SASKATOON, Sask. - Crowning the Canada West Men's Hockey champion will have to wait one more day after Clay Hanus netted his first goal of the playoffs in overtime, leading the Mount Royal Cougars to a game two victory by a final score of 2-1 Saturday night (March 8) at Merlis Belsher Place. 

The result sends an already exciting series to a winner-take-all game three tomorrow night as both teams will fight to be the top dog (or cat) in the USPORTS' western conference. 

In a game that saw Saskatchewan lead 1-0 for the majority of play, the Huskies could not hang on for the remaining 4:44.

After Trevor Wong opened the scoring late in the first period, it looked as if Roddy Ross and the Dogs' defence were going to hold their Calgary foes scoreless enroute to claiming Saskatchewan's first Canada West Men's Hockey title since the 2019-20 season.

However, with Cougars' backs against the wall, MRU finally solved Ross on a Teague Patton wrister that banked off the post, off Ross, and then trickled across the goal line to knot the game at one apiece, much to the chagrin of a record 3,013 Huskies' faithfull in attendance. 

Up to that point Ross had been brilliant, thwarting off chance after chance until the MRU offence was finally able to break through. 

Despite taking the loss, this season's Canada West Goaltender of the Year performed admirably as Ross made key saves throughout and ended the match stopping 31 of 33 shots.

"He was dialed again," said Huskies' head coach Brandin Cote regarding his netminder's performance.

"He gave us a chance. The last one I think went off a stick, so you can't blame him for that. The other one was a seeing eye shot that hit the post and he just couldn't find it, so no fault of Roddy's at all. Just like he's been all year, he's been a rock back there and I thought their goalie played good too." 

Mount Royal goaltender Shane Farkas was indeed good tonight, as last year's Canada West Goaltender of the Year earned a crucial game two win on the back of a 23 save performance. 

With tensions building in the final minutes of the third period, Josh Tarzwell would fuel the fire even further after being issued five minutes and a game misconduct for checking to the head on Huskies' third-year forward Liam Keeler with 3:29 remaining. 

It was a golden opportunity for the Huskies' top ranked regular season power play (31.1%) to claim victory in thrilling fashion, but it was not to be as the Cougars penalty kill fully erased the Dogs' extended power play in the early goings of overtime. The Huskies would finish the night 0-2 on the man advantage. 

With MRU having claimed new life, the Cougars began to bombard the Huskies' goal with shot after shot, outshooting the Huskies 9-1 in the extra frame. 

The ninth shot would prove to be the dagger for the Huskies as Hanus unleashed a slapshot from above the right circle that deflected off a stick and found its way to the back of the net, sending the series to a decisive game three.

Hanus' goal could not have been more timely as the recently named Canada West Player of the Year and Defenceman of the Year had been held pointless in the postseason until tonight. 

"Super happy and proud of him getting that moment today," said MRU head coach Bert Gilling about his superstar defenceman. 

"As [a] really good player, [he's] on everyone's scouting report and everybody's trying to shut him down. Play the right way and when the moment finds you you'll be ready for it, so how cool is that. Tonight the moment found him." 

With the Canada West crown on the line, puck drop for game three is set for Sunday at 6:00PM at Merlis Belsher Place.