In 10-second intervals, the dreams for a PAC-8 title shot slipped away for
the University of Washington Husky Hockey team. With 49.6 seconds
remaining in the game, the Dawgs pulled goaltender Matt Harrow in an
attempt to close the two goal lead that the Cal-Berkley Bears had
enjoyed the entire third period. However, even with the extra skater, the
Huskies couldn’t push one past Cal. With Harrow missing in net the
Dawgs allowed an empty net goal and lost, 4-1.

With Harrow gone for the remaining seconds, the Huskies piled the
offensive pressure on Cal goalie Brad Buss. Buss bended, but did not
break has he was able to freeze every Husky shot taken at his end of the
ice and shut down the Dawgs. Husky shooters could only watch 10
seconds chip off the clock, as every time they won possession and put a
shot on net, the puck would end in Buss’ glove.

“We didn’t capitalize on scoring opportunities,” said Washington head
coach Cindy Dayley after the loss. Washington skaters crashed the net,
had odd man rushes, and had Buss out of position at times but couldn’t
light the lamp.

The Huskies drew first blood in this semi-final game as Shayne Sasseen
and the rest of the Dawgs capitalized on a power play. Sasseen’s shot
from the blue line slipped under Buss’ glove and through the five-hole, as
TJ Anderson provided the screen that caused the seeing-eye goal to get
past the Cal goaltender in the first period.

This would be the only time the Huskies would convert on the power play.
The Dawgs would have other power play opportunities throughout the
game, including one with two minutes left in the game but couldn’t
convert.

Harrow would keep the Huskies in the game for as long as he could. The
Sophomore tender would stone several Cal odd man rushes and
breakaways with solid kick saves and a sure glove. However, goaltending
alone wasn’t enough to win the game.

The Cal Bears would slowly nickel and dime the shots in on Harrow, and it
eventually began to wear on him and the rest of the Husky crew. Cal
would turn up the heat on the Huskies in the second and put up two quick
goals in the last five minutes of the period, as the Huskies made
positional errors. Jason Katzen would score as he was able to convert on
an opportunity where Harrow was down on the ice. He lifted the puck
enough to get it past a sprawled out Harrow to tie the game.

Three minutes later, Chris Moulton would stun the Husky skaters and the
crowd as he would wrist in the game winner with 2:36 remaining. The
quick Sean Hag would add the assist, and sink the Huskies title hopes.

“We had a meltdown in the second,” said Dayley.

The meltdown continued into the third as Cal would add another goal to
go up by two. The Huskies would turn it on from here on out, but it was
too little too late as Buss continued to be red hot.

With Call’s victory, they move on to play USC Saturday at 7:15pm in the
PAC-8 Championship, who defeated Washington State 10-3 earlier in the
evening.

The Huskies will play for third place against the Cougars today at 4:45 pm
at OlympicView Arena in Mountlake Terrace.