No. 5-ranked Huskies drop Tigers 6-2, move into second place

(HALIFAX, N.S.) - The CIS No. 5-ranked Saint Mary's Huskies snapped a three-game losing streak and moved into second place with a convincing 6-2 win over the Dalhousie Tigers Friday night in front of 667 fans at the Halifax Forum.

Four Saint Mary's players had multi-point nights including Matt Tipoff (Toronto, Ont.), who was named the Subway Player of the Game with goal and two assists.

Michael D'Orazio (Richmond Hill, Ont.), Stephen Johnson (Guelph, Ont.) and Jamie Dornbosch (Richmond Hill, Ont.) each had two points in the victory. 

Stephen Johnston and Patrick O'Keefe gave the Huskies a 2-0 lead early in the first period. Cory Tanaka and Ryan Hillier, on the power play, added second period goals to make it 4-0.

Dalhousie's Brendon MacDonald and Shea Kewin each scored second period goals to cut the lead in half. Kewin's goal, his ninth of the season, came on the power-play.

Dalhousie finished 1-for-6 with the man advantage while the Huskies converted on 2-of-4 power-play opportunities.

First-year forward Bradley Greene (Tilting, Nfld.), who picked up his first goal of the season late in the final period, said this game was exactly what the team needed. 

"It's huge to get this win. We hit a bit of a rough patch, so it's good to snap out of that, and start getting ready for playoffs," said Greene. 

Anthony Peters (Blyth, Ont.) was once again in net for the Huskies, making 23 saves for his league-leading 16th win. Dalhousie's Bobby Nadeau stopped 28-of-34 shots in the loss.

SMU's Lucas Bloodoff (Castlegear, B.C.) picked up an assist on the night and continues to lead the AUS scoring race with 20 goals and 16 assists for 36 points.

D'Orazio, the league's top scoring defenceman with 30 points in 26 games, is also tied for second in overall conference scoring with reigning CIS player of the year Andrew Clark.

Dalhousie (8-15-3) will host the StFX X-Men (14-10-2) Saturday evening at the Forum, while the Huskies (17-7-2) will travel to Wolfville to face the Acadia Axemen (16-8-2) in a battle for second place and a first round playoff bye.

Source: Saint Mary's Sports Information
Photo courtesy of Nick Pearce (www.123photo.ca)