Huskies beat Tigers 8-2

Recap by Allan April / Saint Mary's Huskies Athletics 

HALIFAX, NS – Saint Mary's forwards Connor Trenholm and Cedric Ralph each scored a pair of goals, helping to lead the Huskies to a decisive 8-2 win over the Dalhousie Tigers in Atlantic University Sport men's hockey action on Friday night at the Dauphinee Centre in Halifax. 

The Huskies opened the scoring midway through the first period, as forward Nathan Dunkley (Campbellford, ON) won a face-off in front of the Tigers goal back to teammate Declan McDonnell (Buffalo, NY), who fired a shot that was saved by goaltender Nicholas Chenard (Tecumseh, ON), but Dunkley jumped on the rebound, giving the Huskies a 1-0 lead, 9:13 into the first. 

Less than two minutes later, the Huskies struck again, as forward Derek Gentile (Sydney, NS) crossed the blueline and fired a sharp angle shot that banked off the leg of linemate Cedric Ralph (Peterborough, ON) and past Chenard, doubling the lead to 2-0, 11:07 into the first. 

Saint Mary's went on the powerplay late in the period and capitalized, as McDonnell tee'd up forward Ben Allison (Halifax, NS) for a one-timer goal, extending the lead to 3-0 at 17:54 in the first.  

The Huskies outshot the Tigers 14-10 through the opening 20 minutes, and took a 3-0 lead into first intermission. 

Saint Mary's kept the offensive explosion going into the second period, adding four more goals to their lead – first it was defenceman Dennis Busby (Oro-Medonte, ON) scoring a crafty shot on an odd-man rush to extend the lead to 4-0, 8:27 into the second. 

Just over two minutes later the Huskies added to their lead as Gentile threaded the needle on a pass to forward Jake Uberti (Toronto, ON) who made a deke and beat Chenard high for his first goal of the season, giving the Huskies a 5-0 lead at 10:54 in the second period. 

The Huskies next goal came on a Tigers powerplay, as forward Ben Boyd (Dartmouth, NS) broke up a pass in the neutral zone and dropped the puck for defenceman Connor Olson (London, ON), who played a perfect pass to a charging Connor Trenholm (Cole Harbour, NS) who one-timed a shot past Chenard to make it 6-0. 

Saint Mary's fourth goal of the period came at 17:22, as Allison played a great breakout pass to spark Cedric Ralph on a breakaway, with Ralph finishing off his second goal of the night to extend the lead to 7-0. 

The Huskies outshot the Tigers 21-8 in the second period, taking a 7-0 lead into second intermission. 

The Tigers made a goaltending change to start the third period, with Robbie Forbes (Oakville, ON) replacing Chenard in the crease.  

Dalhousie got two goals back in the third period – defenceman Ethan Martini (Trail, BC) carried the puck behind the Huskies goal and found forward Ryan Del Monte (Mississauga, ON) who banged the puck past Saint Mary's netminder Ben West (Barrie, ON) to cut the lead to 7-1, 5:43 into the third period. 

The Huskies responded with a beautiful goal from forward Connor Trenholm, as he deked his way around a Tigers defender and squeaked a backhand shot past Forbes to extend the lead to 8-1. 

Off the ensuing face-off, Tigers forward Paul Hughes (Ottawa, ON) settled a bouncing puck and stuffed it past West, bringing the score to 8-2, which would go down as the final. 

The Huskies outshot the Tigers 50-31 on the night. Saint Mary's goaltender Ben West stopped 29 shots for the win, while Dalhousie goalies Nicholas Chenard made 28 saves before being replaced by Robbie Forbes who stopped 14 shots in the third period.  

Huskies forward Connor Trenholm was named Player of the Game with two goals on the night. Cedric Ralph (two goals), Dennis Busby (one goal, one assist), Nathan Dunkley (one goal, one assist), Ben Allison (one goal, one assist), Declan McDonnell (two assists), Connor Olson (two assists), Matthew MacDonald (two assists), Derek Gentile (two assists) and Ben Boyd (two assists) all recorded multipoint nights for the Huskies. 

The Huskies win improves their record to 11-6-2-0 on the campaign, moving them into a tie for second place in the AUS standings. The Huskies will hit the road on Saturday, Jan. 11, visiting the STFX X-Men (10-6-1-1) at 7 p.m. in Antigonish, NS. 

The Tigers loss drops their record to 3-17-0-0 on the season. The Tigers will be back on home ice on Wednesday, Jan. 15, as they host the STFX X-Men at 7 p.m. at the Halifax Forum.