Men’s hockey roller coaster season leads to home playoff date
by Eoin Colquhoun
It was an up and down season, but after finishing fourth, the Lethbridge Pronghorn men’s hockey team, for the second time in three seasons will host the opening round of Canada West playoffs.
Coming off a disappointing 2007-08 season, there was reserved optimism as Coach Gatto’s squad entered the season. The opening weekends of the season came with mixed reviews, where one night they looked like contenders, hammering the perennial Canada West powers the Saskatchewan Huskies at home; but followed that up with poor performances and languished around the final playoff spot after being humbled by the defending CIS Champion Alberta Golden Bears in Edmonton in early November.
An early bright spot for the Horns was the play of Ryan Pottruff and Dustin Moore, who were both named to the Canada West All-Star team that represented Canada at the Winter Universiade in Harbin, China. At press time, the Canadian team had earned a bye into the semi-finals after going 4-0 during the preliminary round.
Just as it looked as the Horns would once again struggle to make the post season, the team jelled and caught fire, rattling off eight straight conference victories and were on the verge of challenging for second place in the conference. Six of the victories came during November, while the other two were after the semester break in January.
During the streak, goaltender Scott Bowles was exceptional. He was named the Husky WHL graduate of the month, finishing the month of November with a 6-3-0 record, a 2.70 goals against average and .912 save percentage.
Heading to Saskatoon for a crucial match up, trailing the Huskies by only one point for second place, the Horns inconsistency reared its ugly head and a sweep at the hands of the Huskies began a five game losing streak that threatened the Horns home playoff date.
With a huge road victory over the Golden Bears in their final road game of the season, the men were again in control of their own destiny and finally clinched a home playoff berth with a win over their arch rival Calgary Dinos, 6-2.
After 28 games, the Horns finished with a 14-13-1 record and a matchup with the UBC Thunderbirds in the Canada West quarter-final.
Despite missing the final two regular season games, Moore led the Horns in scoring with 14 goals and 12 assists, while Pottruff led all Canada West defenseman in scoring, registering five goals and 15 assists.
Leave a Reply