Team captain Cara Wooster leads the Huskies in points and will need to continue her strong play into the playoffs.

It wasn’t a solo effort, however. After the Huskies women’s hockey team dismantled the first-place Calgary Dinos 2-1 on Feb. 1, the Dogs needed another win or a Lethbridge Pronghorns loss on Feb. 2 to ensure a playoff slot.

“To beat the Dinos in the Friday game was huge for our team’s confidence,” veteran forward Danny Stone said. “It really shows that when we all show up to the rink ready to play as a team, we are a threat to any other team in the league.”

But the Dogs could not beat the Dinos twice in the weekend. Luckily for them the Mount Royal Cougars downed Lethbridge 4-2 on Saturday, Feb. 2. The Pronghorns loss widened the gap between sixth-place Saskatchewan and seventh-place Lethbridge by more than the four points Lethbridge could possibly gain in their final week of play.

While driving home from their game in Calgary, the Huskies women were waiting to hear the final score of the Mount Royal-Lethbridge match to know if the Dogs had secured a playoff berth.

“When we found out, it was pretty exciting. Everyone stood up and cheered a little bit,” forward Sara Greschner said.

As fate would have it, the Dogs and Pronghorns are set to do battle in the final week of the regular season. The Huskies can pull themselves up to fifth spot if they win and Manitoba loses to Regina Feb. 8 and 9. Meanwhile Lethbridge wil be playing for pride and will try to spoil Saskatchewan’s chances of improving in the standings.

The Dogs’ disappointing start to the season that included only one win in nine games, makes the playoff berth even more impressive. It was in the second-half of the season that the Dogs were able to find their stride and turn their season around. In the seven games following their losing streak, Saskatchewan won five games in regulation time and picked up a single point in the other two matches by losing in overtime.

“I wouldn’t say we started the season poorly. It definitely didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but with such a young team we had a lot of learning to do, especially learning how to win,” Stone said.

The Huskies will rely on Stone and fifth-year players Megan Frohaug, Shelby Davey and Cara Wooster for points as well as leadership as the young team enters playoffs. Team captain Wooster has 29 points in 26 games and is tied for second in the conference scoring race.

This season the team has only two fourth-year players on the team and one of them, Wooster’s twin sister, Cami Wooster, is uncertain if she will return for another academic year. The prospect of next year’s crop lacking more veterans than this season is forcing some of the younger athletes to jump into more influential roles already.

“I’m definitely going to have to step up as a leader,” said Greschner who has seven goals and six assists in her second year. “For the rookies this year I try to give them the experience that I would have wanted when I came onto the team.”

Greschner and the rest of the Huskies now have one final week to prepare before they face the pressure of playoff elimination and attempt to prove that they are the best team in the conference.

The Dogs host Lethbridge tonight and tomorrow night at Rutherford Rink. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.

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Photo: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf