There aren’t too many ways a season could have ended in a more devastating way for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team last February.
The team led 1-0 in their opening playoff round against the Alberta Golden Bears, before falling by one goal in Game 2 to even up the best-of-three series.
That set up a winner-take-all Game 3 at Merlis Belsher Place, which was eventually captured by Alberta with a Daneel Lategan overtime tally to complete the reverse sweep and knock out the Huskies.
“It’s never fun to lose in those games in overtime,” said Huskies veteran defenceman Gunner Kinniburgh. “You feel like you were that close. I think we bring a lot of experience and remembering what that felt like will carry us through. It will be huge for us, I believe.”
Missing out on Canada West semi-finals by a single goal, the loss is still being felt by those in the Huskies dressing room ahead of their 2024-25 season.
It isn’t dwelling on the loss according to head coach Brandin Cote, however. Instead, the Huskies say they’re turning those feelings into needed motivation.
“Last year it didn’t end in the playoffs the way that we wanted to,” said Cote. “It was a very, very tight series against a very good [Alberta] team, the whole league was so tight.
“We had a really good regular season, now it’s just taking another step and getting over that hump. Our guys are coming in with a hunger.”
Improving by 10 points last winter in the standings from their 2022-23 season to finish with a 20-6-1-1 record, the Huskies are now ranked third in the Canada West pre-season coaches poll.
The vast majority of their roster will be back in green and white including all of their top scorers such as Vince Loschiavo, Chantz Petruic, Raphael Pelletier, Justin Ball, Dawson Holt, Carter Stebbings and Liam Keeler.
On the back end, they’ll be led by blueliners such as Kinniburgh, Cole Jordan, Landon Kosior and Rhett Rhinehart, while Ethan Chadwick has added to the goaltending tandem of Roddy Ross and Jordan Kooy.
“Our core group is pretty special,” said Loschiavo. “We’ve all been together for three years now, this will be our fourth. We just want to do the best we can to lead the way with these young guys, we got a lot of great new faces coming in.”
Elevating to that next level will be the big goal for the Huskies in 2024-25, pushing for far less heartbreak on the ice over the coming season.
“I think that’s carried over in our leadership group,” said Kinniburgh. “There’s a lot of guys that are a part of that group, just our experience that each and every night we’re confident in the lineup. We can put it in there no matter who it is and that will carry over for us.”
The Huskies men’s team opens their season on home ice Friday with a 7:00 p.m. puck-drop versus the Regina Cougars, with the back half of their home-and-home set going Saturday in Regina.