QUICKLY
The University of Regina's men's hockey team battled tough against a No. 6-ranked Saskatchewan squad, but a pair of third-period goals by the visitors finally put away the Cougars as the Huskies took a 6-3 win on Friday night in a U-Prairie Challenge game at The Co-operators Centre.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Playing in their first Canada West game in over a month, the Cougars shook off the rust early and opened the scoring on the power play when Jakob Brook kept the puck in at the blueline and fed a cross-ice pass to Eric Pearce. Pearce's shot from the left circle eluded Saskatchewan goalie Jordan Kooy for the third-year forward's second goal of the season.
• Saskatchewan's Chantz Petruic replied with a power play goal of his own, but the Cougars regained the lead thanks in large part by a nice effort from Jordan Borysiuk to force a turnover behind the Saskatchewan net. Borysiuk then fed Steven Kesslering, who ripped a shot from the slot to notch his team-leading fifth goal of the season.
• But Regina's lead was short lived. Ty Prefontaine scored just over a minute after Kesslering's goal to tie it up, then Petruic's second of the period put the Huskies up 3-2 and gave them a lead they'd hold on to for the remainder of the contest.
• The lone goal of the second went to Saskatchewan's Parker Gavlas, who scored his first of the season to put the Huskies up 4-2 heading into the second intermission.
• The Cougars made it interesting early in the third when Jackson Doucet sprung Eric Houk on a breakaway. Houk deked to the backhand to score his third of the year and cut Saskatchewan's lead to just one, but Chase Bertholet's first U SPORTS goal restored the Huskies' two-goal lead under four minutes later. Vince Loschiavo's power play goal two minutes after that was the final goal of the contest.

NOTES

• Saskatchewan outshot Regina by a 39-22 margin as Regina goalie Adam Evanoff made 33 saves.
• The Huskies were 3-for-6 on the power play while the Cougars were 1-for-5.
• Dawson Holt, Josh Pillar, and Raphael Pelletier all had two-assist nights for Saskatchewan.

NEXT UP
The two teams will meet again on Saturday night in the back end of this weekend home-and-home. They'll meet at Merlis Belsher Place in Saskatoon starting at 7:00 PM.