The Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team found themselves once again in a lengthy overtime game at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) University Cup. But this time, they didn’t leave with a victory.
The St Francis Xavier X-Men topped the Huskies by a score of 2-1 in the third overtime period on March 19.
“It’s exciting,” X-Men head coach Brad Peddle said of the overtime. “It’s stressful, but that’s what it’s all about when you get to this stage. Two good teams are going at it back and forth—that’s what fans are paying money to see.”
“Both teams laid it all on the line, there’s no question about that,” he said.
Levi Cable opened the scoring for the Huskies midway through the first period when he wired a wrist shot from the slot past X-Men goaltender Drew Owsley.
The X-Men later evened the score in the second when Brad Cuzner scored on a shorthanded breakaway. The goal ended Huskies goaltender Jordon Cooke’s shutout streak of 109:51, which began during the overtime marathon against Carleton earlier in the tournament.
The game was highlighted by the excellent saves of the two goaltenders. Both Cooke and Owsley often stopped shots that seemed destined for the back of the net.
The X-Men seemed to have plenty of momentum in the final frame—as well as the crowd behind them—but the two teams remained tied at one after regulation.
For the second time in as many games, the Huskies were playing in an overtime at the University Cup.
Both teams went back and forth through the first and second overtimes, with Cooke and Owsley continuing to be the stars of the game.
“At that point you’re just trying to make the next save and give your team a chance to win,” Owsley said after the game. “I have all the faith in our guys and I knew we would get one eventually. For me its just holding the fort and making the next save.”
Midway through the third overtime—chaos ensued. Cuzner appeared to slip the puck past Cooke and into the back of the net, although no immediate reaction came from the goal judge or the referee. Meanwhile, the X-Men poured on the ice celebrating an apparent victory.
“I saw the puck and I figured, triple overtime, you might as well try to fire something on net,” Cuzner said. “Gonna be honest, I don’t know if it was in or not, but I celebrated like it was and tried to trick the ref.”
The Huskies remained on their bench while Cooke and another player spoke with a referee. At this time the X-Men lined up on their blue line waiting for confirmation of their trip to the gold medal game.
“We weren’t worried at all,” Cooke said of the potentially game-ending goal. “You look back and see the goal judge, he said nothing, he shook his head.”
The replay on the scoreboard provided no clear answer either. The referees eventually conferred and determined the result was no goal.
A chorus of boos then rained down from the crowd, mostly composed of local X-Men fans.
Not long after the controversy, Cable was called for a hit from behind, which resulted in a two minute penalty plus a 10 minute misconduct. Not long into the power play, Michael Clarke wired a shot into the top corner of the net, this time, truly sealing the win for the X-Men.
“It was crunch time, we needed to get a goal,” Clarke said. “At the end I just grabbed the puck and tried to put it on net, get a good shot and it went in so we’re happy.”
“I thought the guys battled extremely hard,” Huskies captain Kendall McFaull said. “We had a lot more jump in our step than I thought we were going to.”
“I thought we controlled the pace for quite a bit of it—bounces weren’t going our way,” he said.
“It’s frustrating when were working that hard and nothing seems to go our way—both at the net and with the refs,” he said. “That’s definitely not why we lost the game, we didn’t score on opportunities, but that definitely doesn’t help.”
On Sunday in Halifax, the X-Men will take on the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds in the gold medal game, while the Huskies will face off against the Saint Mary’s University Huskies in the bronze medal game.
