The University of Regina's women's hockey team finishes off the final two Canada West games before the December break this weekend, as the Cougars and Saskatchewan will meet in a rare Thursday night game at the Brandt Centre (7 p.m.) before finishing up the weekend on Saturday afternoon in Saskatoon.

The Cougars (4-7-1) enter the weekend looking to make up some ground in the conference standings. At the midpoint of the schedule, they sit seven points back of a playoff position but still have 12 games remaining including this weekend.

Last weekend, the Cougars travelled up to Alberta for a two-game series against the Pandas. They lost 3-1 on Friday night, but took a point from No. 8 Alberta in a 4-3 shootout loss on Saturday that was due in no small part to first-year goalie Jennifer Schmidt's school-record 54 saves. Schmidt – who has a sparkling .917 save percentage this season – and fifth-year veteran Lisa Urban have largely split the duties between the pipes for the Cougars this season and have each gotten a start in the past two weekend series.

Up front, Paige Wheeler has a team-high five goals for the Cougars this season and Wheeler and Rianne Wight are tied for the team lead with seven points each.

For Saskatchewan, fifth-year forward Julie Paetsch is tied for second in the Canada West scoring race with 16 points, while Breanne George has scored a team-leading eight goals this season. Goaltender Mackenzie Rizos has earned four consecutive starts for the Huskies and comes into the weekend with a 1.96 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage.

The two teams opened up the Canada West schedule against each other in mid-October, with Saskatchewan recording a 7-1 win in Saskatoon and a 2-0 victory in Regina.

Elsewhere in Canada West this weekend, UBC visits Lethbridge for a pair of games while Manitoba and Alberta square off in Edmonton.

The Cougars will return to action with non-conference games against NAIT on Dec. 30 and Dec. 31 before the conference schedule starts up again on Jan. 6 and Jan. 7 at Manitoba.

NOTES: Saturday afternoon's game is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. in Saskatoon and will be webcast live at www.canadawest.tv.