The Haliburton County Huskies played their last regular season game of the year at S.G. Nesbitt Memorial Arena Feb. 26 [the result against the North York Rangers was not known as of press time] and will finish their season with road tilts Feb. 28, against the Trenton Golden Hawks, and March 1, versus the Toronto Patriots.
Sitting on 79 points in the competitive east conference, good for third place behind the Golden Hawks (95 points) and Toronto Jr. Canadiens (85 points), the three games will determine who the blue and white will square off against in the first round of the playoffs – slated to run March 7-20.
The Huskies have continued their hot hand, winning eight of their last 10 games – including weekend wins over the Markham Royals and Stouffville Spirit to put them on a five-game win streak.
Huskies 5 Royals 1
This past Saturday, Ty Petrou scored a natural hat-trick in just eight minutes of the first period to propel his team to a 5-1 victory over Markham.
His first came at 10:44 on the powerplay, his 24th of the season, from Nathan Poole, with his 50th helper, and Cameron Hankai (assist number 37). At 16:34, the scoresheet was repeated, with another powerplay marker from Petrou (number 25 on the season), from Poole (51) and Hankai (38). Petrou completed the sweep at 18:29, his 26th goal, from Poole (52) and Chase Del Colombo (8).
Coach Ryan Ramsay said he had never experienced a natural hat-trick in such a short time frame of a game. “There’s always a first for something. It was great for him, and his confidence. He has a great shot. We want him to shoot more, so it just shows.”
He noted it was a four-assist night for Poole, who would not have been far off Patrick Saini’s point total record, set last year (94), if not for missed games due to injury. Poole is fourth in league scoring.
The Royals solved Tyler Hodges for the only time in the game at six seconds of the second period. However, Raine Nadeau notched his first at 1:49, from Kieran Litterick (6) and De Jesus (24). Then, De Jesus tallied his 27th, from Hankai (39) and Poole (53) to seal the deal.
There was no scoring in the third as Hodges recorded the 5-1 win, turning aside 24 of 25 shots.
Huskies 4 Spirit 3
Sunday was a closer affair with Haliburton and Stouffville trading goals early on.
De Jesus put the Huskies up 1-0 at 4:53 of the first, his 28th, from Litterick (7) and Oliver Tang, with his first assist. At 11:05, the Spirit answered back.
Petrou opened the scoring in the second frame, his 27th, from Poole (54) and Del Colombo (9), but the Spirit tied it.
Stouffville took the lead early in the third, but the Huskies answered back with two of their own: Del Colombo (5), from Poole (55) and Kaiden Thatcher (15) and then Stefan Forgione fired in the game-winner, his fifth, at 11:48, from Noah Lodoen (16) and Litterick (8). Stephen Toltl turned aside 28 of 31 shots for the win.
Playoffs
In readiness for the playoffs, Ramsay was expecting to sit some of his top players for this weekend’s road games. “Don’t want them to get hurt,” he said.
On a five-game win streak, and winning eight of 10, Ramsay said confidence is high going to home ice advantage.
“We played Stouffville Feb. 23. They should be coming in fourth, one place behind us. We had four of our top nine forwards out and a top defenseman and we beat them. And they needed to win. So, it just shows the depth that we have.”
It’s the best regular season the Huskies have had since moving to the County for the 2021-22 season. They are up to 39 wins, with more expected in the last three games of the season. They recorded 36 victories in 2022-23.
