The Huskies are off to a 2-0 start after defeating the Regina Cougars 6-2 on Saturday in Regina. Photo courtesy Matt Smith/Electric Umbrella/Huskie Athletics

By Ryan Flaherty

home and home sweep

Dynamic debut by Bairos headlines Huskies win over Regina

Oct 5, 2024 | 10:56 PM

As first impressions go, they don’t get much better than the one made by Logan Bairos. The first-year defenceman netted a hat trick in his Huskies men’s hockey debut to help his team complete a home-and-home sweep of the Regina Cougars with a 6-2 victory on Saturday night in the Queen City.

After sitting out the Dogs’ season-opening 7-1 win at Merlis Belsher Place on Friday, Bairos wasted no time taking advantage of his first chance to play in a conference game, opening the scoring just 2:02 into the first period. After a puck battle in the corner of the Cougars zone, Chantz Petruic came up with the puck and found a wide open Bairos in the right faceoff circle and the rookie snapped it through Regina goalie Jackson Fellner for the early lead.

Little did he know, he was just getting started.

“Maybe in my dreams. I was just looking to get out there and try to make an impact any way that I could and it turned out pretty well,” Bairos said.

The Cougars tied the game with a power play goal by Carson Whyte just over three minutes later, but the Huskies pushed back in front soon after thanks to another newcomer. With Saskatchewan on the man advantage, Trevor Wong found himself all alone on the far side of the ice and Landon Kosior fed the former Saskatoon Blades star, who sniped a shot past Fellner to join Bairos in the first-goal club.

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Before the period was out, Bairos chimed in for his second, this time converting a pass from Josh Pillar to put the Huskies in front 3-1 after twenty minutes.

Saskatchewan continued to attack early in the second, and the night of firsts continued at the 4:05 mark as Trinity Western transfer Jarrett Penner filtered a puck through traffic past Fellner for his first goal as a Huskie. Then, just shy of the midway mark, Landon Kosior pushed the lead to 5-1 with his first of the season.

At that point, the only drama left was focused on Bairos, and with under five minutes remaining in the third period he blasted a power play goal from just inside the blue line to complete the hat trick in style.

“It felt really good. We’ve got a lot of good players on this team so they can make passes through sticks and into hard areas so I just tried to get into those scoring areas and my teammates found me,” he said.

With the Huskies making five lineup changes after Friday’s game, some due to injuries, head coach Brandin Cote was pleased to see his team keep clicking and the new faces contributing to the cause. He was less happy about some of what he saw from the Cougars once the Huskies had a big lead.

“We get up on teams and they try to take liberties and I thought that happened a little bit this weekend with these guys, so I’m a little bit disappointed in that but at the same time we’ve got lots of depth and extra bodies to be able to (manage) so hopefully we get a few guys back, but all the guys that were inserted tonight contributed,” he said.

Despite the lopsided score, the shots on goal were even at 26 apiece. The Huskies scored twice on four power play chances while the Cougars tallied once on five opportunities. Jordan Kooy earned the win making 24 saves in his first start of the season. Meanwhile Dawson Holt chipped in three assists, giving him a conference-best seven points two games into the season.

As good as the Huskies looked against a weaker Regina team, they know things will get much tougher as the season goes on. Right away in fact, as they get set to visit the Calgary Dinos next weekend.

“Our guys are ready. They’re chomping at the bit and we played some good teams in the preseason. We played Calgary and played them well, U of A we played well, so we’re confident and guys are rolling pretty good here but it’s going to be another level next weekend. We’ll be ready for it.”

For the next 24 hours or so, however, they’ll savour a season opening sweep of their provincial rivals, and Logan Bairos will savour his memorable opening night. As for the milestone pucks?

“My parents have a little mantel that they’ll probably want to put them on.”

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Twitter/X: @RFlahertypxp