Courtesy: Rachel Albertson/Huskie Athletics

By Wray Morrison

Back in action on January 10th

Entering 2025 on a high note

Nov 30, 2024 | 11:18 PM

It’s been an impressive first half of the season for the Huskie men’s hockey team. The U of S enters the 2025 portion of their schedule with a 12 and 4 record following a huge 10-2 win over the MacEwan Griffins on Saturday night at Merlis Belsher Place. 3^rd-year forward Liam Keeler had two goals and two assists while 2^nd-year Huskie Ben Tkachuk had two goals and one assist. Goaltender Roddy Ross made 23 saves for his fifth win of the season in eight starts.

Ross and U of S teammate Jordan Kooy have the two best save percentages in Canada West men’s hockey entering the holiday break. First-year goaltender Ethan Chadwick, who won in his lone appearance of the season, rounds out the Saskatchewan’s goaltender trio. “It’s great”, said Ross. “It’s good to have ‘Kooysy’ and ‘Chaddy’. Those are two guys I can trust no matter what night it is.”

When the Huskies return to action on January 10^th, in Regina, the team will be right on the heels of the Canada West east division leaders, the Alberta Golden Bears. The U of A enters the break with a record of 13 and 3 and 26 points while the Huskies have 24. “We are right where we want to be”, said head coach Brandin Cote. “We can’t control what everyone else is doing but for the most part we have taken care of what we need to take care of.”

Saskatchewan does have some injuries to contend with. The team’s scoring leader, Dawson Holt, suffered what Cote described as an ‘upper body ailment’ on Friday night. Kooy, who has the best goals-against-average in the conference suffered an ‘inopportune mishap away from the rink with a kitchen knife on his finger’ last week.

While some teams may be welcoming a break to get some healthy bodies back into the line-up, 41 days is a little too much according to Cote. “It’s too long in my opinion, but that’s just the way it is with college sports.” The Huskies will have 12 games remaining on the schedule before the playoffs. “We have to handle this break the right way in terms of staying committed to our conditioning”, Cote added.

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Ross agreed with his head coach. “It’s always too bad when the break comes. It’s a long time. It’s different than the WHL days, but when you’ve been doing it for your whole life you learn to stay engaged.” He says being part of a tight-knit team makes a difference. “We are all close. We know almost everything about each other. You’ve got brothers in here.”

The Huskies are in Regina on January 10^th, before hosting the Cougars on January 11^th at 7:00 PM at Merlis Belsher Place. Both games can be heard on the free HuskieFAN app.

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wray.morrison@pattisonmedia.com

X: @wraymorrison