DARREN DUPONT
Sports Writer

Alberta goaltender Kurtis Mucha was the story on Feb. 12 as the Bears blanked the home town Huskies 4-0. Mucha stopped all 34 Saskatchewan shots en route to the shutout.

A jam packed crowd of 617 turned up for the game that saw the Huskies enter just a single point behind Alberta for top spot in Canada West after their first win of the series.

As was the case on Feb. 11, the Golden Bears got on the board first, and again, it was a shorthanded goal. Zack Dailey opened the scoring with the Huskies on the power play at the 16:35 mark and then just over a minute later Sean Ringrose went upstairs at 17:44 to give Alberta a 2-0 lead after the first period.

The Bears would strike again to take a 3-0 lead when Drew Nichol found the back of the net at the 15:15 mark of the second period. This would spell the end to Ryan Holfeld’s night in goal. The first year Huskies netminder allowed three goals on 14 shots and was pulled in favour of David Reekie.

Reekie played well but an Alberta shot that rang off the goal post found the stick of Derek Ryan who put the loose puck home at the 7:40 mark of the third period to round out the scoring making the final 4-0 in favour of the Golden Bears.

The Huskies out shot the Bears 34-25. David Reekie stopped 10 of 11 Alberta shots in relief work. The Huskies were unsuccessful on two powerplays while the Golden Bears did not receive a power play.

After the game, Huskies head coach Dave Adolph was quick to shoulder the blame.

“I didn’t think I did a very good job of preparing my team today,” Adolph stated. “I think that’s one of the coaches jobs to make sure that not only is his team prepared to make an adjustment but making sure that we’re a step ahead. We’ve been a step ahead here for the last four or five weeks and I got a little complacent today and it’s all on me.”

With the loss the Huskies are now three points back of the Golden Bears in the chase for first place in Canada West. Each team has four games remaining. The Huskies play all four on the road starting this weekend when they’ll take on Lethbridge Feb. 18 and 19 and then finish the season in Manitoba against the Bisons a week later.

“Our guys will be better, I’ll be better prepared and I think that, you know, sometimes you have to fall on your own sword and I wasn’t very good today.”

Andrew Bailey’s goal 1:47 into the overtime period was the winner as the Saskatchewan Huskies took game one of their weekend series with the Alberta Golden Bears 2-1.

With the overtime win the Huskies move to 16-7-0 and are just a single point behind the Bears for top spot in Canada West.

The game didn’t start as planned for the hometown Huskies as it was the Bears getting on the board first. With the Huskies on the power play, Steven DaSilva turned the puck over in the neutral zone and it led to a Chad Klassen short-handed breakaway goal giving Alberta a 1-0 lead just 5:43 into the opening period.

The Huskies would answer back late in the period when Matt Delahey jumped on a loose puck in the slot tieing the game at one at the 13:54 mark of the first and it would remain that way through the end of the third period.

David Reekie made 27 saves for the Huskies while Bears goaltender Kurtis Mucha made 29 saves.

– –
image: Pete Yee/The Sheaf