Ryan Flaherty
By Ryan Flaherty
Huskies begin men's hockey season in Winnipeg

Dogs dominate in 2023-24 opener

Sep 29, 2023 | 6:00 AM

It’s only one game but the Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team gave their fans plenty of cause for optimism about the season ahead, as they opened the 2023-24 Canada West campaign with a decisive 6-1 win over the Manitoba Bisons in Winnipeg on Thursday night.

Carter Stebbings scored twice and 13 different players recorded at least one point as the Huskies manhandled the Bisons in a game that was essentially over by the end of the second period.

“We played pretty well in pre-season and even though we didn’t get a lot of wins I think we did a lot of things right,” head coach Brandin Cote said. “I thought we could carry that into the season and the guys did that tonight.”

It took about five minutes for the Dogs to find their legs and from that point on they had full control of the game. Josh Pillar, one of five rookies in the lineup, opened the scoring at 8:50 of the first period and Carter Stebbings added a second goal less than four minutes later. The Huskies outshot the Bisons 13-4 in the opening frame.

The offence really started to hum in the second, with Stebbings notching his second goal of the night to make it 3-0 less than two minutes into the period, finishing off a give-and-go with Chantz Petruic. The second-year forward scored five goals in his rookie season but says he feels a lot more comfortable to begin year two.

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“The confidence is here, getting a year under the belt was nice so now just kind of carrying on from where I left off and hopefully keep it going throughout the year”, Stebbings said.

“It took some time to adjust last season but I’m feeling confident now and I just want to help the team any way I can,” he said.

Dawson Holt scored the Dogs’ fourth goal on their first power play of the night at the 4:15 mark, tipping home a Colby Jaquet point shot. Rookie forward Raphael Pelletier and veteran defenceman Ty Prefontaine added two more to the tally before the period was out, sending Bisons starting goaltender Simon Harkness to the showers early.

The only question left was whether Huskies netminder Jordan Kooy would be able to preserve the shutout, however Chase Hartje burst that bubble on a Bisons power play midway through the third.

Cote was pleased with the balanced attack, something he says the Huskies will need to maintain in order to be successful this season.

“That’s the way we need to play. It’s not going to be one or two guys this year and it was good to see a number of guys getting involved in different ways,” Cote said.

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows though. Number one centre Liam Keeler fell awkwardly in the Bisons zone late in the first period, colliding face-first with the goalpost as he went down. The severity of his injury is unknown but the second-year player did not return to the game.

But in Keeler’s absence, the rest of the team stepped up, and now the Huskies have a chance to sweep their season-opening series on Friday. Puck drop is scheduled for 1:30pm (Saskatchewan time) from Winnipeg. Catch all the action on huskiefan.ca and the HuskieFAN app.

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by Ryan Flaherty
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