Hockey Huskies 1 win away from championship after 3-2 Game 1 victory

Layne Young is told continually that he has a “big butt.”

His coach, Dave Adolph, exclaimed it as a virtue after his second year recruit nabbed the eventual winner in a 3-2 Game 1 victory for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies over the UBC Thunderbirds in the Canada West Finals on Friday night.

“He got his big butt in front of the guy,” Adolph said of Young’s goal, describing how he out-positioned the UBC defence by placing himself in front of the net to deflect in a Levi Cable shot to give the Huskies a 3-1 lead at the time.

Young, from Paradise Hill, Sask., wasn’t surprised by how his bench boss described his rear end.

“I’ve heard it all year long,” he said, laughing.

If the Huskies had their way, Young’s goal wouldn’t have been the game-winner. The Thunderbirds came close in the final minute of the game, after a nifty front-of-net turnaround snipe by Maxwell James brought UBC within one goal – making it a 3-2 game.

A bizarre penalty seconds after the goal is what ended up sealing the deal for Saskatchewan.

As the puck was played in the UBC end, goaltender Rylan Toth started making his way towards the bench. However, the puck was turned over on the half boards to Levi Cable. Sensing a dangerous chance on the now-open net, Toth changed direction and delivered a pushing body check to Cable from behind, drawing a boarding call.

No Huskies player or employee had ever seen a boarding penalty against a goaltender before.

“It’s quite the thing,” said Young, who was on the ice at the time.

“We were poking fun at Levi a little bit. Not too often you get hit by a goalie, especially from behind.”

Despite the chuckles on the ice to end the game, head coach Dave Adolph is looking for a bit more from his crew in Game 2.

“It wasn’t a Picasso, and it never usually is in the playoffs,” Adolph said, lamenting the Huskies “tentative” play in the final part of the third frame.

“We learned and we lived, it will be better tomorrow.”

The close finish was nothing like the start of the game, where Saskatchewan showed similar dominance over the Thunderbirds to what they demonstrated during their four regular season matchups – which the Huskies swept. Jordan Tkatch scored to put the Dogs ahead just 7:38 into the game, and the Huskies led 14-2 on the shot clock after one.

The teams exchanged goals in the second, with Carson Stadnyk putting the Huskies ahead 2-0 before UBC’s Jake Kryski closed the gap four minutes later.

The two teams will meet again for Game 2 on Saturday night at Merlis Belsher Place. If the Huskies win, they’ll claim their 11th Canada West championship and their first title in five years. If UBC pulls even, Game 3 will be played Sunday in Saskatoon.