SASKATOON – The Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team’s season came to a heart-breaking end early Monday morning as they lost to the Manitoba Bisons. It was the longest ever Canada West conference hockey game at 139 minutes and two seconds.
On Friday, the Huskies won 3-0 but the Bisons forced game three with a 5-1 victory on Saturday.
The quarter-final game started around 7 p.m. CT on Sunday and ended at 12:01 a.m. Monday morning at Saskatoon’s Rutherford Rink with around 220 fans in attendance.
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Alanna Sharman scored right off the bat for the Bisons, while Lauren Zary tied up the game for the Huskies in the third period.
The teams went scoreless in the first overtime period, which only lasted 10 minutes, and continued to battle for the next three overtime periods with each going the full 20 minutes.
Venla Hovi scored 9:02 into the fifth overtime period to give Manitoba a 2-1 victory over Saskatchewan.
Bisons goalie Amanda Schubert made 66 saves and Cassidy Hendricks stopped 40 shots for the Huskies.
The win gives the Bisons a 2-1 quarter-final series win and they advance to a Canada West semi-final against the University of Alberta Pandas.
The marathon game broke the previous record for longest Canada West game set by the Huskies in Saskatoon. The game was against the Regina Cougars who won 12:30 into the fourth overtime in game two of the 2013-14 Canada West final.
The longest Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) hockey game, men’s or women’s, was between the Guelph Gryphons and the Queen’s Gaels in March 2011. It lasted 167 minutes and 14 seconds for the women’s teams.