Huskie Heartbreak: Saskatchewan men’s hockey, v’ball teams lose out

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Stingers 3, Huskies 0

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We’ve seen this movie before.

It’s Huskie heartbreak once again at the University Cup national men’s hockey championship.

This time it was a stinging semifinal loss Saturday night to the Concordia University Stingers in Ottawa.

Concordia, seeded No. 3 in the tournament, moves on to the national final against the host Ottawa Gee-Gees, who came in as the No. 8 seed.

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The No. 2 seeded Saskatchewan will have to settle for any sort of consolation by playing in the bronze-medal game.

With goalie Roddy Ross pulled for an extra attacker in Saturday’s late semifinal, the Huskies gave up two empty-net goals in the final 59 seconds as Stingers closed out a 3-0 shutout victory.

Twice in the final period, Saskatchewan had Grade A-scoring chances in the slot, only to hit the goal-post as both Raphael Pelletier and Carter Stebbings got denied by iron will.

“They (Stingers) have a good team — they have a really good team,” said Huskies head coach and Canada West coach of the year Brandin Cote, who is coaching in his very first University Cup this year.

“They didn’t give us much. I thought they played more physical than we expected, what we had seen. They came to play. We did some good things; we just didn’t have enough. We hit some posts, a few bad-luck plays. I thought we gave them too many opportunities on the power play and they scored one there.

“We couldn’t find one. We couldn’t muster it. It’s hard to really process it right now. It’s disappointing, for sure. I’d like to go back and replay that one, but we can’t so we’re just going to take the positives and we’re going to have to move on.”

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Concordia broke a 0-0 deadlock at the 5:10 mark of the third period on a power play goal by Julien Anctil. The Dogs actually had a chance to clear the puck but mismanaged it in the corner, allowing the play to go on and, ultimately, the game-winning goal was scored.

“There were bounces — the ice was terrible; the puck was bouncing everywhere, but that was for both teams,” said Cote. “We had it on our stick. We didn’t clear it and that’s usually what happens. Those are little things that really add up in a game like this. Unfortunately, that one ended up in the back of our net and then we hit a couple of posts, and just couldn’t find one.”

Anctil and Alexandre Nadeau added empty-net goals in the final minute for the Stingers, who outshot the Huskies 30-19.

Ross stopped 27 of 28 shots before getting pulled for an extra attacker.

Concordia held a 44-26 edge in the faceoff circle, and blocked 16 shots compared to 12 for Saskatchewan.

While the Stingers move on to the championship final Sunday afternoon, the Huskies will play the Toronto Metropolitan University Bold — which includes former Saskatoon Blade Spencer Shugrue — in the bronze-medal game Sunday morning.

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That could mean some fresh legs and fresh faces.

“We’ll figure it out — we’ve got to get some other guys in,” said Cote, who has the likes of Keaton Sorensen, Ben Tkachuk, Cade Hayes, Ashton Fester, Mac Gross, Rhett Rhinehart, back-up goalie Ethan Chadwick and others all waiting in the wings.

“Let us see what our injuries are like, and all that, but I know there are still guys who are going to want to play and have earned the right to do that. We’ll take a little bit of time here — obviously it’s a quick turnaround — and figure it out.

“Definitely some guys have put in their time in too, so I think we have to give guys, who deserve an opportunity, to get in there. We’ll see what happens.”

HUSKIES LOSE SEMIFINAL IN MEN’S V’BALL

Elsewhere, the Huskies men’s volleyball team came up short in the U Sports national men’s volleyball championship tournament in Brandon, Man., where they will now play for bronze.

Saskatchewan won the first two sets, and nearly completed a three-set sweep, only to drop the three straight in a 3-2 loss (25-2125-20, 23-25, 15-25, 10-15).

Huskies player of the game Jefferson Morrow, the lone graduating starter on the U of S squad, led his team with 12 kills and four digs. Jacob Baird and Isaiah Mamer added 10 apiece for Saskatchewan, with Baird scooping up seven digs to go along with two service aces, while Mamer had a team-high 12 digs. Lucas Musschoot had five kills, four blocks, three digs and two service aces for the Dogs, who will play Sherbrooke for bronze Sunday.

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dzary@postmedia.com

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