Six points up for grabs against Lethbridge

The Huskies men’s hockey team will have to kick old habits if it wants to land a spot in the national playoffs.

According to head coach Dave Adolph, the team hasn’t performed very well in the second half of the last two regular seasons.

“Unfortunately for us, we haven’t done a very good job getting better in late February. We’ve sort of just plateaued,” said Adolph. “This year our goal is making sure our finish is better than our start.”

Saskatchewan hasn’t qualified for the Canadian Interuniversity Sport playoffs since the 2007-08 season.

This year the nationals will be in New Brunswick and the Canada West conference can only send one team to compete — meaning the conference will send the winner of the Canada West playoffs.

The Alberta Golden Bears are currently riding a four-year Canada West championship streak and presently sit tied with the Huskies at first place in the league.

“The interesting thing about Alberta is the way they get it done in February and March. Every year they have the ability to score clutch goals and get tremendous performances from everyone on their team,” said Adolph. “That’s what we’re striving for: to make sure we’re clutch.”

Adolph believes that, unlike previous Huskies squads, this year’s team will not falter late in the season.

“I think the key difference for our team this year is competition for playing time,” he said, citing the strong play of goaltenders Ryan Holfeld and David Reekie.

“I’ve been totally hooked on them splitting [playing time]. It’s made them better. Their skills, their habits, everything has been better this year with them splitting,” said Adolph. “They seem content now and I’m not about to change it.”

Along with this, the Huskies blueliners have also been competing hard for ice time. Most notably, rookies Chad Suer and Zak Stebner have stepped into key roles while fifth-year Jesse Zetariuk, who saw significant playing time in previous years and is Saskatchewan’s only senior defenceman, has only played in four games.

“There was some tremendous bumping going on, people jostling for playing time. It was a good thing from my standpoint,” said Adolph. “Jessie has been a regular top-four defenceman for us for the last four years. He got passed and so now he has to fight to get a spot back.”

On the front-end, Saskatchewan will need its secondary scorers to step up.

While Kyle Bortis and Derek Hulak sit comfortably atop the Canada West leaderboard with 28 and 27 points, respectively, Adolph expects to see opposing teams target the scorers. He hopes that with productivity from all four lines, there will be less pressure for Bortis and Hulak to score the bulk of the Huskies’ goals.

Saskatchewan comes into the season’s second half sporting an 11-2-2 record but have a game in hand over Alberta — Alberta has one more loss on the season with an 11-3-2 record.

Their first games will be in Lethbridge against the Pronghorns on Jan. 6 and 7.

Due to an ice resurfacing problem during an Oct. 1 match-up between the Pronghorns and the Huskies, this weekend’s series has six-points up for grabs — meaning the Huskies can potentially earn three wins.

On Jan. 6, the third period of the previously suspended game will be played — Saskatchewan currently leads 3-0 after two periods. After that period is over, the teams will head straight into the second game.

The final game of the series will be played on Jan. 7.

First-place series to kick off second half

The Huskies women’s hockey head coach Steve Kook doesn’t want to downplay this weekend’s first-place games against the Lethbridge Pronghorns, but he believes the Dogs will have at least four more first-place weekends this season.

The top four teams in the Canada West all currently sit within two points of each other. Saskatchewan and Lethbridge each have 20 points and sport identical 10-4-0 records. The Alberta Pandas have 19 points and a 7-2-5 record while the Calgary Dinos, who have two games in hand on the other squads, have 18 points with their 9-3-0 record.

The Manitoba Bisons trail slightly behind with 16 points and a 7-5-2 record.

The Huskies’ next four series are against each of these teams.

“I know that there has been a lot of talk about this first weekend being a first place match-up but, really, there is four weekends of first-place match-ups,” said Kook.

This year, the University of Alberta is hosting the CIS playoffs, meaning the Canada West can send two teams to compete for the national title. Therefore, while Alberta is guaranteed a spot, the final Canada West spot will likely come down to the Huskies, the Pronghorns and the Dinos.

The Dogs split wins with Calgary this year but were swept by Lethbridge.

Kook admits that they weren’t prepared the last time they met the Pronghorns, a team that didn’t make the Canada West playoffs last season.

“They took us a little bit by surprise and we probably did take them for granted,” he said.

Kook noted, however, that he does not view the sweep as a disappointment. In fact, he feels it helped focus his team — following the losses, the Huskies went 8-2 to finish the season’s first half.

Now Saskatchewan will have to carry that focus into the remainder of the season.

“We’re actually pretty glad we got Lethbridge right off the top,” said Kook, implying that the first-place battle will set the tone for the season’s second half.

Lethbridge “plays so well. They check hard. They’re just really hard to play against,” he added.

“We’ll just have to find a way to chip pucks past them and find some open ice. They also have really good goaltenders so we’ll have to be pretty tenacious around the net.”

It will be up to the Huskies’ high-scoring forwards to keep the Pronghorns goaltenders busy. Saskatchewan currently has four of the league’s top 10 scorers. Julie Paetsch leads the league with 20 points while Cara Wooser has 14, Danny Stone has 13 and Breanne George has 11.

Rookie defenceman Julia Flinton will provide some power from the point, as she leads all first-year Canada West blueliners with 6 points.

[box type=”info”]The Huskies women’s team will host the Pronghorns on Jan. 6 and 7 at Rutherford Rink while the men will face the ‘Horns in Lethbridge.[/box]

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Photos: Pete Yee &
Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf