The Saint Mary’s Huskies have taken a 2-1 series lead in their Atlantic university hockey semifinal, but just barely.

 

The Huskies built a two-goal advantage but then had to withstand an all-out attack by the Acadia Axemen in the final minutes of regulation before escaping with a 3-1 victory in Game 3 Monday night before 2,478 fans at the Halifax Forum.

 

SMU, with goals by Shawn O’Donnell and Cory Tanaka, held its 2-0 lead late into the third period. Then Huskies goalie Neil Conway took over. He stopped Acadia’s Tyler Whitehead on a breakaway with 2:33 left and denied Andrew Clark from in-close at the two-minute mark. But with 1:18 remaining and Acadia goalie Kris Westblom pulled for an extra attacker, Jonathan Laberge from the high slot beat Conway with a shot that deflected high over his glove hand.

 

Acadia pressed for the equalizer but Conway and his defenders were able to ride out the pressure. Colby Pridham sealed the victory with an empty-net goal with 10 seconds left on the clock.

 

"They had some good pressure," said Conway, in his first year at SMU. "Their goal went off someone’s foot and there was still plenty of time left. It was pretty hectic but the guys did a great job blocking shots and getting the puck out of the zone."

 

"If it wasn’t for Neil it could have easily been 4-2 for the other guys," added Tanaka, who scored the Huskies’ second goal 4:10 in to the third after taking a slick feed from Andrew White and beating Westblom top shelf.

 

"Those last few minutes were déjà vu of the Canada game yesterday. It was scary. But Neil came up real strong for us. Hopefully he can keep it going further into the playoffs."

 

The Huskies, the defending conference champions, can wrap up the best-of-five series Wednesday night at the Forum.

 

Game 5, if necessary, is Friday evening in Wolfville.

 

"Every game’s been by one or two goals so you can’t think they are down and out," Conway said. "It’s do-or-die for everyone. They need the win and we don’t want to go to back to Acadia.

 

"We have to take advantage of home ice and keep the same approach and the same attitude. If we play the same game as tonight and outwork them, then hopefully we will be successful."

 

The Huskies outshot the Axemen 43-25 in the game. But both teams were dismal with the man advantage. SMU was 0-for-5 on the power play. Acadia didn’t fare any better. The Axemen were scoreless on six chances.

 

"We need to bear down on our power play and get more shots," Laberge said. "We worked hard enough out there but it’s a matter of getting more pucks to the net. We were able to get the puck down low in their zone and cycle the puck but we need to get more shots on goal."

 

It’s hard to generate any offence when your team is missing two players from your top forward units. Acadia, already without the injured Chris Bruton, had to play all but the first five minutes of the game without winger Ryan Graham, who was handed a checking from behind penalty and game misconduct.

 

But the third-period pressure and scoring the late goal has Laberge feeling confident about his team’s chances.

 

"It’s always nice to get a goal at the end; it can carry us over into the next game," Laberge said. "We’re looking forward to Wednesday. We know we can beat them. I think we’ll be a lot better."

 

( gmacdonald@herald.ca)

 

This page last modified Sunday, 07-Nov-2010 16:43:23 AST