Box Score Box Score

The University of Regina's men's hockey team earned a weekend split with a 4-2 win over the Manitoba Bisons on Saturday afternoon at The Co-operators Centre.

Tyler Penny, Troy Hunter, Sanfred King, and Liam Brennan all scored for the Cougars, while Lucas Gore had another strong outing in net and made 40 saves in the win.

Dylan Kelly and Tyler Dittmer replied for Manitoba (17-7-4).

Both teams will now await the outcome of Saturday night's game between Saskatchewan and Lethbridge to determine the final Canada West standings. If Lethbridge defeats Saskatchewan in regulation, Manitoba will finish in second place and the Cougars will face the Huskies in a best-of-three Canada West quarterfinals next weekend. If the Huskies get at least a point, Saskatchewan finishes in second place and the Cougars will face Manitoba in the conference quarterfinals.

“It was a gutsy effort today by the guys,” Cougars head coach Todd Johnson said. “We're extremely happy to be in the playoffs and we look forward to the challenge of taking on either Manitoba or Saskatchewan next weekend.”

Manitoba opened the scoring midway through the first after a Paul Ciarelli shot from the corner was saved by Gore, but Kelly was on the doorstep and knocked in the rebound to give the Bisons a lead that would turn out to be short lived.

The Cougars got on the board less than two minutes later. Drew Czerwonka sent a pass from behind the net to the slot, where Penny corralled the puck, moved it to his forehand, and popped his seventh of the season to tie it up at 1-1. The U of R took its first lead of the game late in the period on the power play, when Tyler Henry drew Manitoba goalie Jesse Deckert to the top of the crease and slipped it over to Hunter who tapped it in for his eighth of the year.

After Manitoba dominated in the shot category on Friday night, the first period on Saturday was a marked difference as both teams registered 11 shots on net in the opening 20 minutes.

The Cougars added to the lead seven minutes into the second period, when Deckert attempted to play the puck but it ended up in front of the net, where both Tyler Murray and King had hacks at it before King was able to flip it in to put the Cougars up 3-1. Manitoba's Dane Crowley was given a five-minute charging penalty midway through the second after a hit on U of R defenceman Mark Schneider and a tripping penalty to the Bisons' Del Cowan put Manitoba down 5-on-3 for a full two minutes, but the visitors were able to kill off both penalties.

Brennan extended the lead for the Cougars after barreling down the left wing five minutes in and scoring a shorthanded goal on a shot over Deckert's glove. Manitoba replied with a power play goal by Dittmer with six minutes left, but that was as close as they would come as Gore was able to keep the visitors off the board the rest of the way despite a prolonged period of offensive zone pressure by the Bisons.

Manitoba ended up outshooting Regina by a 42-27 margin and was 1-for-6 on the power play, while the Cougars were 1-for-7.

The Canada West quarterfinals begin next Friday.