Ward, hockey Dogs shine bright
Huskies 8, Cougars 1 Brett Ward, who hadn’t scored a goal this season, was down to the last weekend of the regular season to get it done and avoid getting skunked.
Ward — who had four goals last season and three more as a rookie — notched his very first of the season to get the puck rolling Friday for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.
Ward’s power-play tally, at 3:35 of the first period, helped spark the Hockey Dogs to a three-goal outburst, and eventually five unanswered goals, in a convincing 8-1 victory in Canada West men’s hockey action at Rutherford Rink.
“Yes, it’s nice to get the monkey off the back,” said Ward, a third-year Huskie defenceman from Swift Current. “I’d be lying if I wasn’t worried going into tonight, not getting a goal all year. I knew I still had (Saturday) but I wanted to get it over tonight.”
The same two teams meet again tonight in Regina to close out the regular season.
Saskatchewan, now 18-6-3, needs to sweep the weekend series to have any chance of securing a top-two finish and first-round playoff bye by catching the second-place Alberta Golden Bears.
Regina, which falls to 5-193, will miss the playoffs.
Chris Durand and Kyle Bortis each tallied twice for the Huskies, who out-shot the Cougars 46-32. Ward, Derek Hulak, Craig Mccallum — who finally scored on his third breakaway attempt of the game — and Travis Brisebois added singles.
Durand now has four goals in his last three games. From behind the net, he muscled his way in front to jam the puck past Regina goalie Andrew Hayes. He later scored from the high slot, his slapshot trickling through Hayes’ white wickets.
“We’re starting to get some offensive output from everyone,” Durand, a fourth-year Huskie centre, said. “We went through a couple of games where we had trouble putting the puck in the net. We want to make sure that every guy has got confidence moving forward here.”
Russ Nielsen, whose low shot got past U of S goalie David Reekie on the power play, replied for Regina, which trailed 3-0 and 5-1 by periods.
Saskatchewan went 2-for4 on the power play. Regina was 1-for-4.
DOG TALES: Three stars were 1) Mccallum, 2) U of S forward Cody Smuk and 3) Brisebois ... Manitoba leads the Canada West with a 195-3 record and 41 points, two more than Saskatchewan. Alberta entered Friday’s action with a 18-6-2 record and 38 points ... Derek Hulak leads the Canada West in scoring with 11 goals and 33 assists for 44 points. Linemate Kyle Bortis is next with 16 goals and 22 assists for 38 points, followed by Kyle Ross at 16-16-32.