam Keeler less than a minute later. “It was a head shot”, said Huskie head coach Brandin Cote. “He’s concussed. Both teams are playing clean, but I didn’t like that hit at all.”

Cougar coach Bert Gilling came to the defence of Tarzwell when asked about the play. “Here is the tricky part. The Saskatchewan player is trying to make a play. He’s trying to get the red line and exposes himself. Our guy is going backwards and hits him. It was a hard collision. There was no call on the ice at the time of the hit. There wasn’t enough there, live, for two referees to make the call on the ice. The league will handle it. What comes of it will be what comes of it.”

The infraction came with a five-minute penalty and a game misconduct. The power play spilled into overtime but the Huskies, who had the league’s best power play in the regular season, could not convert.

Then the confernece’s leading scorer, Clay Hanus, who had 43 points in 28 regular season games for Mount Royal, forced a deciding game in the series with a blast from the outside of the right circle that found its way to the net at 8:52 of the first overtime session. “We had a good break out”, said Hanus. “Teague’s (Teague Patton) just put it my way and in overtime everything goes on net and fortunately I got a lucky bounce.”

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“I thought we deserved (the win)”, said Cougar coach Bert Gilling. We killed those penalties, we killed a five-minute major that went into overtime, we had a lot of things going against us, but that bench and that room…they just stuck together. That was a hard-earned victory and I’m really proud of my group.”

Trevor Wong opened the scoring for the Huskies at the 16:42 mark of the first period with his second of the playoffs. Cougar goaltender Shane Farkas made 23 saves for the win. Roddy Ross was sensational in net for the Huskies making 31 stops. “He was dialed in again”, said head coach Brandin Cote. “He’s been a rock back there. It was a good hockey game. Give them (the Cougars) credit. They stuck with it.”

A record crowd of over 3,000 was in attendance at Merlis Belsher Place (which seats 2,367 for hockey.) The third and deciding game of the Canada West championship is set for Sunday night at 6:00 PM at Merlis Belsher Place and can be heard on the free HuskieFAN app with coverage starting at 5:45 PM.

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wray.morrison@pattisonmedia.com

X: @wraymorrison