The second half of the Canada West women's hockey schedule begins this weekend as the University of Regina and the Saskatchewan Huskies square off in a home-and-home.
The teams will meet on Friday night in Saskatoon before returning to The Co-Operators Centre in Regina for a Saturday night contest. Both games will start at 7 p.m.
The series will be a pivotal one for the Cougars, and they'll be playing without head coach
Sarah Hodges. Hodges, in her 13th year as the U of R's bench boss, is currently in Sweden serving as Team Canada's head coach at the 2011 IIHF World Women's Under-18 Championship.
In her absence, assistants
Angie Mallory and
John Smith and former Cougar
Kelsie Graham will handle the coaching duties. The U of R enters the weekend five points behind Saskatchewan for the fourth and final Canada West playoff spot. A repeat of the team's mid-October performance – which saw the Cougars score back-to-back wins over the Huskies in another home-and-home – would put the team in the thick of the playoff race.
Regina's first half was highlighted by the performance of its high-octane first line.
Rianne Wight remains tied for the conference lead with 12 goals and leads the team with 17 points, while
Paige Wheeler has 16 points (seven goals, nine assists) and
Kelcie McCutcheon has 12 (three goals, nine assists). All told, the line accounted for just under two-thirds of the Cougars' 34 goals in the team's first 14 games.
Saskatchewan forward Breanne George ranks second in Canada West with a team-high 22 points, while Cara Wooster is third with 20 points. Mackenzie Rizos has started 12 of the team's 14 games between the pipes for the Huskies and sports a 7-5 record, a 2.08 goals-against average, and a .925 save percentage.
Following this weekend, the Cougars have eight games remaining on the Canada West schedule. They'll host UBC on Jan. 21 and Jan. 22, travel to Manitoba for road games on Jan. 29 and Jan. 30, host Alberta on Feb. 4 and Feb. 5, and finish with a pair of away games at Lethbridge on Feb. 11 and Feb. 12.
