Saskatchewan advances to Canada West men’s hockey final

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There’s a push to change the path of recent hockey history on the University of Saskatchewan campus.

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The U of S Huskies men’s hockey team hopes to change that course (some may say curse?) and put an end to what has been a post-pandemic pause in banner-raising at Merlis Belsher Place.

The Dogs are headed to the Canada West final for the very first time since they won the conference championship back in 2020, then under head coach Dave Adolph, following a 4-2 victory over the reigning Canada West champion University of British Columbia Thunderbirds at MBP on Sunday night.

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Saskatchewan took that series 2-1 and will now host the Mount Royal University Cougars in a best-of-three Canada West final with games this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at MBP.

With the semi-final series win, the Huskies have also automatically clinched a berth in the upcoming University Cup national championship tournament March 20-23 in Ottawa, Ont.

“It’s what we’ve been working for since I’ve been here,” said Huskies head coach Brandin Cote, who is in his third season at the helm after taking over from former NHL coach Mike Babcock.

“There’s been lots of learning and me putting my own flavour on things, getting to know people and all the community and Huskie Athletics have been super, super supportive. I’ve been able to go and do my thing and bring in the people that we needed to and have the core leadership group that we’ve had to sort of bring it along.

“That’s been the plan all along. It’s going the right way, but we don’t want to stop here though. We’re really excited to have that opportunity to play at nationals.”

Fourth-year Huskies Dawson Holt — a College of Medicine student who earned first-star status in Sunday’s clinching win with a goal and two assists before 2,600 fans at Merlis Belsher Place — welcomes the extended hockey season.

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“It’s pretty exciting — obviously that’s a huge deal (going to nationals) — but, at this point, we’re just focused on next weekend and starting to prepare for Mount Royal,” said Holt. “We’re taking it one day at a time, and making sure we’re ready.”

Mount Royal has reached this year’s conference final following a 2-1 best-of-three series win over the University of Alberta Golden Bears in Calgary.

“Similar to UBC, we split (the season series),” noted Cote. “We didn’t play a very good first game against them way back in November and I thought we played a real tight game in Game 2 and responded. They’re a very high-skilled team; they’re run-and-gun. They’ve got some big, heavy guys as well. Goaltending’s been good. They’ll be a test for sure.”

Game-time is 7 p.m. for Games 1 and 2 of the Canada West final.

“I have full confidence in us and we’re ready to get going next week,” said Huskies forward Chantz Petruic, a Canada West first-team all-star.

“We’ve kind of been through a couple of tough series (in the past), winning over MRU and then losing to Calgary, and losing to Alberta last year. So we’ve kind of gone through some down times in the playoffs. I feel that, just what we’ve gone through as a core group and our leadership, we try to stay calm out there.

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“I said after (Sunday’s game), (Vince) Loschiavo, (Justin) Ball, (Gunner) Kinniburgh — the list goes on. We’ve been here for four years and we haven’t gotten there (U Cup) yet. We’re kind of not looking too far ahead; we’re more focused on next weekend.

“We want to win a CanWest championship first. We’re so fortunate to be in this position and hopefully we can get some rest here and ready for the up-and-coming weeks.”

A third game against Mount Royal, if necessary, would be played Sunday at 6.

“It feels awesome (to be going to nationals),” said Loschiavo, who is in his fourth season with the Huskies and final year of U Sports eligibility.

“Obviously we can breathe for a couple of days, but also we want to win the CanWest first. We’re not really focused on Ottawa quite yet. We want to go in through the front door, not the back door.”

The Huskies scored five times during 20 power play opportunities for a 25 per cent proficiency in the three-game UBC series and operated at a 31.3 per cent clip during the regular season.

“Special teams have been the difference and, in this series, they were the difference,” said Cote. “That’s going to have to be the way.”

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