Huskies vs, Bears Round 2

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Huskies 4, Bears 1

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The hockey Dogs did what they had two do.

Two wins, both of them in regulation.

It added up to four points for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies and none for the visiting University of Alberta Golden Bears.

With a weekend sweep, the Dogs leap-frogged over the Bears into top spot in the Canada West’s East Division standings and first place overall with an 18-4-0 record and nine-game winning streak.

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“It’s really big,” said Saskatchewan head coach Brandin Cote following a 4-1 victory Saturday over the arch-rival Bears before over 2,000 fans and hockey alumni at Merlis Belsher Place.

“We sort of had this one marked on our calendar for a while and our guys just came to play. I thought it was a really good, complete team effort. We stayed calm and poised and disciplined. It was just a really, really good win to finish up the weekend.”

Ralpael Pelletier, Liam Keeler, Dawson Holt and Chantz Petruic each scored once for Saskatchewan, which led 2-0 and 4-1 by periods.

The Huskies outshot the Bears 38-21.

They went 1-for-10 on the power play with Petruic’s insurance marker coming during the man-advantage.

It was maybe too much power-play time, overall, as the unit got a little casual and at times careless with the puck during the man-advantage as the game wore on.

“Yeah maybe a little bit,” admitted Cote. “I think part of it was we finally were able to capitalize on the 5-on-3, the second one. We were maybe a little overconfident a little bit. The puck was bouncing quite a bit and, when they got down, they were pressuring really hard, almost to the point of over-pressuring and we weren’t used to that. We found ways to settle it down but we were just a little bit off that way but we still found a way to get one (power play goal) there. I thought it was good at that point because they had scored the one short-handed one there and we settled it down, got the one and made it 4-1.

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“Overall, I can’t complain too much. It was just a really good overall team game.”

Brett Hyland had the lone goal, short-handed, for Alberta, which fell to 18-6-0 this season. Hyland’s goal had cut the lead to 3-1 and gave his team some life before Petruic’s back-breaker.

Roddy Ross made 20 saves for the win in the Huskies net.

Tyler Palmer stopped 34 shots for the Bears.

Saskatchewan has six games remaining in the regular season schedule, with the next four on the road. Alberta has four games left on the sked.

Done with the Bears for now, the Dogs will look to take care of business down the stretch.

“We’ve put ourselves in the driver’s seat, for sure,” noted Cote. “There’s still lots of work to do. The games in hand are nice but we’ve got to win them. I think this goes a long way with that. Our confidence level is high, our guys are motivated, but still lots of work left to do. We can’t take anyone for granted. We’ve just got to take care of our business and whatever happens, happens.

“We’re expecting U of A to probably finish off the year with four wins and we’re going to have to get as many as we can down the stretch.”

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DOG TAILS: Liam Keeler was back in the line-up Saturday after helping Canada win a gold medal at the FISU Universiade world university winter games in Italy. Rookie defenceman Logan Bairos also was inserted into the line-up with Mac Gross sitting one out … The Huskies are on the road next weekend to play the Grand MacEwan University Griffins (9-11-2) in Edmonton.

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