Electric Umbrella/Huskie Athletics

By Wray Morrison

Listen: Coach's Show with Brandin Cote

Bears and Huskies meet in biggest series of the season

Jan 23, 2025 | 9:47 AM

There are facts and there is reality. The fact is the Huskie men’s hockey team trails the Alberta Golden Bears by four points for top spot in the Canada West east division with two games in hand. Saskatchewan has eight regular season games remaining, while the Bears have six. The reality of the situation is the Huskies will need to sweep Friday and Saturday games against the U of A to have a shot at top spot in the division.

Saskatchewan is 1 and 3 against the Golden Bears this season. All four meetings were at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton. The Huskies’ current seven-game win streak started with a November 23^rd, 5-3 win, over Alberta. The Bears have won six of their last seven games.

A quick glance at a handful of statistics illustrates how talented these teams are and how close this series may be. The Bears are averaging 4.8 goals per game, while the Huskies are at 4.77. Saskatchewan has allowed an average of 2.2 goals per game, while Alberta comes in at 2.45.

The top three goalies in Canada West hockey play for these two teams. Huskie 4^th-year goaltender has the best goals against average in the league at 1.89. Tyler Palmer of the Bears is second at 1.93. Roddy Ross of the U of S is next at 2.17. Aidan de la Gorgendiere and Sean Tschigerl are 2^nd and 3^rd in league scoring. De la Gorgendiere leads the league in goals and Tschigerl in assists. Dawson Holt of the Huskies is fourth in league scoring with 29 points in 19 games.

Where the Huskies have a decided edge is on special teams. The U of S power play is running at 36.5% compared to the Bears at 24.1%. Chantz Petruic of the Huskies has scored 7 of the teams’ 31 goals on the man advantage. Saskatchewan also has the league’s best penalty kill at 88%. Discipline will be a key factor in this two-game affair.

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Friday night’s game starts at 7:00 PM at Merlis Belsher Place, Saturday afternoon’s contest starts at 5:00 PM. Both games can be heard on the free HuskieFAN app.

Huskie head coach Brandin Cote chatted with HuskieFAN’s Wray Morrison on The Coach’s Show about last weekend’s 7-2 and 5-0 wins over Manitoba and about the upcoming series against the U of A.

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wray.morrison@pattisonmedia.com

X: @wraymorrison