MHKY | Huskies top Golden Bears in Game 1

SASKATOON – Vince Loschiavo had a goal and an assist, leading the fourth seeded Saskatchewan Huskies to a 4-2 Game 1 win over the Alberta Golden Bears.

Saskatchewan controlled a majority of the quarter-final series opener, outshooting Alberta 30-21. Raphael Pelletier, Cole Jordan, and Justin Ball also scored for Saskatchewan, with Roddy Ross making 19 saves in the win.

"It was a great team effort for us tonight, and everyone contributed," said Huskies head coach Brandin Cote. "We had a couple timely goals, our special teams were solid as was the goalkeeping. With a team on the ropes we'll need an even better effort tomorrow to close this out."

Alex Thacker and Justin Hall scored for Alberta, with Ethan Kruger making 26 saves in the Game 1 loss.

"We played tentative tonight. We didn't play with the jump we needed to," said Bears coach Ian Herbers. "We had one line playing, and three who weren't. Our strength is to have four lines buzzing, playing on our toes, and generating shots. Just too tentative and nervous tonight."

The Huskies controlled the pace early and often in the opening frame, finishing with a 11-4 shot advantage. Pelletier opened the scoring 12 minutes in, beating Kruger off a fantastic cross-ice feed from Chantz Petruic.

Alberta struggled to generate any offence at even strength, with an abbreviated breakaway from Hall being their lone scoring chance, which was calmly turned aside by Ross.

Alberta's offence woke up early in the second, with better passing in the defensive zone allowing the Bears to play with pace. That speed caused a turnover by Parker Gavlas inside the circles, with Thacker burring the loose puck.

The subsequent 10 minutes, however, were dominated by Saskatchewan, with the Huskies scoring twice, and Alberta taking three minor penalties. A pinching Jordan beat Kruger over the glove to restore the UofS lead, before Ball re-directed a pass from Vince Loschiavo 57 seconds later on the powerplay. The Huskies outshot Alberta 15-8 in the second period.

Hall cut the Huskies lead in half again, this time beating Ross in tight off a weird angle midway through the third. His goal was a punctuation mark after five minutes of Alberta offensive pressure.

Just like Thacker's goal, however, the Huskies responded quickly. Loschiavo beat a screened Kruger off a faceoff to restore the Huskies two-goal lead four minutes later.

"I expect a much better performance from our guy's tomorrow," said Herbers. "We need to up our compete level, get dirty, and not be afraid to pay the price to generate offence."

Game 2 of the best-of-three quarter-final series is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. CT tomorrow at Merlis Belsher Arena.