CALGARY – The Saskatchewan Huskies picked up a 3-1 win and spoiled the University of Calgary Dinos men's hockey team's home opener on Friday night at Father David Bauer Arena.
Saskatchewan remains perfect on the young season and improves their record to 3-0, while Calgary slips to 1-2.
Dinos head coach Mark Howell stressed the importance of understanding the difficulty of playing in Canada West following the game.
"[It is important to] start on time and be ready to play hard right off the bat," said Howell. "We don't have enough games … it is hard to understand how important every night is."
Huskies team captain
Connor Hobbs scored the first goal of the game six minutes into the first period.
Brayden Camrud sent a pass down low to Hobbs who beat a defender to the puck and directed it past Calgary netminder Carl Stankowski. The goal was Hobbs' first of the year.
Alec Zawatsky doubled the Saskatchewan lead with five minutes remaining in the middle frame as he broke in down the left side and got the puck through the netminder before crashing into him for his second of the season.
The Dinos got on the scoreboard during the final minute of the second period. Tyson Upper won the offensive zone faceoff which led to a Colson Gengenbach feed to
Sean Strange at the blue line. The Strange shot sailed past Huskies goaltender
Roddy Ross for his first of the campaign.
Despite 16 Dinos shots, Ross shut the door the rest of the way, including denying a pair of late power play opportunities.
Jaxan Kaluski's second goal of the year into the empty net rounded out the scoring.
Ross finished with 31 saves, while Stankowski stopped 29 attempts.
The Huskies are back in in action Saturday night in Calgary. Live stream available at CanadaWest.TV.