Tigers fall to Huskies 3-0

Written by Ethan Hunt

(Halifax, NS) - The Saint Mary's Huskies blanked the Dalhousie Tigers 3-0 on Saturday night at the Halifax Forum.

The game concluded both teams' regular season and with the win Saint Mary's clinched fourth in the AUS and will play UPEI in the first round of the playoffs. Dalhousie did not make the playoffs.

The game started out physical, and each team worked their way into the game, with Ben Boyd (Dartmouth, NS) having the best chance of the period when he hunted down Jackson van de Leest's (Kelowna, BC) turnover at the point and beat the defenceman out wide, but Robbie Forbes (Oakville, ON) stretched out for the pad stop.

Saint Mary's went on the first power play of the game but could not capitalize and during the two minutes gave up a short handed chance to Barret Kirwin (Barrie, ON) in which the forward cut into the front of the net, but skied the puck over Jeremy Helvig's (Kingston, ON) net.

Dalhousie took a penalty in the last 10 seconds to give an opportunity for the Huskies to score the first goal of the game in the new period.

Saint Mary's couldn't find the back of the net on the powerplay, but 20 seconds passed after the man-advantage when Ben Allison (Halifax, NS) threaded the defencemen to Reid Valade (Caledon, ON) who wired the puck shortside past Forbes.

The Dalhousie netminder had his work cut out for him in the second period including when Declan McDonnell's (Buffalo, NY) short side shot bounced off of Forbes' pads out to Liam VanLoon (London, ON), but the goalie recovered to make the stop.

On the same shift Walter Flower III's (Lunenburg, NS) point shot bounced off of a skate in front and Forbes was forced to sprawl out of his crease to keep the puck out of danger.

Dalhousie had a powerplay with less than six minutes remaining in the period, but it was Charlie Dafonseca (Thornhill, ON) who dragged the defenders into the corner and found a trailing Ben Higgins (Truro, NS) all alone, but Forbes also turned that away.

With the lone goal, the Huskies headed into the third with a 1-0 lead.

Early in the new period Joseph Serpa (Cambridge, ON) and Ryan Smith (Bala, ON) went on a two on one where Serpa found Smith for a one timer, but Helvig went from post to post to deny the shot.

With three and a half minutes remaining in the game, McDonnell skated down the ice and netted the dagger for the Saint Mary's win.

Dafonseca's shot from his own end bounced over the defenceman's stick and went all the way down the ice into the empty net to end the game with a 3-0 Huskies win.

For adding the extra insurance of a goal, McDonnell was awarded player of the game.