Huskies on brink of 5th straight finals appearance after 2-1 win

Levi Cable calls himself “lucky” when he plays against the University of Calgary Dinos.

Others might say he could be known as the “Dino killer” given the way he performs against the red and gold in the playoffs every time they match up against the Huskies.

Cable opened the scoring in Friday night’s Canada West semi-final Game 1 matchup at Merlis Belsher Place, as the Huskies clawed their way to a 2-1 win to take the series lead.

It’s the fourth time he’s potted a goal over the span of three series against Calgary that he’s taken part in during his time as a Huskie.

“Just getting luck in the right place in the right times,” he said.

As a fifth year player, Cable also credited his long-time linemates for his continued success.

“We just have good chemistry and we work well in the playoffs,” he said.

“That just makes it easy. We know where each other are lots of the time without even having to look.”

That was exactly how Cable’s goal played out in the first period. Fellow fifth year Kohl Bauml streaked down the left wing before feeding a blind pass deep into the slot, with the puck finding its way through a mess of bodies onto Cable’s stick. He wasted no time potting it past Calgary goaltender Matt Greenfield.

The Dinos tied the game just under three minutes later on a quick shot off the faceoff from Ryan Graham, but the Huskies got the lead back on a goal from Collin Shirley with just 41 seconds remaining in the first frame.

Beyond that, the teams battled in a hard-fought defensive game, with only 31 combined shots ending up on the score sheet — 19 for the Huskies, 12 for the Dinos.

Saskatchewan managed to shut down what many consider to be the best line in Canada West play, keeping league-leading scorer Matt Alfaro and his linemates Coda Gordon and Kaden Elder to just one shot throughout the game.

Head coach Dave Adolph tasked his veteran defence pair of Tanner Lischynsky and Colby Harmsworth with the shutdown assignment.

“They might not put it on the tape, but if they miss they’re probably going to chew their way back in and chainsaw it,” Adolph said of the duo.

“They had Alfaro all night.”

The Huskies now shift focus to Game 2 in the best-of-three series, where they’ll hope to punch their ticket to the Canada West finals in an attempt to claim their first championship since 2016.

The Dinos, who came into the series ranked third in the conference and eighth nationally, will have last change — making the matchup game harder to play for Adolph.

“Right away you lose the match, and (Dinos coach Mark Howell) shortens his bench a little bit when he has last change,” Adolph. “So we have to be really careful … But we did it to execution tonight if we didn’t get the match or the late change there were two guys out there that were ready to go.”

“We’ll be fine. It’ll be another one goal game tomorrow night.”

Game two will be played at Merlis Belsher Place at 7 p.m. on Saturday evening.

If the Huskies win the series, they’ll either host the UBC Thunderbirds or travel to face the Alberta Golden Bears in the Canada West finals. UBC won game 1 of their semi-final series against the Bears 3-2 in overtime on Friday night, taking a 1-0 series lead.

The Huskies are looking to advance to their fifth straight finals appearance, and to claim their first championship since 2016.