The Huskies defeated the Regina Cougars 4-0 on Feb. 1 to claim their ninth straight road win over their provincial rivals. (Image Credit: Rachel Albertson/Huskie Athletics)
split secured

Huskies get back to business with shutout win over Cougars

Feb 1, 2026 | 11:49 PM

It took an extra day but the wait was worth it as the Huskies men’s hockey team rebounded from a frustrating loss to blank the Regina Cougars 4-0 in the final meeting between the provincial rivals this season.

The Dogs struck twice on the power play and Dawson Holt tallied three assists in the rare Sunday night affair, which was played 24 hours later than originally scheduled after poor highway conditions forced it to be postponed.

The Huskies were all business following a 5-4 setback to the last-place Cougars on home ice two nights prior.

“The most important part was the way that we responded and I thought that to a man, it wasn’t pretty at times, but we just played a good, hard, solid road game and stuck with it,” head coach Brandin Cote said.

“As a group, we just talked about down the stretch these last five games here, having a playoff mentality and I thought we did a really good job of that today.”

After a scoreless opening period, Chase Bertholet broke the ice with his ninth goal of the season just over five minutes into the second, taking a drop pass from Cade Hayes and beating Cougars netminder Damon Cunningham on the blocker side.

Less than two minutes later, after Regina’s Eric Pearce was whistled for roughing, Liam Keeler tipped a point shot through Cunningham’s legs for his eighth of the year and third on the power play.

Later in the frame, after Holt was denied on an odd-man rush, Carter Stebbings got two cracks from in front of the net and buried the second opportunity for his 12th of the season, giving the Huskies a 3-0 lead after 40 minutes of play.

Conner Roulette completed the scoring in the third, going bar down for his 13th of the season on another USask man advantage. The goal brings Roulette’s point total to 31, six ahead of the next closest freshman in the Canada West rookie scoring race.

Meanwhile at the other end of the ice, Bryan Thomson made 28 saves to earn his second shutout of the season in his first start since January 9.

Overall, the Dogs were pleased with the bounce back effort, which started even before the team bus left Saskatoon with a players-only meeting at their home rink.

“It was a lot around where we’re at standings-wise, knowing what we need to do and getting into that playoff mindset. These points are so important coming down the stretch so just re-emphasizing that and highlighting what we need to do from guy to guy to make a big run in the playoffs,” Holt explained.

“Obviously we didn’t get the result we wanted on Friday so just being able to come here this evening and get a win is huge.”

With the win, the Huskies leapfrogged the Calgary Dinos into second place in the Canada West’s East Division with a record of 17-5-2, two points behind the Mount Royal Cougars and one ahead of Calgary, who they will host next Friday and Saturday at Merlis Belsher Place. Mount Royal will be idle next weekend before entertaining Saskatchewan to close out the regular season.

“We’ve just gotta take it one game at a time, it’s kind of the old adage. The two teams we’re fighting for first place, we play them, so you don’t have to do a lot of math to figure out how that all goes down. We’ve just gotta try to win as many as we can here,” Cote said.

The Huskies and Dinos open their two-game set at 7 p.m. on Friday at Merlis Belsher Place. The game can be heard on the free HuskieFAN app.

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