Wide receiver Mitch Stevens hopes to maintain his impressive average of over 20 yards per catch against the Manitoba Bisons.

After the Calgary Dinos stomped the Huskies 45-4 in week five football action, all Canada West teams had a bye over the Thanksgiving long weekend.

Teams used the time to rest injured players and tweak strategies in preparation for the final three games of the regular season.

The Huskies spent the bye preparing for their home game Friday, Oct. 12 against the Manitoba Bisons. The Saskatchewan squad knows they will have to play better than they did in Calgary if they want to have a chance to win against the Bisons who enter the game as the number eight ranked team in the nation.

It should help that the Dogs will get two of the team’s most dynamic players back in the lineup. Luke Thiel and Kit Hillis have both recovered from injuries that forced them to watch the Calgary game from the sidelines.

Thiel, a fourth-year defensive back, suffered a concussion during the Dogs’ home loss to Regina Sept. 21. He is now back to full health and practiced with the squad during the week off.

“We’ve brought more intensity to practice this past week and have been working on perfecting our defensive system,” Thiel said.

“From here on out we have to win the rest of our games because our playoff life could be in jeopardy if we don’t.”

Thiel has been a dominant force in the Huskies defensive secondary, racking up 18.5 tackles so far this season, and has excelled on special teams where he fields the majority of the team’s punt returns.

A strain in receiver Kit Hillis’s quadriceps tendon kept him sidelined last week.

“As a player, sitting out is one of the hardest things to do. You want to be out there battling on the field but you can’t when you’re injured,” said Hillis who is eager to get back onto the field.

While Hillis and Thiel return to the gridiron, impact players Zach Hart and Drew Burko remain doubtful for the game. Hart is the veteran backbone of a defensive line that lacks university football experience without him. Hart suffered a knee injury in the Sept. 21 game against the Rams.

Hart “had an MRI done last week and he is going to try playing with a brace but probably not until next week because his brace isn’t here yet,” head coach Brian Towriss said.

In the same game against Regina, rookie quarterback Drew Burko broke a bone in his wrist. He had surgery to reposition the broken bone and isn’t expected to be cleared for practice until he has another X-ray to examine his wrist on Oct. 17.

The Huskies and Bisons game will be the second meeting between the teams this season. The first, a back-and-forth affair affected by strong wind gusts, was played at Manitoba’s University Stadium in the second week of the season and resulted in a 31-28 Bisons win. This time around the Dogs will gain home-field advantage.

The 2-3 Huskies are coming off a two-game losing streak while the Bisons, who boast a 3-2 record, lost their last game after giving up a fourth quarter lead in Regina on Sept. 28. Manitoba is currently third in the Canada West standings, one spot ahead of the Huskies.

Following this game the Dogs will finish off the regular season schedule playing the two worst teams in the league. This means they have a good chance to finish the season with a 5-3 record if they can find a way to beat Manitoba. And assuming a Manitoba loss to a currently undefeated Calgary squad in the last week of the season, a 5-3 record would be good enough for the Huskies to steal third place from the Bisons in the playoff race.

These post-season possibilities make this a crucial game for both Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

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Photo: Beibei Lu