Home win ends drought for RHL Huskies

Huskies clash with Lakers
Photos and videos T. Lucas, L. Lybbert, C. Davis

Chris Davis

Pincher Creek's RHL Huskies played two home games at the MCC arena last weekend.  They were defeated 7-3 by the Lomond Lakers on Friday evening February 7.  The next evening they hosted Fort Macleod's Mustangs and delivered a 5-4 win to a large hometown crowd.  It was the  second win of the season for the Huskies, and the first at home.


Huskies vs Lakers

Friday evening's contest with Lomond's Lakers was fairly one-sided for the first two periods, with the Lakers running circles around the Huskies with slick passing plays and speed coupled with persistence.

Fast and relentless.  Hard hitting.  Crushing.

Now I'll get mail.

The Huskies had a bad first period and a disastrous second.  The Lakers are at the top of the Spud League standings, the Huskies are at the bottom.  It's a 4-team league, so there's not that much space between them, but all those spaces are called "wins".

The Lakers scored three times in the first period and four times in the second.  Lakers #7 David Foord earned a hat trick.  The Huskies scored once a period, which means they actually took the third period one goal to zip, but lost the game 7-3.  Still, that's an encouraging last period to have against an opponent.  I heard that from a guy who knows.  Scoring for the Huskies were Alex Elliott (power play), Shawn Robertson, and Mac Jordan (power play).

Stars of the game:

1. Benji Husband (Lakers)
2. Colby Murray (Lakers)
3. Mac Jordan (Huskies)

Let's put that behind us and on to Saturday's game.

Huskies vs Mustangs  

On Saturday February 8, Hockey Day, the Huskies hosted Fort Macleod's Mustangs.

Prior to the game they retired deceased teammate Taylor Elliott's #7 jersey.  Click here for that story.

Taylor's jersey was overhead throughout the game

The Huskies were overdue for a home ice win after a season of almosts.   With a big hometown crowd in attendance to cheer them on, they finally delivered the win.

Lance Ridley of the Huskies scored first, 2:17 into the first.  Picking up assists were Shelden Filipuzzi and Ian Hagen.  A long period of back and forth followed, neither side making headway until Tyce Gallamore scored for the Mustangs, with 1:43 remaining in the period.  Cole Matson picked up an assist.  1-1 to end the first.

The Mustangs pulled ahead 2-1 early in the second with a goal 1:20 in by Cody Berube, assisted by Taylor Bilodeau.  Again lots of back and forth until 8:21 into the period when Alex Elliott scored his first goal of the evening for the Huskies to tie it 2-2.  He was assisted by Brett Tarcon and Shawn Robertson.  That's where it stood to the end of the period.

The Mustangs came out shooting in the third. Huskies goalie Joel Hasselman held them off.  When the first goal of the period was scored 4:17 in, Hasselman got the assist.

Yeah, it was that kind of game.

Tarren Gallamore of the Mustangs and Darin Kay of the Huskies got into it early in the period, both of them receiving game misconducts and majors for fighting.  A similar scene played out between Shawn Robertson of the Huskies and Dezmond McDonald of the Mustangs later on, with the same results.  The third was rough throughout. The Mustangs racked up 9 penalties for a total of 40 penalty minutes and the Huskies racked up 6 penalties for a total of 33 minutes.  Just in the third.

Tyce Gallamore scored for the Mustangs, 11:32 into the period, assisted by Cole Matson and Cody Berube.  3-3, tied again.  What looked like trouble brewing turned out to be two like minded opponents working on an interpretive dance, and play resumed.  Then Kevin Olson scored for the Huskies, assisted by Will Thorpe and Alex Elliott.  4-3 Huskies.  That was followed later by another goal by Alex Elliott, assisted by Olson.  Hat trick for Alex Elliott and 5-3 Huskies.  The Mustangs managed one more goal, with 53.4 seconds remaining on the clock, that one coming from John Call David, assisted by Cody Berube.

5-4 Huskies at the buzzer.

38 shots on goal each with Joel Hasselman in net for the Huskies and Tyler Marcotte in net for the Mustangs.

Stars of the game:

1. Alex Elliott (Huskies)
2. Lance Ridley (Huskies)
3. Cody Berube (Mustangs)

Huskies Head Coach Greg Shackel was obviously pleased with the team's victory.   "It was a great game.  Both sides played well," he said afterwards.  "We just finally got some breaks and scored some goals when we needed to.  We won the third period, and that's all we had to do."

"I'm pleased.  The big guns came out and actually scored when we needed them to.  We had a lot more chances, we could have scored more.  It was good to see Alex step up and score his hat trick.  It was a good crowd, lots of enthusiasm.

"I was very impressed with this team.  They didn't quit."

The Huskies have defeated the Palominos and the Mustangs once each this season so far.  And they've also lost to them both, you do the math on that one.  The Palominos were the 2012/13 Playoff / Provincial 'A' Champions.   The Lakers stand between everybody else and the top.  The Huskies defeated the Palominos 10-7 on Nanton ice on November 15, 2013.

Coming up for the Huskies - one more regular season home game against the Palominos on Saturday February 15 at 8:30 pm and then it's playoff season in the RHL.  With only four teams in the league the Huskies are guaranteed a round one berth.