CHARLOTTETOWN — Camryn Drever recorded her fourth shutout of the postseason, as the University of Saskatchewan Huskies defeated the Brock Badgers 4-0 in the quarter-final of the U SPORTS National Championship.
The win punches the Huskies ticket to tomorrow afternoon's national semifinal, where they will play the winner of the Concordia Stingers and UPEI Panthers.
"It was an awesome game. It's really nice. That first game meant a lot for the weekend. We've worked all year to get that one, so it's pretty exciting," said Huskies defenceman Brooklyn Stevely.
"This is the one we needed to win. If you lose this one then, you're on the wrong side of the draw playing for nothing," said Huskies head coach Steve Kook. "This at least puts us in the running for a medal and to compete for a medal, which is what we want."
With the victory, Saskatchewan moves to 4-0 in national quarter-finals in program history.
The Huskies got on the board midway through the second on a goal from Sara Kendall, as she tucked a loose puck home at the side of the cage to make it 1-0 — a lead that would hold until the conclusion of the first period.
Saskatchewan came out in the third-period firing. Stevely and Kara Kondrat scored twice in the frame's opening 3:53 to make it a three-goal lead, before Nicoly Fry found the empty net with 3:48 remaining in regulation to all but seal the quarter-final win for the Huskies.
Stevely, who registered her first-career U SPORTS goal in the Canada West quarter-final, found twine in today's national quarter-final.
"It's really special to score in a big event like this," said Stevely. "It kind of gave us a little bit of jump, because it was a 1-0 game and it gave us a little bit of room which was nice."
As has been the story all postseason long, Drever was the great equalizer. The Edmonton product stopped all of the 27 shots fired her way in the contest — including 21 through the game's opening 40 minutes.
"She's so good. She's on her A-game. We've all got Drever fever forsure. It's pretty awesome to play in front of her. She always backs us up," said Stevely.
"She bailed us out forsure. I think there was one time five saves in one stretch — it was ridiculous."
Drever and company will now turn their attention to the semifinal at hand. The Huskies have never faced off against the Panthers in program history, but met Concordia in the bronze medal game of the 2017-18 national championship
"We got a two hour rule — two hours to enjoy it and then put it behind you and start to focus, relax and get some nutrition and you get ready for tomorrow," said Kook.
As mentioned, semifinal action for Saskatchewan is set for tomorrow afternoon in Charlottetown. Puck drop is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. CST. All the action can be watched live on cbcsports.ca and on the CBC Gem app or listened to live on HuskieFAN.
