The host Saint Mary’s Huskies captured the bronze medal at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) University Cup on March 20 in Halifax with a 5-2 victory over the Saskatchewan Huskies.
“I think both teams ran their tanks dry—that’s just part of hockey,” said Saint Mary’s head coach Trevor Stienburg. “We’ve had our adversity, they’ve had theirs.”
Throughout the course of four days, Saskatchewan played over 280 minutes of hockey—nearly five games worth—thanks to multi-overtime games against Carleton and Saint Francis Xavier
“At the end of the day, like I always say, a goal is a goal whether you went end to end or it hit you in the rear end,” Stienburg said. “And today is the same thing, we won and we need to be proud of that and I think the guys are.”
Just four minutes into the game, Anthony Repaci opened the scoring for Saint Mary’s with a breakaway goal just under four minutes into the game.
Saskatchewan answered back seconds later when Jesse Ross scored from the top of the circle with a quick wrister.
Despite being tied after one period, Saint Mary’s outshot Saskatchewan by a margin of 13-6.
Just 31 seconds into the middle period, Josh Roach gave Saskatchewan the lead when he beat a Huskie in a footrace then put the puck over the shoulder of Cole Cheveldave.
Calder Brooks tied the game midway through the frame when he buried a wrap around after he was able to collect a loose rebound. Gerrad Grant then returned the lead to Saint Mary’s when he put a backhander past Jordon Cooke.
The Huskies never gave up their lead after that. Stephen MacAulay and Brooks added goals in the third to seal the win for Saint Mary’s.
“Last night was so emotional,” MacAulay said, referring to the loss to University of New Brunswick. “We came out a little flat—we were disappointed with our effort. After the game we turned our focus to today and we knew it meant something to the program, to the school, and to the guys that have played before us.”
MacAulay also cited a desire to win for the seniors as reason for intensity in the game.
“To win your last game of the year is a good feeling—obviously not the colour we wanted but we’re still very proud of what we accomplished today.”
After the game, Stienburg dismissed previous suggestions made earlier in the tournament that teams don’t like playing for bronze.
“I’ve coached for 19 years and this is as high of a point as we’ve had,” he said. “We’re the third best team in Canada right now, people can say whatever they want, they can’t take these medals away from us.”
The win also marked one of three bronze medals the Saint Mary’s athletics program hauled in on March 20. The women’s hockey team and women’s basketball team also won their respective bronze medal games.
“It just goes to show how elite our schools’ programs are,” said Huskies defender Michael D’Orazio. “I’d like to throw a shoutout there to the women’s hockey team—I know when I first got here, their program almost got shut down, and now they’re bronze medalists at the CIS, so that’s really special.”
“Just goes to show the quality of the leadership of Trevor and [women’s hockey head coach] Chris Larade and all the coaches. They lead us every day,” he said.
The victory by the men’s hockey team also guaranteed that teams from the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) would sweep the podium at the University Cup. Saint Francis Xavier University and the University of New Brunswick will battle for gold later tonight.
“We are a powerhouse here,” Stienburg said of the AUS conference. “I’ve said it and some people don’t want to hear it across the country but its been proven here right now that we are.” “I’m proud of both X [St. Francis Xavier], UNB [University of New Brunswick] and Saint Mary’s right now. To have this finish, I don’t know if it has ever been done before.”
