The University of Regina's men's hockey team returns to the ice this weekend with a pair of home games against the Calgary Dinos. The teams will meet on both Friday and Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the Sherwood Ice Sports Centre.
Regina had last weekend off after splitting a home-and-home with Saskatchewan on Jan. 16 and 17, running its season record to 6-11-1. The Cougars currently sit in seventh place in the Canada West standings with 13 points, but have four games in hand on both fifth-place Lethbridge and sixth-place UBC.
After suffering from a lack of offence for the first half of the season, the Cougars have averaged four goals per game since the Christmas break. The addition of
Jared Jagow and
Devon LeBlanc has been a boon to the team's depth at forward, as both players have registered four points in their first four games in U of R uniforms.
After a three-point weekend against Saskatchewan which included the game-winning goal on Friday, fifth-year forward
Tanner Shultz is now Regina's leading scorer. Shultz has five goals and 11 points in 17 games played this season.
Brant Hilton and
Adam Ward continue to split time in net for the Cougars.
Calgary enters the weekend with a 10-8-4 record and sits in third place in Canada West with 24 points. The Dinos have been led offensively by third-year forward Reid Jorgensen, who is tied with Lethbridge's Dustin Moore for the conference lead in assists (22). Torrie Wheat leads the Dinos with 12 goals, while Dustin Butler has started 18 of Calgary's 22 games between the pipes.
The two teams have already met twice this season, with the Dinos recording 5-2 and 2-1 wins back on Oct. 30 and 31 in Calgary. Friday's game will be the 100th all-time regular season meeting between the Cougars and the Dinos.
The Cougars will be in action for four consecutive weekends following the Calgary series, as they'll finish off their regular season schedule with two games at home against Manitoba (Feb. 5 and 6), a pair of games at Lethbridge (Feb. 12 and 13), two at home against Alberta (Feb. 19 and 20), and two road games at Manitoba (Feb. 26 and 27).
