Cougars’ Johnson is Canada West’s top men’s hockey coach

University of Regina Cougars bench boss Todd Johnson has been named the coach of the year in Canada West men’s hockey.

Johnson guided Regina to an 8-17-3 record, doubling the team’s win total from the previous season. The Cougars came up short in a late push to make the playoffs for the first time since 2012-13, finishing three points behind the Manitoba Bisons.

Johnson is just the second coachof-the-year winner from the U of R men’s hockey team, joining Bill Liskowich (1992).

“We are thrilled for Todd’s CW coach-of-the-year honour,” Cougars athletic director Lisa Robertson said in a media release. “Todd is the full package in terms of U Sports coaches — he’s an excellent technical and tactical coach with a high-performance mindset. He’s also a wonderful human being who models values and behaviours so that his student-athletes may go on to be high-performing community contributors.”

Meanwhile, Saskatchewan Huskies netminder Taran Kozun, who’s from Nipawin, was a double winner as the Canada West player of the year and goalie of the year.

Two more Huskies — Jared Dmytriw of Craven (rookie of the year) and Levi Cable of Hudson Bay (sportsmanship and ability) — also received awards.

The Regina Pats and the Regina branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association are joining forces to raise awareness about mental health.

On Friday, when the Pats play host to the Medicine Hat Tigers in a WHL game that is to begin at 7 p.m., the importance of mental health will be emphasized on several fronts.

A CMHA kiosk will be on-site. Videos of Pats players talking about mental health will be shown. There will also be public-address announcements on that topic.

As well, an autographed Pats jersey will be raffled off, with proceeds going to the CMHA, Regina branch.

The Regina Rebels are off to the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League playoffs after completing their regular season in top spot, with a 24-1-1-1 record.

Regina played its regular-season finale Tuesday, defeating the host Weyburn Richardson Pioneer Gold Wings 8-2.

Sydney Pedersen and Neena Brick each had two goals and one assist. Kaylee Dyer, Shaelyn Myers, Megan Hayhurst and Lauren Focht also scored for the Rebels.

In 27 games, Brick posted league-leading totals of 28 goals, 27 assists and 55 points.

Focht (36 points) and the Rebels’ Alexis Petford (35) were third and fourth, respectively, in the scoring race.

Jayden Baker and Lauren Demmans scored for Weyburn.

Philippe Bond made 34 saves in a first-star performance to backstop the Yorkton Terriers to a 3-1 Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League victory over the Melfort Mustangs on Tuesday at Farrell Agencies Arena.

Alec Zawatsky, Keenan Taphorn and Steven Norum scored for Yorkton, which got two assists from Chantz Petruic. Petruic has 106 points, including 55 goals, in 50 games this season.

Alex Rondeau scored for Melfort.

Yorkton (34-19-2-1) has clinched first place in the Viterra Division.

Also on Tuesday, the Melville Millionaires led 3-1 after the second period, only to lose 5-3 to the host Kindersley Klippers.

Kindersley got third-period goals from Noah Lindsay (at 8:17), Jacob Schnapp (16:10), Liam Fraser (18:02) and Tyler Traptow (an empty-netter at 19:01).

Dylan Thackeray led Melville with two goals.

Joel Falodun scored 24 points to lead the Leboldus Golden Suns to an 82-71 victory over the Riffel Royals in Regina Intercollegiate Basketball League junior boys action Tuesday.

Riffel’s Anton Yanko scored a game-high 27 points.

In a junior girls game, Leboldus got 19 points from Yasmine Tyndell in a 56-43 victory over Riffel. The Royals’ Emerson Hollinger scored 14 points.