OTTAWA, Ont. - Dawson Holt scored twice while Roddy Ross made 38 saves as the Saskatchewan Huskies defeated the Queen's Gaels 4-2 in the fourth quarterfinal of the 2025 BioSteel University Cup on Friday at The Arena at TD Place.

With the win the Huskies advance to the national semifinals and will take on the OUA Champion, and No. 3 seed, Concordia Stingers Saturday night (Mar. 22) with a berth into the U Cup Gold Medal Game on the line.
"We've now been down a little bit [ in the postseason] but our guys are resilient and they're a very tight knit group," said Huskie head coach Brandin Cote, who earned the first U Cup win of his USask coaching career Friday night. "They don't give up, and they stick together. We've got a veteran team and have had good teams the last few years, a real good core of people that have come really close to winning. Now we're over the hump, and so we we've had an opportunity here where our guys don't panic, and we just the course. We understand how we're supposed to win, and we take advantage of opportunities when we can."

The Huskies fell behind early in the quarterfinal, with the Gaels striking just 1:42 into the game on a tipped point shot from Liam Tanner which found the back of the net. Just over five minutes later, the Dogs' received their first powerplay opportunity of the night which was improved with a Queen's tripping call to send the Gaels down two skaters. 

It was then that Dawson Holt recorded his first of the game, beating Queen's goaltender Christian Purboo with a blast from the slot in tight. Chantz Petruic picked up the primary assist of the score, after finding Holt with a nice feed from below the net. 

The Gaels reclaimed the lead with a powerplay score of their own three minutes later to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

Returning to the ice for the second, Saskatchewan looked like a new team, having drastically cut down on the time spent in their own zone. It was shortly after that the Canada West champions headed back onto the man advantage, setting up Holt's second of the game. It was a shot-pass from Vince Loschiavo which gave Holt the chance to tie the game, with the fourth-year medicine student redirecting the shot from the Gaels' back door.

The 4th Queen's penalty would give the Huskies another chance to covert with the nation's best regular season powerplay unit. Despite not converting, the Dogs' were able to maintain control in the Gaels zone, allowing USask captain Justin Ball to find a rebound on the door step, giving the Huskies their first lead of the night.

Saskatchewan picked up right where they left off in the third, but with their season on the line, Queen's fought back, taking control of possession midway through the frame. Eventually the Dogs' would return to form, and in the final seconds of the game, Ethan Regnier would beat out a Gaels defender and net the insurance goal to send Saskatchewan through to the semifinals.  

Canada West Goaltender of the Year and Second Team All-Canadian, Roddy Ross made 38 saves for the Huskies, backstopping his team to victory despite being out-shot 40-23. Queen's netminder Christian Purboo stopped 19 shots in the loss.

The Huskies advance to the semifinals, where they will take on the Concordia Stingers who defeated the Moncton Aigles Bleus by an identical 4-2 score earlier on Friday. 

"They've got a highly skilled team," said Cote when asked about his team's semifinal opponent. "I think it's going to be a good battle. We're going to go back to the drawing board tonight, look at some of the things we can improve upon from this and look at some of the things we've been identified in their game that we can hopefully take advantage of. Then give it everything we got."

The Huskies and Stingers have met three times in the University Cup, with the last coming in the 1983 U Cup Final in which Saskatchewan earned a 6-2 win to claim their lone national title.