Dogs sweep Cougars

Huskies 4, Cougars 1

The University of Saskatchewan Hockey Dogs will take a four-game winning streak into the playoffs.

The Huskies swept a weekend series over their provincial rival University of Regina Cougars with a 4-1 win Saturday night at Regina’s The Co-operators Centre, but it was not quite enough to overtake the Alberta Golden Bears or Manitoba Bisons for the top two placings in the Canada West men’s hockey standings.

At 19- 6- 3 and with 41 points, Saskatchewan finishes third in the conference and just two points out of first place and one point behind second-place Alberta, thereby missing out on a first-round playoff bye.

The Huskies will meet the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns in a best-of-three Canada West quarter-final series Friday, Saturday and, if necessary, Sunday at Rutherford Rink.

The winner advances to the Canada West best-ofthree semifinal March 2-4 against the Alberta Golden Bears in Edmonton.

Kyle Bortis, Craig Mccallum, Brennan Bosch, and Shaun Vey each scored for Saskatchewan and Ryan Holfeld made 26 saves in Saturday’s victory.

Brett Leffler replied for Regina, which finished the season at 5-20-3 to miss the playoffs.

Bortis opened the scoring for Saskatchewan three minutes into the first with an odd goal.

His initial shot saved by Cougar goalie Lucas Gore, but the rebound went into the air, hit Gore on the backside and slid over the line to give the Huskies an early lead.

Leffler tied the game for the Cougars in the final minute of the first period with a shot from the slot.

Mccallum scored his 10th of the season early in the second period to give the Huskies the lead for good. Bosch and Vey scored 22 seconds apart, four minutes later, to put Saskatchewan up 4-1. The Cougars had a lengthy 5-on-3 in the third period but were unable to beat Holfeld.

Gore stopped 37 shots for the Cougars, who were 0-for-6 on the power play. Saskatchewan, which was 1-for-8, out-shot Regina by a 41-27 margin.