LETHBRIDGE – Over the past few seasons there hasn’t been much to cheer about when it comes to U of L hockey. But this year, both the men and women have been competitive – at times, looking like upper echelon teams. This weekend, however, was a big disappointment.
The women traveled to Regina hoping to end to a four game losing streak, but the team struggled dropping both weekend games 3-0 Friday, and 3-2 Saturday. Regina controlled the play outshooting the ‘Horns 78 to 46 through the two games. Despite having lost six straight, and being in somewhat of a free fall, the women are 5-6-2-1 on the season and are just outside a playoff position.
The men’s hockey team, meanwhile, was feeling ultra-confident heading into the weekend. They’ve won five straight and were facing the worst-ranked team in Canada West, the Regina Cougars.
“Our goal coming into the weekend was to keep all the outside noise, outside,” said U of L men’s hockey coach Spiros Anastas.
All week the ‘Horns heard how good they were, and how weak the Regina Cougars appeared to be. It looked like a mismatch, but the Pronghorns were roughed up, 7-4 Friday, and 8-4 on Saturday.
“People were saying it’s going to be great, you’re going to have a seven game win streak going into U of A,” said Anastas. “As much as I tried to deflect that, I feel that it got into our locker room. It’s really just a tough lesson for our guys to learn.”
The back-to-back losses puts the ‘Horns at 6-7-1 on the season. They’ll look to bounce back this coming weekend when they travel to Edmonton to meet powerhouse U of A.
It wasn’t all negative for ‘Horns hockey though. It was announced today that defenceman Tim Campbell has been named to the CIS All Stars who will compete against the Canadian World Junior team on December 12th and 13th. Campbell is one of just six Canada West players to make the CIS team.
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