Message sent: Cougars hammer Huskies 8-1 in season finale
"I’m disappointed. I’m, quite frankly, embarrassed to a certain degree. There’s not a whole lot we can do about it except try and re-group and figure it out and re-set.”
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Cougars 8, Huskies 1
Ugly.
Real ugly.
The University of Saskatchewan Huskies closed out the regular season and played their final home game of 2022-23 season Saturday at Merlis Belsher Place, where they got shelled 8-1 by the visiting Mount Royal University Cougars.
The same two teams will meet in a best-of-three Canada West men’s hockey quarter-final series next weekend in Calgary, but, on Saturday, the Cougars sent a message of sorts.
The most disappointing part for the Huskies is that Saturday was seniors’ night honouring graduating captain Connor Hobbs (eligibility) and fourth-years Jared Dmytriw, Evan Fiala and Tate Olson, who have indicated that they’ll be moving on from the Huskies’ program next fall.
Saturday’s result wasn’t exactly what head coach Brandin Cote imagined after a close 3-2 battle one night earlier.
“I don’t know — to be quite honest, I can’t put a finger on it,” said Cote, whose team trailed 1-0 after one period before the floodgates opened in the second period.
“I thought the start was okay. It’s really hard to put into words, to be honest. I know our guys are disappointed. I’m disappointed. I’m, quite frankly, embarrassed to a certain degree. There’s not a whole lot we can do about it except try and re-group and figure it out and re-set.”
Mount Royal’s top line broke open for a big night as Nolan Yaremko scored four goals and added an assist to lead the way. Linemate Connor Bouchard had a goal and five assists for six points. Riley Sawchuk contributed four assists.
Captain Connor Hobbs had the lone goal for Saskatchewan, blasting a slapshot past Cougars goalie Shane Farkus.
The turning point may have come after a missed call by the officials that led to what proved to be the eventual game-winning goal by Mount Royal.
A Cougars player broke his stick yet continued to play with a broken shaft, which should have been a penalty, according to the supervising official, but none was called. Mount Royal scored on the same play.
“Really, if you look at it, we would have been on a 4-on-1 there going the other way,” said Cote. “It got turned back. He played with broken stick and they should have called it dead there. They didn’t, but it ends up in the back of our net.”
Roddy Ross stopped 19 of 24 shots before being replaced by Jordan Kooy, who turned aside four of seven shots in relief.
For the second straight night, the Huskies were awarded a penalty shot but missed the net as Dawson Holt misfired.
Saskatchewan finishes the regular season at 14-10-4. Mount Royal ends up at 19-5-4.
“After their second goal, we had that penalty shot again, which could have changed momentum, but I thought after their second goal — it was a bad bounce off a skate just on the goal-mouth there and that was a bit of a back-breaker— we sort of deflated and they sort of took the game over,” said Cote. “We ran into some penalty trouble; I didn’t like our discipline. I didn’t like some of our body language. Those are things we need to address if we want to continue to play past next weekend.”
Mount Royal went 2-for-7 on the power play. Saskatchewan went 0-for-2.
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