SASKATOON – Regardless of what happens this weekend, this will be a memorable regular season for the Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team. The hockey dogs are heading into the regular season finale with 42 points, firmly entrenched in first place in the Canada West.
The last time Saskatchewan notched over 42 points was in the 1999-2000 season, a campaign that saw Saskatchewan win the conference championship.
The Huskies are gunning for a similar result in 2016.
“It’s been an awesome season so far,” said Huskies forward Jesse Ross. “We’ve definitely surprised ourselves and a lot of the other teams.”
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Saskatchewan locked up the top spot in the Canada West way back on Jan. 30. Finishing first in the conference provides the Huskies with three major benefits.
- home ice advantage throughout the Canada West Playoffs
- a direct birth to the Canada West Semifinals
- a bye week, giving its players much needed rest
The third benefit on that list could prove to be the most important to the Huskies. The dogs are banged up on the back end, with injuries to key defenseman like Zak Stebner and Jesse Forsberg.
The bye week will buy the Huskies time to get healthy for their playoff run.
“My opinion on Zak (Stebner) is I think he’ll be back in time for playoffs,” said Huskies head coach Dave Adolph. “I think if we needed Jesse Forsberg tomorrow, he’d be fine, he’d be ready to go. When you have the record we have and you’re going into the stretch, you can make sure you rest the right guys.”
The Huskies will close out the regular season this weekend against their provincial rivals the Regina Cougars. The first place dogs don’t have anything to gain in the standings, but players like Ross are determined to enter the playoffs on a high note.
“It definitely comes down to a lot of pride. We want to win these games and take that season sweep against them and just let them know that we’re the big dogs.”
The Huskies will kick off the home and home series against the Cougars on Friday at Rutherford Rink and then wrap up the regular season on Saturday in Regina. After that, the dogs will have nearly two weeks to gear up for the Canada West semifinals.
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