Back on ice: U of S Huskies get ready to host Ukraine's national squad
Their Christmas holiday break over, Saskatchewan Huskies return to action Friday against Ukraine's national under-23 team.
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There were no stocking stuffers for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team.
There are no newcomers filling hockey socks for the second term.
No reinforcements this time.
“Santa brought a lot of gifts for my kids, but he didn’t bring the Huskies anything,” Huskies head coach Brandin Cote said Wednesday before returning to the ice for a practice at Merlis Belsher Place.
“All the guys that we had been in contact with that are in pro (hockey) are staying in pro.”
The Huskies are hoping to stay healthy in the upcoming second term. They’ll start the second half with everybody available other than forward Aiden Bulych, who remains sidelined.
“Everyone else is healthy and back, and ready to go,” Cote said.
Saskatchewan will use Friday’s Can’t Stop Hockey exhibition game (6 p.m., Merlis Belsher Place) against Ukraine’s national under-23 FISU World Universiade Winter Games team to get ready for the upcoming Canada West conference schedule.
“I think it’s really good — we had talked about that even before this Ukraine thing even came to fruition,” said Cote. “And we were trying to get an exhibition game or two, whether it was another team in our league or an ACAC (collegiate) team or whatnot, just to get moving again. I think just getting back to that competitive state is really good. It’ll help us, I believe, going into the next half of the season.”
Saskatchewan enters the second term in fourth place in the Canada West men’s hockey standings, three points behind the second-place Alberta Golden Bears and Mount Royal University Cougars.
“Just overall, we’re in a good spot,” offered Cote, whose team was 4-3-3 in its last 10 games after a rash of injuries and sickness took its toll.
“We let some points slip away there at the end, but it’s going to be a dogfight until the end. We’ve got 10 games. We’re playing head-to-head against a lot of teams we’re scratching and clawing against. In that way, the last 10 games are going to be a playoff-type mindset just because of some of the teams we’re going to be playing. Just raising the intensity level, raising our attention to detail in areas. We have to find ways to score more five-on-five goals, which we’re really keying in here starting now.
“Our specialty teams have been good but we have to find ways to keep refining those. Just overall, just our competitiveness and our overall structure has just got to continue to take another step.”
The Huskies will resume their Canada West schedule Jan. 6-7 in Langley, B.C., against the Trinity Western University Spartans.
They’ll host the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds Jan. 13-14 at Merlis Belsher Place.
After that, they head to Edmonton to play the Golden Bears before wrapping up the regular season with three of their last four games at home, with two-game series against the Regina Cougars and Mount Royal Cougars.
“I like our schedule,” said Cote. “We play U of R, which is always a tough go because they’re looking to continue going up and they’re a provincial rival. We’ve got Trinity Western, which we know we can’t take lightly because they’ve surprised some teams for sure, including us in the second game of the year.
“We’ve got U of A, we’ve got Mount Royal and we’ve got UBC — so all teams that we’re fighting and jockeying for position with. I would rather have it that way rather than look and have to scoreboard watch. So basically we’re going head-to-head against the teams we’re really competing for spots.”
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