The Haliburton County Huskies extended its winless streak to four games this past weekend, dropping back-to-back decisions to the Trenton Golden Hawks and St. Michael’s Buzzers.
The blue and white had a tough night Sept. 19, losing 6-1 to the reigning Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) champions on the road in Trenton before giving up a 3-0 lead on home ice Sept. 20, en route to a 5-4 overtime defeat against St. Mike’s.
The results leave the Huskies in ninth place in the OJHL East Conference, though head coach Jordan Bailey said it’s too early for fans, or the team, to panic – noting he saw lots of positives across the two games.
The team has also had to contend with several untimely injuries, with five players absent over the weekend. Y R I
“It’s been a tough stretch – we played the last game with 11 forwards and five defensemen, so we’ve kind of caught the injury bug. But there have been positive spells in every game, things have flipped on one mistake and [snowballed from] there. But we’d rather have this adversity six games in, rather than going into the playoffs,” Bailey said.
“We like our group, we feel there’s enough here to work with. Now it’s about executing and starting to get a few wins,” the head coach added.
Trenton 6-1 Huskies
The Huskies went into the lion’s den on Friday and were mauled in the opening frame, with Trenton racing out to a 3-0 lead courtesy of an early Taeo Artichuk goal and Jack Ziliotto brace.
Goaltender Stephen Toltl had a busy first period, making 10 saves to give the Huskies a glimmer of hope heading into the second.
That hope was all but extinguished 2:49 in, with Jamie Darlison converting on the powerplay after Kaiden Thatcher took a two-minute slashing minor.
The Huskies grew into the game as the period went on and got themselves on the board at 7:07, with 16-year-old forward Julius Da Silva helping himself to his first goal of the season, assisted by Ryan Gosse. That was as good as it got for the hometown team, who gave away two more goals in the third. S B
“It was a tough start for the team – I felt like we didn’t execute in the first period and started really slowly against a very good Trenton team. Anytime you get behind the eight ball against them, it’s going to be tough to claw your way back into the game,” Bailey said.
He was pleased with the team’s response in the second, where the Huskies outshot Trenton 13-10.
“That was a good push back and shows that we can compete with these top teams,” he said.
Huskies 4-5 St. Mike’s
There was a sense of déjà vu on Saturday as the Huskies struggles to stay out of the penalty box, giving up four powerplay goals to the Buzzers – including the gamewinner deep into double overtime.
The home side enjoyed a perfect start to the game, finding themselves 3-0 up midway through the second thanks to a Kieran Raynor goal and Ryan Gosse pair. But an Ivan Mentiukov slashing penalty changed the game, with St. Mike’s converting on the man advantage. It was a similar story two minutes later, with the Buzzers making it a onegoal game seconds after Luis Sturgeon took a holding minor.
Alex Rossi converted on the Huskies third powerplay opportunity with just seven seconds remaining in the second, assisted by Carter Petrie and Jacob Smith, giving the home side something to hang on to going into the final frame.
Caiden Clair made things close again, beating Toltl 3:26 into the third before Lucas Lagoutte netted on another powerplay opportunity at 8:02. Clair secured the win for St. Mike’s 2:22 into the second overtime period, once again on the man advantage after Connor Hollebek was called for tripping.
“That just can’t happen – we’ve talked about it a lot in the room over the past week. That’s a major issue we need to clean up as a team,” Bailey said. “That was a game we had control of, and we let it slip away.”
The Huskies have a chance to get back on track this Saturday when they host the Caledon Admirals. Puck drop is 4 p.m.
“That’s a game where you can change the momentum of a team. Caledon is a team that’s playing very well, so it’ll be a good test – hopefully we can get some good support from the fans and get a win,” Bailey said.
