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The second half of the Canada West schedule starts this weekend for the University of Regina's women's hockey team as the Cougars host Lethbridge on Friday and Saturday night at The Co-operators Centre.

Both games are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

The Cougars played in their first post-Christmas games last weekend at the non-conference Martlet Invitational in Montreal, ending up with a 1-2-0 record after a win over Moncton and losses to Western and No. 1-ranked McGill.  But it's back to conference play now for the Cougars (10-9-1 overall, 9-6-1 Canada West), who come into the weekend in fifth place in the tight conference standings but just two points back of third-place Alberta.

Tori Head, who broke out for a pair of goals as part of a three-point game in the win over Moncton last Saturday, is one of three Cougars tied atop the team scoring race with seven points. Meghan Sherven has a team-leading five goals on the season and joins Head and Kylie Gavelin with seven points, while Stephanie Sawchuk and blueliner Carleen Meszaros are just behind with six.

The Cougars have gone with the duo of Jennifer Schmidt and Toni Ross between the pipes all season long and there's no reason to expect that'll change this weekend. Schmidt has a 1.54 goals-against average and a .946 save percentage to go along with a 6-3-0 record and needs just one more shutout to become the school's all-time leader in the category, while Ross is 3-3-1 with a 2.20 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage.

Lethbridge (5-8-3) enters Friday's game two points out of playoff position. The Pronghorns lost five consecutive games in a streak that spanned much of November, but Lethbridge put an end to that with five out of a possible eight points in its final four games before the break. Third-year forwards Sadie Lenstra and Kirsten Reeves lead the Pronghorns with nine points each and are also one-two on the team in goals, as Lenstra has six this season and Reeves has scored five. Fifth-year defenceman Glenda Edie has collected seven points this year, while Crystal Patterson has started the last four games for Lethbridge after splitting the netminding duties with Shauntelle Williams for the first six weekends of the Canada West schedule.

This weekend will mark the third and fourth times that the two teams have met this season. They also played in Lethbridge back in Week 2 of the conference schedule, with the Cougars skating to a 5-1 win on Oct. 11 before topping the Pronghorns 2-1 in a shootout the following night.

The Cougars will hit the road for the following two weekends with games at UBC on Jan. 10 and Jan. 11 and at Mount Royal on Jan. 17 and Jan. 18. The team will then host Saskatchewan and Manitoba in back-to-back weekends at The Co-operators Centre before closing out the conference schedule on the road at Alberta on Feb. 7 and Feb. 8.