Justin Ball notched his first U SPORTS hat trick in a 9-0 win over Regina on January 7. Photo: Electric Umbrella/Liam Richards

By Ryan Flaherty

Total team win

Huskies sweep Cougars with blowout win

Jan 7, 2024 | 10:22 PM

There are blowouts, and then there are blowouts.

The Huskies men’s hockey team blew the doors off the Brandt Centre in Regina on Sunday, blasting the Regina Cougars 9-0 to complete a sweep of their four-game season series and move into a tie with the Mount Royal Cougars for 4th place in the Canada West standings.

Justin Ball recorded his first career U SPORTS hat trick to lead the onslaught, Liam Keeler scored his first two goals of the season, while Dawson Holt and Vince Loschiavo notched three assists each on a night when everything seemed to go right for the Huskies, and wrong for the Cougars.

“Last night there was still a little bit of rust. We just wanted to take it to another level and we did tonight,” head coach Brandin Cote said. “Everything was clicking, we were able to roll the lines, we didn’t have to extend anyone, so I think all those things are positive moving forward into next weekend.”

After beating the Cougars 5-4 at home a night earlier in a game that could have been more lopsided in their favour, the Huskies erased all doubt about the final result before the end of the second period with three goals in the final five minutes of the frame to turn a 3-0 lead into a 6-0 laugher.

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The Dogs dominated all facets of Sunday’s rematch, scoring twice on the power play and twice while shorthanded on top of their five even-strength goals. The two shorties, from Ball and Keeler late in the second, were daggers.

Ball’s hat trick came back in 2019 as a member of the Melfort Mustangs during a season in which he was named most valuable player in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.

“Playing with these guys for so long, sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t, but we’re all good friends off the ice so that just translates on the ice, I think.,” Ball said.

Not to be overlooked amidst all the offensive fireworks was a steady performance by goaltender Jordan Kooy, who made 21 saves to earn his first career U SPORTS shutout. Most notable among those was a highlight-reel glove stop on Jordan Borysiuk in the first period when the game was still close.

Saskatchewan also got goals from Cade Hayes, Carter Stebbings, Chantz Petruic and Mark Rumsey in the win, which pushes their record to 13-5 on the season. The loss drops Regina to 4-14-2.

The Huskies are now 10-0 vs the bottom four teams in the conference standings, and Cote says those are the games they need to win in order to keep pace with the other top contenders.

“We just have to have them. We can’t have any blips on the radar with that. The guys have really taken that to heart,” Cote said. “We set ourselves up pretty good because those other (top) teams have to go head-to-head too. It’s going to go right down to the wire. It’s so tighly contested and I think it’s exciting.”

Sunday’s game was the first of a rare five straight road contests for the Huskies, who will travel to B.C. next weekend to face the Trinity Western Spartans, another member of the bottom four group. Friday’s game is scheduled for 9 p.m. PST (7 p.m. in Saskatchewan) and can be heard on HuskieFAN.

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