Courtesy: Ryan Flaherty

By Ryan Flaherty

Huskies have bounce back game

A Saskatchewan split against MacEwan

Nov 12, 2022 | 10:29 PM

As responses go, they don’t get much more emphatic than the one the Huskies men’s hockey team provided on Saturday as they rolled to a 5-1 win over the MacEwan Griffins in a game that they controlled from start to finish.

After falling 3-1 to MacEwan in Friday’s series opener, the Dogs came out firing and didn’t let up, outshooting the Griffins 63-18 on the night. Jaxan Kaluski scored twice to pace the attack while Connor Hobbs had three assists and Jordan Kooy made 17 saves to earn his first win of the season.

“We went over some of the things we needed to improve upon and the guys took it to heart. They didn’t want to have another game where we just had to wait until the end. We knew we were the better team if we played the right way,” head coach Brandin Cote said. “It was disappointing that we didn’t do that yesterday but at the same time I think it was a good learning experience for us and the guys responded.”

The score could have been a lot more lopsided if not for the efforts of Griffins goaltender Thomas Davis, who kept his team in it early on, making 16 stops in the first period to keep the game scoreless after 20 minutes.

Instead of getting frustrated at the lack of results, the Huskies redoubled their efforts in the second and were soon rewarded with Kaluski breaking the deadlock 1:40 into the frame. The second-year forward added another less than four minutes later and Carter Stebbings followed that with his first career U SPORTS goal shortly thereafter. Saskatchewan wound up with a whopping 31 shots on goal in the frame. Their 63 shots overall stand as the team’s second-highest single-game total since the Canada West began tracking the stat in 2005-06.

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“It was a test for us tonight just to stick with it and not let them crawl back in even though we were outplaying them, but at the start of the second we got a couple quick and we just kept pressing and the shot clock showed that,” Kaluski said.

The Griffins got on the board in the opening minute of the third on a goal by Kobe Mohr, but moments later the forward was called for slew-footing and the Huskies took advantage, scoring on both halves of the ensuing double minor penalty. The goals by Liam Keeler and Jared Dmytriw put a bow on a dominant performance.

With the win the Huskies improve to 8-2-1 as they turn their focus to a huge series next weekend in Calgary against the high-flying Mount Royal Cougars.

“Now we’ve got some momentum, we’ve got some mojo going into the week. Guys are gonna feel good about themselves coming to the rink on Monday and excited for the next challenge,” Cote said. “Mount Royal is a potent offensive team so we’re gonna have to make sure we have our ducks in a row and ready to put our best foot forward next weekend.”

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