Saint Mary's, Windsor advance to semifinals of U Sports men's hockey championship

Ethan Ritchie scored in overtime as the Saint Mary's Huskies edged the Saskatchewan Huskies 4-3 on Thursday in the quarterfinals of the U Sports men's hockey championship in Halifax.

Reid Valade, Ben Allison and Jake Uberti helped Saint Mary's build a 3-0 lead with Ryan Hopkins assisting on all three of their goals.

Conner Roulette scored twice for Saskatchewan and Liam Keeler had a power-play goal with 2:20 left in the third period to force extra time.

In Thursday's other quarterfinal, Alex Cunningham had a pair of goals to lead the Windsor Lancers past the Mount Royal Cougars 4-3.

Saint Mary's will face Windsor in a semifinal on Saturday.

The Guelph Gryphons took Highway 7 bragging rights and a berth in the national semifinals, as they shut out the host Waterloo Warriors 2-0 in the quarterfinals of the women's tournament.

Martina Fedel, the returned Italian Olympian, turned aside all 26 shots she faced to lead the Gryphons to the national semifinals for the first time since 2019. 

Earlier in the day, the No. 2 seed Concordia Stingers defeated the No. 7 Manitoba Bisons 3-1 as they qualified for the national semifinals for the fifth straight season.