U Sports University Cup recap: day one

By: Ethan Hunt, Dylan Buckman and Ryan Bradbury

The U Sports Men’s Hockey University Cup kicked off its first day of action at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax on Thursday, with the University of Windsor Lancers and the Saint Mary’s Huskies advancing to the semifinals.

The fourth-seeded Lancers outlasted the fifth-seeded Mount Royal University Cougars 4-3 in the first game of the tournament. The Lancers’ Max Donoso won player of the game, stopping 38 shots in the win. The second-year goalie said his mindset during the game was that he “had nothing to lose.”

“I’m just going to leave it all out there if this is my last game of the season,” Donoso said.

The Lancers got on the scoreboard first. Matt McNamara threw the puck at the net and Windsor, Ont.’s own Alex Cunningham pounced on the rebound to score the first goal of the tournament. 

Mount Royal went back on the pursuit in the second period. Jayden Wiens forced a turnover in the offensive zone, and Tristan Zandee quickly released a wrist shot over the shoulder of the Windsor goalie to even the game just over two minutes into the period.

Physicality was on display, including when Bowden Singleton delivered a crushing open-ice hit on Zandee.

Donoso stood tall early in the third, even taking a shot off the helmet. The Lancers did the rest. Windsor scored back-to-back goals in 11 seconds.

The Cougars got a chance when Connor Bouchard put in a cross-crease marker, but before they could even the game, Cunningham tapped in the fourth goal for Windsor. 

After allowing a late goal, Donoso held down the crease as the clock expired. Windsor was off to the semifinals. 

Kevin Hamlin, the Lancers’ head coach, was proud of his team after the game.

“For 200 feet we bent but didn’t break, and that’s all you can ask from a group,” he said.

Hometown heroes pull off upset

In the next game, there was an all-Huskies matchup between the eighth-seeded Saint Mary’s and the one-seeded University of Saskatchewan. 

Saskatchewan went on the power play with under two minutes left in the first, but it was erased when Charlie Da Fonseca drew a holding penalty on a breakaway to make it four-on-four.

The next shift, SMU’s Jake Uberti fed the puck back on a breakaway to Reid Valade, who smashed a one-timer past Nolan Maier. 

Haligonian Ben Allison kept the party going less than a minute into the second period.

Forwards Ben Boyd and Uberti made their presence known with thunderous body checks. Tyler Naugler, SMU’s head coach, said that’s how the Huskies could have played all season, but the team was banged up.

“I’ve got some big, blue-collar players,” Naugler said.

Uberti continued to make his presence known when he toe-dragged around an opponent and roofed a shot into the top corner. Saskatchewan answered right back. He scored again in the third.

The Saint Mary’s fans, who were loud all game, went quiet when Liam Keeler tapped in the tying goal. 

Sixty minutes wasn’t long enough to decide the game, so the teams headed to extra time.

With just under four minutes left in overtime, Boyd found SMU defenceman Ethan Ritchie in front, who put the puck into the back of the net to win the game 4-3 for Saint Mary’s. SMU’s fans went wild.

“It’s so surreal just to have a moment like that,” Ritchie said after the overtime winner.

Naugler had high praise for the first-year defenceman, saying, “This is a guy that doesn’t take a rep off of practice.”