Inducted in 2025 Category: Team
The 2009-10 Saint Mary's Men's Hockey team will go down as one of the greatest teams in Huskies history, reaching the pinnacle of Canadian University men's hockey and capturing the 2010 University Cup.
Coming off a 2008-09 season where they won the AUS Championship but had a disappointing showing at Nationals, bowing out in the round robin games, the Huskies went into the 2009-10 season with one shared goal – winning the University Cup.
It was a storybook season for the Huskies – despite a slow start to the campaign, they finished strong with a 16-8-4 regular season record, heading into the AUS Playoffs as the #3 seed.
In the AUS quarterfinals, the Huskies swept the #6 seed Moncton Aigles Bleus in two games. In the AUS semifinal, the Huskies dropped game one to the #2 seed Acadia Axemen by a score of 2-1, but then outscored the Axemen 16-5 over the next three games to advance to the AUS finals. The Huskies hot play continued into the AUS finals, as they faced the #5 seed STFX X-Men and swept them in three games by a combined score of 15-6, winning their second straight AUS Championship, and 13th in program history.
The Huskies went on to the 2010 CIS U Cup, being hosted by the Lakehead Thunderwolves at Fort Williams Gardens Rink in Thunder Bay, ON.
Once again, the #3 seed, the Huskies defeated the McGill Redmen 4-2, and the Manitoba Bisons 5-0, to win Pool B and advance to the Championship final against the #1 seed Alberta Golden Bears.
The perennial powerhouse Golden Bears came into the Championship game with a 27-5-1 overall record, and were looking for their record 14th National Championship, while the Huskies were seeking the first title in school history.
The Golden Bears took an early 1-0 lead, before the Huskies scored twice in the second period to take control. With under five minutes remaining in regulation, the Golden Bears equalized, setting up a dramatic overtime finish. Just over nine minutes into overtime, the rebound of a saved shot ended up on the stick of Huskies first year forward Brad Smith, and he tucked it into goal to secure the Huskies first ever National Championship win.
Huskies defenceman Andrew Hotham, was selected as the Major W.J. 'Danny' McLeod Award for CIS University Cup MVP. Hotham named Player of the Game in the Huskies second game versus Manitoba and had the team's second goal in the championship final, finishing the tournament with five points (two goals and three assists) tying him for the tournament lead with teammate Cody Thornton, who was also named to the tournament all-star team, along with Huskies goaltender Neil Conway and forward Cam Fergus.
Between the AUS regular season, playoffs and U Cup, the Huskies won 15 of their final 16 games of the campaign, proving their resilience and redeeming their disappointing finish to the 2009 season. The pride of Saint Mary's brought the University Cup home to Halifax and set the gold standard that is still pursued by the Huskies men's hockey program to this day.
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