The UofR Cougars and Usask Huskies rivalry continues
hana grace, contributor
The U-Prairie Challenge has wrapped up for the 2024-25 season, and the University of Regina (UofR) men’s Cougars team had a struggle of a weekend set with the University of Saskatchewan (USask) Huskies winning both games; Jan. 10’s game ended with a score of 6-3 in favor of the Huskies and Jan. 11’s ended 7-2. This means that the UofR men’s team has 3 wins and 15 losses for the season.Cougars who scored during the two games included Steven Kesslering, Eric Houk, Eric Pearce, Adam McNutt and Kolton Shindle.
The men’s Cougars played an exhibition game against Briercrest College the first week of January, taking some of the rust off before they kicked back into full gear after a month off.
Carson Sass, the Cougars captain, had faith in his team going into the home and home set with the Huskies: “It’s always fun playing against them. It’s always a tough game, rough game,” he shared. “We like to go at each other, but you know if we stick to our game and play simple, hard, combat their speed, and just play together, we will be fine.”
Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that most of the players involved in these games have played against one another in other leagues, including the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League , the Western Hockey League . Rivalries in those leagues tend to carry into this one, with altercations erupting between players at times.
The UofR’s women’s team had a split weekend against USask: they lost the Jan.10 game 3-1 but came back to the Co-operator’s Centre and won 4-1 on Jan. 11. It was an explosive weekend for Megan Long, who took home three goals in two games. Additionally, Trinity Grove and Shaylee Scraba both took home goals.
The Cougar women showed an excellent performance on their special teams and maintained their zone all game. Paige Hubbard, women’s Cougars captain and fourth- year student, was impressed with her veteran teammates’ leadership. “We like to lead by example, which is nice,” she said. “I think we just believe in each other and trust each other. Megan is going to take that one tee shot at that point and we are going in front to screen those goals.” Both the men’s and women’s teams are facing off against top-seeded teams in the next two weeks: the Alberta Golden Bears and the UBC Thunderbirds. Paige Hubbard is excited to see how her team takes the momentum from their win against USask this weekend into the next four games. “We are going to make sure to go hard in practice and battle each other hard in practice. These games are also fun because it will kick us up a notch. We haven’t seen UBC yet, but we have seen Alberta and we went into overtime the second game and played one of our best games.”
You can catch at the Co-operators Centre in Regina or online at CanadaWest.TV.
