Photo courtesy: Rachel Albertson/Huskie Athletics

By Ryan Flaherty

winning start to 2026

Huskies shake off rust to defeat Bisons in overtime

Jan 10, 2026 | 12:00 AM

The Huskies men’s hockey team erased a two-goal deficit in the third period before finishing the job in overtime to open their second semester schedule with a 3-2 win over the Manitoba Bisons on Friday night in Winnipeg.

Landon Kosior scored to start the comeback and assisted on Liam Keeler’s OT winner as the Dogs rediscovered their rhythm in time to earn two valuable points in the Canada West playoff race.

Early on, the Huskies showed all the signs of a team that hadn’t played a game in over a month, misfiring on several passes and generally looking a half-step slower than the Bisons, who opened the scoring midway through the opening period on Lucas Brennan’s fifth goal of the season and outshot Saskatchewan 10-7 in the frame.

“We unfortunately didn’t get an exhibition game (during the break). We had one planned, it fell through, so we had to make do with what we had and we tried to keep it as competitive as we could but it’s not the same as playing a real game,” head coach Brandin Cote said. “These guys played two games down south against a Division-1 team.”

“As the game went on, we got our legs, we started to execute better and we really didn’t waver so I thought the mentality of our group was really good in battling through that adversity.”

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The Bisons doubled their lead a minute into the second as Codey Behun fired a shot from the wing that somehow found its way through Huskies netminder Bryan Thomson. Not long after, the Dogs got a great chance to answer when Carter Stebbings was awarded a penalty shot after being hooked on a breakaway, but the fourth-year forward lost control of the puck and did not register a shot on goal.

But after being stymied for forty minutes of play, the Huskies offence finally broke through early in the third as Kosior pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired it past Braden Holt for his third goal of the season.

“Production-wise in the first half (of the season) he was just fine but I know that he knew he had more to give on that end of it and he’s just a huge part of our back end both offensively and defensively. We want him on the ice in those situations and he always comes up clutch,” Cote said.

Bolstered by Kosior’s goal, the Dogs continued to push as the period progressed and with just over three minutes remaining in regulation, after Dawson Holt was denied on a backhand jam play, the rebound slid across the crease to Chase Bertholet, who slammed home his fifth of the campaign to level the score.

In overtime, Holt played a key role once again, beating Bisons defenceman Luke Brenton wide before cutting in on goal, forcing Brenton to take him down and sending the Dogs to the man advantage thanks to the resulting tripping penalty.

On the ensuing four-on-three power play, Kosior fired a shot from the left point that hit the chest of Keeler, who was positioned at the edge of the crease, before dropping into the net for the game winning goal.

“I liked the feeling on the bench (tonight). There wasn’t a lot of panic, we just stuck with it,” Cote said. “We worked for our opportunities, we worked for our power play at the end there and found a way to bounce one off a guy and into the net.”

The Huskies finished the game one-for-three on the power play while the Bisons were scoreless on three man advantages of their own. Thomson was rock solid after Behun’s 2-0 goal, ending the night with 21 stops. Manitoba’s Holt made 23 saves in defeat.

Saskatchewan improves to 12-4-1 with the victory while Manitoba now sits at 6-9-2. The Huskies remain one point back of Mount Royal for second place in the East Division after the Cougars defeated UBC 4-2 on Friday.

The Huskies and Bisons will square off in their final regular season meeting on Saturday with puck drop scheduled for 5 p.m. at Wayne Fleming Arena. Every Huskies game can be heard on the free HuskieFAN app.

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