Huskies men’s hockey team begins playoffs against defending champs

The quest for the Canada West men’s hockey title begins tonight for the Saskatchewan Huskies as the team hosts the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in the semi-final at Merlis Belsher Place.

The two sides will face off in a best-of-three series that could run until Sunday to determine who will advance to the Canada West final next weekend.

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The Saskatchewan team has been dominant all season on both sides of the puck. The team is among the top in Canada West for goals scored, and has allowed the fewest goals of any team in the league.

The Huskies finished with the best regular-season record in Canada West (23-5) and will hold home ice for the duration of the Canada West playoffs if they advance.

Because the Huskies clinched the top seed, they had a week off to rest and prepare for the series with UBC.

Head coach Brandin Cote thinks that extra week of rest will be big for his team.

“We’re really excited. We had a few guys banged up as we got through the last part of the year, so the rest I think it’s going to be a bit of a weapon here for us as we go into it. (UBC) had a tough series last weekend going through MacEwan,” Cote said.

“We’re home. We’re rested. We’ve gone through some things here, putting a few last final touches on our preparation, and we’ll be ready to go for Friday night.”

Chantz Petruic, who is in his fourth year with the Huskies, led the team in scoring this season, with 45 points in 30 games. The Moose Jaw player said the team is fired up for Friday night.

“Fired up would be an understatement, honestly,” Petruic said.

“We’ve been waiting a long time for this. I’ve been here four years. We’ve been close in the past, but we haven’t had a team like this. The depth and belief in our group is at an all-time high, and we’re ready to get started.”

The Huskies have a mix of young players and experienced veterans experience on the team, and all of them are ready to take advantage of this championship window. Petruic said that depth will help them as they push for the championship.

“The depth goes a long way. We brought in a ton of guys this year too – Trevor Wong, Chase Bertholet, just to name a few. They’ve made a huge impacts right away. When it comes to playoffs and you need a big goal you need everyone to step up, so it’s awesome,” Petruic explained.

Although the Huskies are statistically the favourites heading into the weekend series against UBC, the Thunderbirds are no joke. The Thunderbirds are the defending Canada West champions, and have made it to the final in three of the last four seasons.

Third-year forward Liam Keeler is aware of the challenge UBC poses.

“I think they’ve got a lot of different threats. I think they’ve got a lot of speed, a lot of high-end offensive players, guys who can put the puck in the net if you give them time and space,” Keeler explained.

“They got a lot of threats and we’ve got to be ready to defend hard and take away those guys’ time. They’ve got good D-men, good goalies and overall they’re a strong team.”

Cote thinks both teams play a similar game, and suggested it’ll be an entertaining series.

“We both have really good depth up front, lots of skill, lots of speed, great goaltending. I think it’s going to be really exciting hockey,” Cote said. “I think the team that’s going to stick to their game plan the best and execute at a high level is going to come out on top.”

The Huskies are hoping to see big crowds over the course of the best-of-three series.

At home this season, the Huskies finished with a record of 18-1.

Cote said the team tries to make Merlis Belsher Place a tough place for out-of-town teams to play.

“We have talked a lot about just really making this a hard place to come in and get points out of and get wins. We’ve really taken that to heart. We had one little blip on the screen against Mount Royal early on in the year, but since then we’ve been pretty darn good,” Cote explained.

“But again, it’s a different season, and they’re going to be coming in and they’re going to be hungry.”