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By Tara de Ryk DAIVDSON-The Davidson Midget Huskies simply ran out of gas, says coach Lindsay Dieno of his team's defeat in the final game of the Last Mountain Minor Hockey League championship. Davidson was in Drake March 29 playing for the title in Game 3, but couldn't find the legs to stop Drake, who went on a scoring spree in the second period to secure the 5-1 win and league championship. The teams were scoreless through most of the first period when in the final minute, Drake scored while on the powerplay after Davidson took a penalty for havingtoo many players on the ice. Drake had a 1-0 lead. Early in the second period Davidson's Preston Lynch, from Monty Zdunich, scored to tie it up at 1-1. Drake came back to score another three goals in the second period and another goal in the third period for the 5-1 win. The Huskies forced a Game 3 after beating Drake 4-3 in double overtime in Game 2 at Davidson on March 25. Drake had the first goal of the game in the first minute of play. In the second period Davidson's Nolan Curts, from Zdunich, scored to tie the game 1-1, while on a powerplay. Early in the third period Drake scored again to make the score 2-1. The Huskies' made good on another powerplay, using their extra man advantage to tie the score after Garrett Dieno, from Curts and Zdunich, had a goal for Davidson. Later, Curts scored to give the Huskies their first lead of the game. Assists were by Dieno and Eric Packet. With five minutes left in the period, Drake scored to tie it up at three all. This goal forced a fourth, 10-minute period and still the score remained knotted. Five minutes into the fifth period Brandon Goodsman, from McLellan and Preston Esmond, scored to save the day for the Huskies and keep their league championship hopes alive. In Game 1 in Drake, Davidson suffered a 5-2 loss. Drake jumped to an early 2-0 lead after 24 minutes of play and it wasn't until five minutes into the second period, when Ian McLellan, from Lynch, scored to get Davidson into the game. Drake added another marker to take a 3-1 lead before Curts, from Packet, closed the gap to 3-2 for Drake. Drake scored another two unanswered goals in the third period for the 5-2 win. Despite the loss for the league championship, the coaches of the Midget Huskies are proud of their team. "I was pleased with the season," coach Dieno said. "Both Fred and I asked a lot of these guys as players." Playing for the Davidson Midget Huskies shows a real commitment from its players, who come to Davidson from around the region. Although the team plays under the Davidson Huskies banner, its players come from numerous communities including Craik, Holdfast, Imperial, Eyebrow, Elbow, Hanley and Dundurn. Just three of its players: Eric Packet, Preston Lynch and Garrett Dieno call Davidson home. From Holdfast are Landon Fahlman, Ian McLellan, Nolan Curts and coach Fred Curts. From Hanley are players Kashtin Dietz and Monty Zdunich. Players from Dundurn are Linden Freeden and Brayden Williams. The rest of the roster includes Preston Esmond from Eyebrow, Brandon Goodsman from Imperial, Dylan Boyle from Elbow, Josh Sanden from Craik and Jesse Book from Loreburn. Some of these players have played together since bantam. At the midget level when some players lose interest in hockey, Dieno says it is a struggle to put a team together so it's taken the combined efforts of many communities to make the team in Davidson a success. The Huskies had a roster of 15 players this season. The small team has posed a challenge when it came to provincials and league playdowns. Dieno said a couple players were hurt or sick, so the shorter bench was tough when the Huskies were up against some great teams. They simply ran out of steam. Dieno said the Huskies were good enough to beat Drake and Lake Lenore/LeRoy, the top teams in the league. In Game 3, the final, against Drake Dieno says, "We plain ran out of legs. The lack of players was the biggest factor in our losing." The leaderonline is a division of The Davidson Leader, Davidson, Saskatchewan, Canada. |