Huskies hockey teams hit final sprint for playoff byes

Taran Kozun leads the Huskies men’s hockey team on to the ice.

    The University of Saskatchewan Huskies hockey teams are so close to earning playoff byes players could get giddy dreaming about a weekend off.

    Going into their respective final four regular season games, the Huskies men’s and women’s hockey teams are solidly in the running to claim respective top two finishes in their respective Canada West Conference standings. That type of finish would earn them byes into their respective best-of-three Canada West semifinal series.

    Both teams had moments in the campaign where it appeared a top two finish might not be possible. Both squads have gone on impressive tears to make what once looked maybe impossible possible.

    The Huskies men’s team’s defensive unit was decimated by injuries at the start of the campaign, and they stumbled out of the gates with an 0-3-1 record often missing as many as four regulars on the back end.

    Throughout the rest of the season, the injury bug kept biting the Huskies, but that didn’t stop them on going on a remarkable 18-1-1 run over their past 20 regular season games.

    With having won their last seven in a row, the Huskies sit second in the Canada West men’s standings with an 18-4-2 record. Their 38 points in the standings equals the first place U of Alberta Golden Bears (19-5), but the Golden Bears hold the standings tiebreaker winning three out of the four head-to-head regular season encounters between the two sides.
    Both teams inched a little closer to locking up positions in the top two of the Canada West standings, when the Mount Royal University Cougars downed the U of Calgary Dinos 5-4 in double overtime on Thursday in Calgary.

Collin Shirley leads the Huskies men’s hockey team in scoring.

    The Dinos sit third in Canada West with a 16-6-3 record for 35 points in the standings, while Mount Royal sits fourth with a 16-7-0-2 record for 34 points.

    If the Huskies and Golden Bears earn four more standings points over their final eight games, they will both be assured of finishing in the top two of Canada West.

    The Huskies are riding a seven-game winning streak and travel to Winnipeg, Man., to face the U of Manitoba Bisons on Friday and Saturday. The Bisons sit fifth in Canada West with a 9-12-1-2 record.

    A sweep over the Bisons would guarantee the Huskies at least a second place finish in the Canada West standings.

    The Huskies have vaulted to this point thanks to the efforts of third-year starting netminder Taran Kozun, who has a 14-3-2 record, a 1.96 goals against average, a .929 save percentage and four shutouts. Kozun became the first goalie in the history of the Huskies program to score a goal this season too.

    The Huskies scoring has been evenly spread throughout their roster this season. Third-year left-winger Collin Shirley tops the Huskies in scoring with nine goals and 15 assists for 24 points.

    Rookie centre Jared Dmytriw is second in team scoring with nine goals and 14 assists for 23 points. Fifth-year right-winger Levi Cable is third in team scoring with 10 goals and 10 assists for 20 points.
    Sophomore defenceman Gordie Ballhorn tops the backend in scoring with two goals and 10 assists for 12 points.

    The Huskies men’s team have shown they can persevere, and that tangible might be the strongest it has ever been in recent campaigns.
    As for the Huskies women’s team, they looked like they might be on the outside looking in when it came to finishing in the top two of the Canada West standings posting a 6-4-2-1 record after 13 regular season games.

    At that point, the Huskies caught fire winning nine of their last 11 games including their last six in a row.

Jessica Vance (#30) is having a solid season for the Huskies women’s team.

    The Huskies have a 15-6-2-1 record. Due to the fact you earn three standings points for regulation wins in women’s hockey, the Huskies sit third in Canada West with 46 standings points coming off 13 regulation wins, two extra time wins and three extra time setbacks.

    They trail the U of Calgary Dinos by three points in the standings but have a game in hand. The Dinos have a 16-7-0-2 record for 49 points coming off 15 regulation wins, one extra time win and two extra time setbacks.

    The Dinos moved ahead of the Huskies in the standings downing the Mount Royal University Cougars 4-1 on Thursday in Calgary. That game was played in front of 10,002 spectators at the Scotiabank Saddledome, which is a U Sports record for a women’s hockey game.

    The Huskies hold the standings tiebreaker with the Dinos and have won all four head-to-head encounters between the two teams.

    The U of Alberta Pandas sit first in Canada West with a 17-7 record with 50 standings points coming off 16 regulation wins and one extra time win.

    The Huskies will try and do their best to hold serve this season weekend hosting the rebuilding U of Manitoba Bisons (8-15-1) on Friday and Saturday at Merlis Belsher Place with 7 p.m. and 5 p.m. respective start times on both nights.

    U of S has surged upward in the standings allowing the second fewest goals in Canada West at 34.

    The strength of their team is star fourth-year veteran goalie Jessica Vance, who has an 11-3-2 record, a 1.30 goals against average, a .938 save percentage and five shutouts. Vance was a member of the Canadian women’s hockey team that won silver at the FISU Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, last year.

    She has played well enough to earn invites to camps in Canada’s national women’s team system.

