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Sumarah backstops Huskies to 3-2 win over Panthers
Posted: Feb 05, 2025

Sumarah backstops Huskies to 3-2 win over Panthers

Tickets Photos Results Box Score
Scoring Summary
1st - 02:32 - PP - Nathan Dunkley (Saint Mary's)
1st - 06:30 - Derek Gentile (Saint Mary's)
1st - 10:45 - Ben McFarlane (UPEI)
2nd - 06:19 - Bradey Johnson (Saint Mary's)
3rd - 18:50 - Kaleb Pearson (UPEI)
Game Leaders
UPEI
G: 2 Players (#11, #15) - 1
A: 4 Players (#7, #13, #23, #53) - 1
Sh: 2 Players (#74, #89) - 5
Sv: Jakob Robillard - 20
Saint Mary's
G: 3 Players (#9, #77, #86) - 1
A: Reid Valade - 2
Sh: 3 Players (#9, #15, #86) - 3
Sv: Justin Sumarah - 34
Team Stats
Full stats

HALIFAX, NS – Saint Mary's goaltender Justin Sumarah stopped 34 shots, leading the Huskies to a 3-2 win over the UPEI Panthers in Atlantic University Sport men's hockey action on Wednesday night at the Dauphinee Centre.

Just two minutes into the first period, the Panthers took a penalty and Saint Mary's took advantage on the powerplay, as forward Reid Valade (Caledon, ON) won the puck in the Panthers zone and played a pass to Nathan Dunkley (Campbellford, ON) who fired a low shot that caught Panthers goaltender Jakob Robillard (Rockland, ON) by surprise, giving the Huskies a 1-0 lead, 2:32 into the first period.

Several minutes later, the Huskies doubled their lead on a pretty tic-tac-toe passing play, as Ben Allison (Halifax, NS) crossed the blue line and played a perfect pass onto the stick of Derek Gentile (Sydney, NS), who dropped the puck to Valade, who then played it back to Gentile for a perfect give-and-go goal. Gentile's 17th goal of the campaign gave the Huskies a 2-0 lead, 6:30 into the first period.

The Panthers cut into that lead several minutes later, as defenceman Leon Denny (Eskasoni, NS) fired a point shot that was stopped by Huskies netminder Justin Sumarah (Halifax, NS), but Ben McFarlane (Ayr, ON) jumped on the rebound for the goal, cutting the Huskies lead to 2-1, 10:45 into the period.

The Panthers outshot the Huskies 15-7 through the opening 20 minutes, but Saint Mary's took a 2-1 lead into first intermission.

Saint Mary's added to the lead midway through the second period, capitalizing on a miscue by Robillard, who was attempting to play the puck behind the Panthers goal but was dispossessed by Huskies forward Jake Uberti (Toronto, ON) who shovelled a pass to Bradey Johnson (Lindsay, ON) who made no mistake, giving the Huskies a 3-1 lead, 6:19 into the second period.

The Huskies took a 3-1 lead into second intermission, despite the Panthers once again outshooting them 11-8 in the second period.

The Panthers pushed to cut into the Huskies lead throughout the third period, but Justin Sumarah made several quality saves. With just over a minute remaining, the Panthers pulled their goalie for an extra attacker and took advantage, as forward Elias Cohen (Toronto, ON) made a cross-ice pass to Kaleb Pearson (St. Mary's, ON) who sniped a quick release one-timer past Sumarah to cut the lead to 3-2 with 1:10 remaining in regulation.

But the Huskies were able to kill of the final minute of regulation, and secure the 3-2 victory.

The Panthers outshot the Huskies 36-23 on the night, with Justin Sumarah stopping 34 shots for the win, while Jakob Robillard made 20 saves in defeat.

The Huskies win improves their record to 15-10-2-0 on the season, good for third place in the conference standings. Saint Mary's will hit the road on Friday, Feb. 7, visiting the Acadia Axemen (11-13-1-1) at 7 p.m. in Wolfville, NS.

The Panthers loss drops their record to 9-17-0-1 on the campaign. UPEI will be back on home ice on Saturday, Feb. 8, as they host the Acadia Axemen at 7 p.m.

Recap by Allan April / Saint Mary's Huskies Athletics
Photos by Mona Ghiz / Saint Mary's Huskies Athletics