Rhett Rhinehart scored a power play goal in the Huskies 3-2 shootout loss to the Calgary Dinos on Nov. 8. Photo: Huskie Athletics/Electric Umbrella Images Inc.

By Ryan Flaherty

second road loss

Huskies settle for single point in shootout loss to Dinos

Nov 9, 2025 | 12:05 AM

The effort was much improved but the Huskies men’s hockey team still came up short, falling 3-2 in a shootout to the Calgary Dinos on Saturday night at Father David Bauer Arena.

Hayden Pakkala tied the game late in regulation then scored the only goal of the shootout as the Dogs saw a 2-0 lead slip away for a second straight night. Despite the outcome, head coach Brandin Cote was much happier with his team’s performance in the back end of the weekend set.

“I thought we deserved to win, to be honest with you. Their goaltender played really good, made some big saves,” he said.

“But the biggest thing was the competitiveness. That’s really what we needed. The last couple games we’ve just been really hit and miss with that for whatever reason, and that was the message that was sent this morning. I thought overall our group competed extremely hard and if we have that we’re going to start to get the results.”

Following a lacklustre 4-2 loss on Friday, Cote overhauled his lineup, inserting four fresh skaters in a move that created four new forward lines and two new defence pairings, leaving Cole Jordan and Rhett Rhinehart as the only unaltered duo. The moves paid immediate dividends with one of the new faces, Braxton Buckberger cashing in a rebound chance midway through the opening period to put the Huskies in front 1-0.

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The Dogs doubled their lead a few minutes later on their first power play of the game as Rhinehart blasted a point shot past Dinos netminder Carl Stankowski for his second goal of the season.

But just like the prevous night, Calgary clawed one back in the second period with Warman, Sask., product Tre Fouquette squeezing a shot through the legs of Jordan Kooy for his first career U SPORTS goal. It was a case of déja vu on the scoreboard as the Huskies carried a 2-1 advantage into the third.

With chances at a premium in the final frame, Saskatchewan couldn’t produce an insurance goal and at the 18:37 mark with Stankowski on the bench for an extra attacker, Pakkala deflected a Sean Strange shot past Kooy to send the game into overtime. The Dogs outshot the Dinos 4-0 in the three-on-three session but Stankowski held the fort.

Pakkala led off the shootout with a goal and that was all the Dinos would need as all three Huskies shooters were stymied by Stankowski, who finished the game with 26 saves. Kooy also stopped 26 shots but was saddled with a second consecutive loss.

“It’s a step in the right direction and a lot of times that’s what happens is you don’t necessarily get the result right away after you’ve haven’t been playing the right way but I thought we took a really good step here so we’ve just got to continue to build on that,” Cote said.

The Huskies top-ranked penalty kill stood tall once again, denying the Dinos on all five of their chances, and the power play connected once on two opportunities. The shootout loss dropped Saskatchewan to 6-3-1 on the season while Calgary improved to 10-2, opening up a seven-point lead on the Dogs for first place in the East Division.

The Huskies now head into their second bye weekend of the season. They’ll return to action on November 21 when they open up two-game set against the MacEwan Griffins in Edmonton. Both games can be heard on the free HuskieFAN app.

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