Huskies grind out win on Vance’s third shutout

The Huskies congratulate goalie Jessica Vance on her shutout.

    Steve Kook hopes the low scoring nail-biter isn’t the norm for his University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team.

    The veteran head coach watched his side squeak out a gritty 1-0 victory over the University of Regina Cougars on Saturday night in a U Sports regular season clash at the ancient Rutherford Rink. So far this season, low scoring battles have been the norm for teams playing head-to-head in the Canada West Conference. Venla Hovi, who is a star forward for the University of Manitoba Bisons, is the only player averaging a point a game with four goals and eight assists in 12 appearances.

    In building a 9-6-1 record to sit fourth in Canada West, the Huskies and the University of Calgary Dinos are tied for giving up the fewest goals in the circuit at 23. The Huskies have only scored a combined 26 goals which ranks fifth in the eight-team conference.

    Kook said grinding out the low-scoring win isn’t the easiest thing to do.

    “I think it is hard on teams to do this every weekend,” said Kook. “I don’t think it is any different than what we’ve gone through every year.

Jessica Vance makes a glove save for the Huskies.

    “The challenge for us is to try to find a way to get more than one person at the net. Goalies are so good in this league you have to find a way to get two people at the net or attack in multiples.”

    The Cougars came at the Huskies hard in the opening 20 minutes outshooting the host side 16-8. Thanks to the stellar goaltending from Jessica Vance, the Huskies entered the first intermission locked in a 0-0 tie.

    Vance’s two best saves in the opening frame included robbing Cougars captain Kylee Kupper on a backdoor play and making a glove stop on fourth-year forward Emma Waldenberger.
    “They came on strong, and it was important to make those first few saves to keep my team in it,” said Vance. “Luckily, my team did a good job by keeping most of the shots to the outside to make it a little easier for me.”

    At the start of the second, Vance made a trio of big saves first on Cougars star forward Jaycee Magwood, then on Kupper and another on Jenna Grube.

    The Huskies found traction, when they went to work on their fourth power-play of the contest. During a net scramble, Huskies star captain Kaitlin Willoughby, who had a solid lunch pail type game, got the puck from a crowd at the left side of the Cougars goal and drove home her fifth tally of the season.

Kaitlin Willoughby scored for the Huskies on this net scramble.

    That goal ultimately turned the tide of the contest in favour of the Huskies. The hosts held a 12-5 edge in shots on goal in the second period.

    The third period was a calm one with both sides not have a whole lot in the way of scoring chances. Vance made a big late save on Magwood in a 27 save shutout performance.
    In six starts this season, Vance has posted a 4-2 record, a 1.18 goals against average, a .955 save percentage and three shutouts.

    “It feels good to have the shutouts, but the most important part is for my team to get the win,” said Vance. “I try not to think about my stats too much and just focus on working together with my team to get the win.
    “A lot can be said for my team’s defence as well for my shutouts as that is a key part of the game.”
    Jane Kish stopped 23 shots to take the setback in goal for the Cougars, who fell to 7-8-1 to remain fifth overall in Canada West.

    During their first 16 games, the Huskies held the edge in shots on goal in six of the seven games they lost.

Kaitlin Willoughby drives into the offensive zone for the Huskies.

    A lot of the times, they have outshot their opponents by a comfortable edge, but that work hasn’t resulted in a gusher of goals.

    On the power play, the Huskies are 3-for-55 with a 5.5 per cent success rate on the campaign. Kook said his team is getting chances on the power play, and it is a challenge to keep the confidence up with everyone.

    “The natural thing is to want to try and change something,” said Kook. “I’d be more concerned if we weren’t getting good looks and good scoring chances off the power play.

    “We need to get better at the things we do. We need to tweak a little bit maybe some strong net front presence and a more committed net front presence. For us to make a wholesale change I think is wrong.

Goalie Jessica Vance makes one of her 27 saves on Saturday.

    “We’re getting good scoring looks.”

    The Huskies now head into their exam and Christmas break. They return to action on Jan. 5 in the new year, when they host the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns (7-9-2) at 7 p.m. at Rutherford.

    Kook liked how his team won puck battles on Saturday and wants to see that continue in the second half. He would also like to see his side manage the puck better.

    The bench boss thought his team had lapses in Friday’s 2-0 loss to the Cougars in Regina, where the Huskies did have a 31-19 edge in shots on goal.

    “Literally in the second half, it is a sprint,” said Kook. “We have 12 games over six weeks. Before you know it, it is over.

    “You just have to make sure we are in games like this right off the bat. (Friday night), I thought we didn’t play a very good 40 minutes, and we played a good 20 minutes. That is what we are going to try and focus on.”

Cooke sits alone in second on Huskies career wins list

Jordon Cooke picked up his 54th career regular season win for the Huskies.

    Jordon Cooke hit another major milestone before his U of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team departed into the semester break.

    On Saturday at the Co-operators Centre in Regina, Cooke made 23 saves to back the Huskies to a 6-5 victory over the host U of Regina Cougars before 1,020 spectators. The victory was the 54^th of Cooke’s regular season career with the Huskies, which places him alone in second spot on the team’s all-time regular season win’s list.

    Cooke sits one victory ahead of former teammate Ryan Holfeld, who won 53 games playing goal for the Huskies from 2010 to 2015.

    Jeff Harvey sits first on the team’s all-time wins list picking up 60 victories playing goal for the Huskies from 2005 to 2010.

    As for Saturday’s contest itself, the Huskies and Cougars battled in a seesaw affair. With the two sides locked in a 5-5 draw, feisty forward Jaimen Yakubowski scored the winner with 1:32 to play to lift the Huskies to a one-goal win.

    Andrew Johnson scored twice for the Huskies, while John Lawrence, Tanner Lishchynsky and Alex Forsberg had singles.

    Corwin Stevely, Colton Sparrow, Zach McPhee, Cody Fowlie and Ian McNulty replied with singles for the Cougars.

    Michael Herringer started in goal for the Cougars turning away 5-of-8 shots before being pulled at the 5:36 mark of the first period. Dawson MacAuley stopped 36-of-39 shots going the rest of the way in relief for the U of R.

    The Huskies, who have won five straight, sit second in Canada West with a 13-2-1 mark. The Cougars fell to 3-11-2 to sit in the basement of the eight-team Canada West Conference.

    The Huskies return to action on Jan. 5 in the new year, when they travel to Lethbridge to face the U of Lethbridge Pronghorns (6-9-1).

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

-------

    If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.