Bailee Bourassa leads the Huskies women’s team in scoring.

    Vance is aided by a veteran defensive unit that includes three fifth-year players in Leah Bohlken, Emma Nutter and Morgan Willoughby. Bohlken was a member of Canada’s silver medal winning team at last year’s Winter Universiade.

    She tops the Huskies in defender scoring with five goals and four assists for nine points.

    The veteran back end includes steady fourth-year defender Kayla Kirwan, who missed about 10 games earlier in the season battling the injury bug.

    The Huskies offence has been paced thanks to a strong season from fourth-year right winger Bailee Bourassa, who leads the team in scoring with 11 goals and six assists for 17 points. Bourassa’s goal and point totals are career highs.

    No matter how their respective final four regular season games unfold, the Huskies are guaranteed to start the post-season by hosting a best-of-three series. They just hope that first series will come in the Canada West semifinal round, because that gets them one step closer to their respective U Sports national championship tournaments.

Regret being jaded with Willoughby, Bohlken on social media

Morgan Willoughby anchors the back end for the Huskies women’s team.

    A social media misstep made by myself has kind of been eating at my insides for a number of weeks now.

    Back on Jan. 5, I took a break from writing posts on this blog, and I resumed my work on this site last Friday. Around the period before and after when I announced I was taking a break, I was feeling really jaded.

    In the days before and after I took my break, fifth-year defenders Morgan Willoughby and Leah Bohlken of the U of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team shared items on their social media channels stating TSN should broadcast the world under-18 women’s hockey championships like it does for the world juniors on the men’s side.

    Canada made the final in both tournaments, which were played earlier this month. Canada fell 2-1 in overtime in the under-18 women’s final to the United States in Bratislava, Slovakia.

    In the final of the men’s world juniors in Ostrava in the Czech Republic, Canada downed Russia 4-3 to win gold.

    Before I took my break, Willoughby shared a post on her Facebook account that said the world under-18 women’s hockey championships should have been broadcast on TSN like the men’s world juniors was.

    In the comments section, I wrote basically something that said the will wasn’t there to broadcast the world under-18 women’s hockey championships and there was a similar lack of will to cover women’s hockey at any level by mainstream media outlets. I left the impression that seeing world under-18 women’s hockey championships would be something that would never happen.

    At the start of my break, Bohlken shared a petition asking TSN to broadcast the world under-18 women’s hockey championships. I did sign and share the petition.

    I also put a jaded comment on Bohlken’s post stating I hoped that would help and noted the only two media outlets at the time that ever paid me on a freelance basis to write articles on women’s sports. I also said there wasn’t a lot of will for that sort of thing.

    With Willoughby’s shared post on Facebook, at least mostly just those on her friends list could see it. Bohlken’s shared post was on Twitter, so everyone could see that as Twitter is a public social media forum.

    In both cases I shouldn’t have made the jaded comments. I regret the comments and apologize to both ladies.

Leah Bohlken gives the Huskies an offensive spark on the back end.

    Both have sizable followings of younger players in Saskatchewan coming up through the female game, and those younger players get pumped up when Willoughby and Bohlken take a stand on something.

    In sharing those social media posts, Willoughby and Bohlken are both individually standing up for what is right. When they do that, they should be supported.

    Willoughby is from Prince Albert, Sask., and she has the same honour code as one of that community’s biggest hockey heroes in Dave Manson, who is an alumnus of the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders and a long time NHLer. Her following is particularly strong in Prince Albert.

    She always seems to do the responsible thing, put others before herself and likes to ensure everyone is getting along on the social front. Willoughby can play gritty and tough on the ice, which is something the girls playing in the younger levels of hockey seem love.

    Bohlken has a lot of street cred with the female players in the younger levels of minor hockey just due to the fact she was on Canadian women’s team that won silver at the FISU Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, last year.

    The younger female players took notice when Bohlken had nine goals, seven assists and a plus-three rating in the plus-minus department in her 27 regular season appearances for the Huskies last season.

    She can also play very tough and physical on the ice.

    From what I understand, Bohlken is a big favourite among the current players that play for her former Regina Rebels female midget AAA hockey team. Her younger sister, Larissa, is a key defender for the Rebels.

    I remember the elder Bohlken made a statement once before on Twitter a couple of seasons back saying all hockey arenas should have the proper amenities for female players like male players. She noted she had to change a few times in broom closets playing on boys teams growing up.

    Again, Bohlken is totally in the right.

    When Willoughby and Bohlken want to take stands on issues on social media channels and they are in the right, I should be supporting them instead of making jaded comments.

    Of course, it is well-known how the troll aspect goes on social media forums. I shouldn’t add to that, when people are in the right.

    When university level players like Willoughby and Bohlken do take stands on social media channels and are in the right, girls playing in the younger levels of minor hockey do see it and do see those players taking stands as being more kick ass.

    For me, I should know better, and it is a lesson learned on that front.

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

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