Dogs had a bone to pick with provincial rivals

By Darren Zary of The StarPhoenix

Huskies 3, Cougars 2
Rust was bound to show through the blades of the only two Canada West men’s hockey teams to not play games during the Christmas break.
Intensity was not lacking, however, on the part of either the hometown University of Saskatchewan Huskies or the University of Regina Cougars, in their game Friday night at Rutherford Rink.
The Huskies’ last loss had come at the hands of the Cougars back on Oct. 17 at home, so, of course, the Dogs didn’t want to make the same mistake to kick off the second half.
Instead, they persevered for a 3-2 victory.
“They always play hard here,” said U of S captain Brent Twordik. “They always come out with their top effort against us and it’s always a battle and that’s what we expected.
“I’m just happy (we) got the two points.”
Saskatchewan leads the Canada West with a 12-2-3 record. Regina slips to 5-10-2. The same two teams meet again tonight in Regina.
With little flow to the game and more whistles tweeting than a pack of construction workers at lunch-time in downtown New York City, the Huskies and Cougars would grind it out. “Every time we play them, it’s a battle,” said U of S coach Dave Adolph. “Every game has been a hotlycontested battle. It’s a fierce rivalry now. I told the guys before the game that both teams hadn’t played in five weeks and it was probably going to be a one-goal game.
“The rust wasn’t a factor; the intensity was the great
part of the game and that’s what you want. “This was huge.” Jason Weitzel opened the scoring for Regina with a power-play marker at 16:05 of the first period.
Curtis Austring evened the score at 7:10 of the second, zooming into the middle and then firing a wrist shot past Regina goalie Clint Chalmers to the top right-hand corner.
Then, at 15:07, defenceman Colin Johnson and Twordik completed a fan-pleasing two-on-one break with Johnson getting a rare goal to give the Dogs a 2-1 lead.
Regina battled back with a power-play goal by Lance Herauf to start the third, but Dean Beuker batted one out of the air for the game-winner between Chalmers’ legs at 7:41.
Shots on goal were 40-24 for the U of S.
“We haven’t played for months, so everybody’s ready to get back at her,” said Regina coach Blaine Sautner. “I think both teams are sick of practising by now. I thought maybe our condition and strength wasn’t there. (U of S) has a good, physically-strong team and I think our defence got wore down there in the second period when the puck was in our end most of the time but I give our guys credit. At least they battled. No one quit. First game back, 3-2 in their rink, we can build off that. It’s a good start to the second half.”
The game probably should not have
been that close, had the Dogs buried a power-play goal or
two, or had not given up a power-play goal to Regina to start the third.
Saskatchewan was 0-for-8 with the man advantage. Regina was 2-for-4.
“Our power play’s been struggling,” admitted Twordik. “We worked on it a lot over Christmas break and we thought we’d change things up a bit. We moved the puck really well. We just didn’t finish.”
DOG TALES: Fans who attended Friday’s men’s
hockey match will be admitted into tonight’s women’s
game between the University of Saskatchewan and the
University of Regina free-of-charge with their ticket stub
from last night.

Other Scores

Regina vs Saskatchewan 2 - 3
UBC vs Lethbridge 2 - 1
Alberta vs Calgary 4 - 2