Saskatoon – The USask Huskies and Trinity Western Spartans opened their seasons on a beautiful Friday night at Merlis Belsher Place.
The first period opened up with TWU taking 3 straight penalties in the first 9 minutes. The Huskies were unable to capitalize going 0/3 on the power play. It wasn't long after that Shane Collins found the back of the net. Collins scored 12:28 into the first to take an early lead.
The penalty parade continued as the Huskies then took 3 straight penalties in the last 5:05 of the first. The Spartans were able to capitalize in their opportunity, scoring with 20 seconds left in the first to tie it after 1.
In the second the Huskies began to find their groove. Vince Loschiavo, Cael Zimmerman and Liam Keeler all scored in the first 10:54 of the second period. Zimmerman and Keeler's goals were their first of their U SPORTS careers in their first U SPORTS game.
Trinity Western did not wait long with Joss Mitchell scoring under 3 minutes later to cut the lead in half.
Edmonton's own, Liam Keeler, got a chance late in the period and raced down the ice and fired one home with just 1 second left on the clock to beat the buzzer and extend the lead to 5-2 after 2.
The third period also went right for the Dogs right off the bat as Justin Ball scored his first of the season and Shane Collins got his second of the night within the first 4:31 of the third.
Daine DuBois scored for TWU just 23 seconds later to cut the lead down to 4.
Mark Rumsey put the game out of reach late, scoring with 7:23 remaining in the game. This final goal lead the 8-3 Saskatchewan victory.
The Huskie veteran, Roddy Ross, got the start in net and racked up 19 stops out of 21 shots. Berk Berkeliev got the start for TWU and stopped 23 of 30 shots before Isaac LaBelle came in for the final 10 minutes stopping 9 of 10 shots faced.
Huskies Interim Head Coach Brandin Cote had this to say after his first game as the bench boss. "It's great I mean I have been doing this a long time, but the first game obviously feels good to get the win."
Cote gave credit to his team for battling hard "The boys settled down after the first and played really well we have a lot to work on but overall I thought our effort was very good."
The grind doesn't stop here for the Huskies. They are back at Merlis Belsher Place tomorrow night at 7PM against the Spartans. Get your tickets available at HuskieTickets.com.
