(Ryan Flaherty/HuskieFAN)

By Ryan Flaherty

Huskies men swept for first time this season

Huskies swept by Cougars

Nov 20, 2022 | 9:56 AM

The Huskies men’s hockey team is looking forward to some much-needed time at home after being swept for the first time this season thanks to a 6-0 loss against the Mount Royal Cougars in Calgary.

The Dogs have played nine of their first 13 games on the road and all the travel caught up with them on Saturday. With four players still sidelined due to injury or illness, and others still feeling the effects of the bug that swept through the locker room this week, the team clearly wasn’t at its best in the weekend series finale.

“Couldn’t get anything going, our legs weren’t there. Part of that is guys were under the weather for sure and guys played a lot last night so that all goes into it but I would have liked a little bit more of a push back after we got down,” head coach Brandin Cote said.

The struggles began right from the opening faceoff, with Spencer Moe opening the scoring for Mount Royal just 17 seconds into the game. The Cougars added another at the 4:03 mark and even though the game was still young, it already felt like a huge mountain to climb for the Huskies.

Things went from bad to worse in the second period as Saskatchewan got into major penalty trouble. The Huskies were whistled for 42 minutes in penalties in the frame, including three 10-minute misconducts, while the Cougars were assessed just a single minor. MRU scored two power play goals – one on a five-on-three advantage – and three times overall to take a 5-0 lead into the second intermission.

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“I didn’t like any of them but some of them, I didn’t like because I didn’t think they needed to be called on both sides, and there was others that I thought that we deserved that we shouldn’t have taken. I think frustration set in a little bit and we’ll definitely address that because overall this year we’ve been fairly disciplined,” Cote said.

One night after keeping the conference’s co-leading scorers, Nolan Yaremko and Riley Sawchuk, off the scoresheet, the Huskies weren’t able to repeat the feat. The Cougars duo combined for seven points on the night, with Sawchuk notching two goals and two assists to lead the way.

It was just one of those nights.

The good news for Saskatchewan is they don’t have another road trip until the new year. Heading into the semester break, the Huskies will play five straight games at home, where they are 3-0-1 this season.

“It’ll be really good to be back at home but at the same time there’s no givens,” Cote said. “We just have to reset a bit here and we still have an opportunity to finish up the first half on a high note at home and I know that we will. We’ve got a lot of character in the room.”

The Huskies will be back in action on Friday when they open a weekend series with the Manitoba Bisons. Game time from Merlis Belsher Place is 7 p.m.

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