The Huskies men’s hockey team was caught off guard this past weekend at the Credit Union Centre as the Dogs suffered a surprising loss to the Lethbridge Pronghorns Oct. 21 and were forced to redeem it with an overtime victory on the next night.

The Huskies had already defeated the Pronghorns twice this season — 5-1 in preseason action and 5-2 in their league opener — and had a 3-0 lead after two periods in their last meeting on Oct. 1 before play was suspended due to ice resurfacing problems.

This weekend was a different story.

Lethbridge handed the Huskies their first loss of the season with a 3-1 win on Friday.

“Lethbridge is a good team,” said Huskies forward Kyle Bortis. “They stuck to their game plan and worked really hard. On our turnovers, they capitalized.”

Daniel Iwanski opened the scoring early for Lethbridge by burying one past Huskies goaltender David Reekie in the sixth minute. Cass Mappin added two more for the Pronghorns to give them a 3-0 lead that carried late into the third period.

Travis Brisebois was the only Huskie to beat Lethbridge netminder Scott Bowles, but his powerplay goal with just under three minutes to play in the game was too late to spark a Dogs’ comeback.

Bowles put up 30 saves in the win while Reekie had 18.

Huskies head coach Dave Adolph said that despite the loss, he was not surprised to see such a strong showing from the Pronghorns.

“Lethbridge beat us three out of four times last year, so it’s not uncommon to play the Pronghorns and have an ultimate battle,” he said. “We respect them an awful lot and every time we play them it goes down to the wire.”

This was, of course, what happened in the teams’ second meeting of the weekend as the match pushed into overtime and was won with only six seconds left on the clock.

Bortis buried the 3-2 overtime winner just over Bowles’s shoulder after receiving a perfect pass through the slot from Derek Hulak.

“We didn’t want to go to overtime, but we found a way to win,” said Bortis. “Hulak put it right on my tape and I just had to put it in the net.”

“Hulak made an NHL play and it’s pretty easy to bury that one,” added Adolph of Bortis’s game winner.

The Huskies gave up a weak goal early in the game after the Pronghorns’ Nick Hotson put a low blue line shot past Dogs goaltender Ryan Holfeld.

Saskatchewan would come back shortly thereafter, however, by scoring two quick goals. Captain Kyle Ross buried one from Bortis and Hulak with 1:20 to play in the first frame while Andrew Bailey would add the second after potting a rebound from a Brennan Bosch shot only 34 seconds later.

“Tonight I think we had enough chances and I think we were fortunate to bury on those chances,” said Bortis after the game.

The second and third periods were slow as the Huskies meticulously controlled the puck but couldn’t capitalize on their chances.

Lethbridge didn’t have many chances but were able to tie it up early in the third period.

It would sit at 2-2 until Bortis scored his overtime winner.

Holfeld regained his composure after letting in the initial weak goal to put up 25 saves for the Dogs. Bowles had 32 for the Pronghorns.

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Photo: Pete Yee