The holiday break couldn’t have come at a better time for the Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey squad, who are looking to regroup after a disappointing end to the first half of the season.
After a 9-3 start, the Huskies lost four straight games heading into the break and the time off provides a welcome opportunity to regroup.
“It’s nice to just take a little break and have fun skates like this with the team and just not really relax totally but keep working on things, but at the same time take that time to think about what we’ve done and what we need to do,” said forward Kaitlin Willoughby.
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Some players took to the ice for a simple game of three-on-three, the perfect antidote for a frustrating end to the first half of the season.
“I think it’s a perfect time. It’s exactly what we needed and I think us having fun here today and over Christmas break, it’ll be a nice way to relax and get back into it mentally,” said blueliner Alyssa Dobler.
Scoring more is a top priority heading into the new year. The Dogs are averaging just two goals per game this season, and all four losses on their current skid have been by a single goal.
The key to reversing the trend could be the power play which has converted just 10 of 87 opportunities so far.
“Put more pucks in the net every game and capitalize on our chances, because if we do that we’re going to be winning games instead of losing them by one goal,” Willoughby said.
“Our penalty kill has been amazing this first half and our power play not so much, so I think that’s something that would be a goal of our team, to bring those percentages up on the power play.”
“We really need to capitalize when we have a chance to get a shot off, or even just an opportunity to get the puck to the net,” Dobler added.
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Recent struggles aside, the Huskies are still in good position thanks to their strong start, sitting fifth in Canada West but just four points out of second.
“We are not down on ourselves at all. We stay pretty positive all the time and everyone tries to keep the team very upbeat so I’m not, we’re not concerned at all,” Dobler said.
And after a well-timed break, the Huskies will be hungry for a second-half run.
Ryan Flaherty contributed to this story
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