Huskies beat crosstown rival Tigers 5-3

The Saint Mary's University Huskies picked up a big 5-3 win over their crosstown rival Dalhousie University Tigers on Saturday November19 at the Halifax Forum in Halifax, NS. The win gives the Huskies a 6-7-1 record and moves them into a tie with the Tigers for fourth place in the AUS standings. The Tigers fell to 5-7-3 on the season.

Eric Brassard (St. Hubert, QC) made 21 saves for the Huskies to pick up the win and improve his record to 5-3.

Ben Duffy (Lower Sackville, NS) (5,6), Calder Brooks (Emerald Park, SK) (3), Hunter Garlent (Thorold, ON) (4) and Bradley Latour (Barrie, ON) (5) all found the back of the net for the Huskies.

Andrew Wigginton (Sackville, NS) (4), Kelly Bent (Halifax, NS) (2) and Mike Evelyn (Ottawa, ON) (2) responded with goals for the Tigers.

Corbin Boes (Saskatoon, SK) made 28 saves on 32 shots as his record drops to 5-8.

1^st

The Huskies scored first at the 17:22 mark of the first. Stephen Gillard (St. John's, NL) got the puck to Duffy in the corner, he worked his way out front and flipped a backhand try on Boes. Boes made the initial save then Duffy pounced on the rebound and slid it home for the 1-0 goal.

2^nd

The Huskies made it 2-0 3:27 into the second. On the penalty-kill, Duffy and Brooks came in on a two-on-one, Duffy cut to middle and lost control of the puck.  Brooks wired a shot top shelf for a shorthanded marker.

Three minutes later the Huskies made it 3-0 with a power-play goal at the 6:26 mark. Brooks worked it back to Kyle Pereira (Brampton, ON).  On the point he found Garlent streaking backdoor and Garlent made no mistake finishing of the pretty three-way passing play.

The Tigers got on the board with a power-play goal of their own 14:31 into the second. Wigginton took the puck out front from the corner and roofed a beauty backhand to make it 3-1.

3^rd

The Tigers made it a one-goal game 7:30 into the third. Colton Heffley (Swift Current, SK) fed Colton Parsons (Kingston, NS) who ripped a shot that went off a shin-pad in front right onto Bent's stick at the right dot.  Bent buried his shot for a 3-2 score.

It only took the Huskies 16 seconds to restore the two-goal lead. Gillard worked the puck to Latour on the right wing in the Huskies zone.  Latour sped up ice creating a one-on-one and went to the right dot and stopped up looking for a trailer on the play.  After delaying for a moment he fired a quick shot five-hole to make it 4-2.

The Tigers pulled their goalie with just under two-minutes to go in the game. Duffy was able to force a turnover in the Tigers zone and scored on a wide-open look into the empty net for a 5-2 score at the 18:47 mark of the third.

With the game out of reach the Tigers kept pressing and managed to get one more goal at the 19:20 mark. Tanner Williams (Iroquois, ON) sent the puck from behind the net to Felix Page (Montreal, QC) on the attacking left walL.  Page found Evelyn in the high slot and he fired quick shot glove side to make it 5-3.

The Huskies outshot the Tigers 33-24.

The Tigers were 1/6 on the power-play while the Huskies went 1/4.

Up next:

The Tigers host the StFX X-Men on Wednesday, November 23 at the Halifax Forum in Halifax NS.

The Huskies host the UPEI Panthers on Friday, November 25 at the Halifax Forum in Halifax NS.

By Cam Honey-Webb

Photo Nick Pearce