The hometown Huskies’ Izayah Luddington scored his third goal of the season Dec. 9 to secure a blue and white 3-2 win over the Pickering Panthers.
The assists on the game-winning goal went to a red-hot Patrick Saini, his 27th helper of the season, and Lucas Stevenson, with his 14th dish.
Saini was named Warrior East Conference player of the month for November, after he led the entire 24-team league with 22 points in 10 games.
“Those are cool awards to win. You never really see them coming but when you get them, it’s cool,” Saini said Dec. 11.
It was the captain who opened the scoring in this game at the S.G. Nesbitt Memorial Arena, potting one home at 9:05 from Stevenson.
In the second frame, Ty Petrou notched his eighth on the year, from Saini and Luddington.
While the Huskies looked to have this game in hand, the Panthers had other ideas. Joey Zhang scored at 9:32 of the second. Then, Joey Crngarov scored at 7:36 of the third to notch it at twos, before Luddington broke the tie and sent the Huskies to a record of 17 wins, 13 losses and two ties for 36 points, and seventh in the East Conference. It marked the Huskies fifth straight win.
Brett Fullerton was between the pipes, stopping 27 of 29 shots.
It was another three-point night for Saini, who now has 22 goals, and 27 assists, for 49 points on the season.
He felt the whole team “was going” and played with “excitement” Saturday afternoon. “It was a big game. We’re trying to climb the standings. We’re been playing really good. I think everybody was really working and motivated to get that win. Now we’re starting to look forward to this weekend as well, going into Christmas.”
Saini said coming back after giving up the two-goal lead – including the Panthers second on a bounce – was huge. “It shows how much we’ve grown as a group because those goals can be back-breakers and send you into a bit of a spiral. I think it brought us closer together and we made sure we were able to score not too long after and hold onto the lead.”
Saini said they are “not out of the race by any means. It’s such a close race that if you keep going on this tear, you might be able to jump up quite a few spots. I think we’re really starting to come together as a team. All the boys are close. We had a lot of younger guys at the start of the year. It was a whole new level for them. I think they’re really starting to figure out how they need to play in their role, the speed, and it’s starting to show on the ice for us.”
The Huskies are at home Dec. 16 to the North York Rangers. Puck drop is 4 p.m. The squad then travels to Markham Dec. 17 for a 1:30 p.m. tilt before heading into their Christmas break. After Christmas, they are home Dec. 29 to the Toronto Patriots at 7 p.m., and then Dec. 31 to the Wellington Dukes at 2 p.m.
