Photo courtesy Electric Umbrella/Huskie Athletics

By Ryan Flaherty

streak snapped

Shorthanded Huskies fall to Cougars in Regina

Jan 12, 2025 | 12:03 AM

The absence of several key veterans was too much to overcome for the Huskies women’s hockey team on Saturday night as they suffered a 4-1 loss to the Regina Cougars at Co-Operators Arena, settling for a split of their home-and-home series.

A combination of injuries and illness meant the Dogs had only 17 healthy skaters available for their rematch with Regina following Friday’s 3-1 win in Saskatoon. The list of players missing in action included fourth-year Huskies Sara Kendall and Paris Oleksyn, third-years Taylor Wilkinson and Jessica Patterson and second-year Kahlen Wisener, all forwards. That meant icing a lineup with 11 players up front, throwing head coach Steve Kook’s line combinations into a blender.

“It took them a period to get any sort of connection out there. You literally had players playing with people they had not played with this year. It’s no excuse, you’re still a U SPORTS player, you’re expected to play and we did that. But in the first period, we were just off. Passes weren’t there, connections weren’t there,” Kook said. “We’ve got four top-six players and one of our best penalty killers out of the lineup and it makes a difference.”

The Cougars took advantage of their shorthanded opponent, opening the scoring just after the expiration of their first power play as Trinity Grove slipped a rebound past Huskies netminder Colby Wilson. It was the only goal of the opening frame, in which Regina outshot Saskatchewan 11-7.

The Cougars doubled their lead in similar fashion midway through the second. Ten seconds after another unsuccessful power play, with Regina still on the attack, Megan Long deflected a point shot home for her fourth goal of the season. However, the Huskies would reply less than a minute later with a trio of rookies providing the spark. Jaiyana Nurani started the play in the defensive zone with a backhand bank pass to twin sister Kaysah, creating a two-on-one with Avery Gottselig, whose shot was stopped by Natalie Williamson but the rebound caromed off a Cougars skate and into the net to pull the Dogs back within one.

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“Our best players tonight were our young kids, just because they don’t know any better. They’re asked to go out and compete and that’s what they did tonight,” Kook said. “I didn’t let our senior players off the hook because in a game like this, this is when we need them to lead the way and take command. I didn’t think we did that enough.”

Gottselig’s second goal in as many games gave the Huskies life, but the wind came out of the balloon in the final minute of the frame. Long scored her second of the game on a Cougars power play with 49 seconds remaining and then just 32 seconds later after the Dogs failed to clear their zone, Shaylee Scraba made them pay with her third goal of the season, and just like that it was 4-1.

While the Huskies brought their game up a level in the third period, it wasn’t enough to change the outcome.

The loss brings an abrupt halt to Saskatchewan’s three-game win streak and puts a dent in their already slim hopes of making the playoffs. The Huskies now trail both the Cougars and Manitoba Bisons by 12 points in the race for the final East Division playoff spot.

All the Dogs can do now is regroup and focus on their next challenge as they get set to visit the Bisons next weekend in their first of two trips to Winnipeg over the final five weeks of the regular season.

“We can only control what we do and if we can roll on the teams in our division, we’ll see where we end up,” Kook said.

The Huskies and Bisons open their weekend series on Friday at 7 p.m. in Winnipeg, with the rematch set for 4 p.m. the following day. Both games can be heard on the free HuskieFAN app.

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