Aggression boils over as Huskies bully Cougars to victory

University hockey fans in Saskatchewan shouldn’t have to question the rivalry between the University of Saskatchewan Huskies and the University of Regina Cougars.

Before the two teams began playing the eventual 5-1 Huskies win over the Cougars Saturday at Merlis Belsher Place, they jawed at each other and nearly fought at centre ice during warm-ups with no referees in sight.

Huskies head coach Dave Adolph had to intervene from the benches to separate the players.

“My role in that was peacekeeper,” Adolph said of the near-brawl at centre ice before the game. “I think the University of Regina was shocked that I was standing on the red line.”

Friday’s 7-2 Huskies victory in Regina had a violent end to it as a melee consumed all players on the ice. Punches from both sides were thrown and 45 penalty minutes were dished out.

It seemed scores still needed to be settled on Saturday.

“In a back-to-back, doesn’t matter if it’s the NHL or junior (hockey), it carried over,” Adolph said.

Wyatt Johnson and Corwin Stevely were each given a 10-minute misconduct before the opening puck drop for their part in the scrum and continued to vent their frustrations into the game as a rare fight between the two broke out at the end of the first period.

“You never see that in college hockey, ever,” Adolph said plainly about the two-days of nastiness. “Never does it carry over, not like that. I thought our guys were lost in the first period and part of the second. It was a distraction and it’s something we don’t need in our game.”

Regina managed to win the fight but were outmatched in nearly every other component of Saturday’s game as Saskatchewan continually peppered goaltender Dawson McCauley throughout.

First breaking through for the Huskies was Carter Folk, who finished up some neat passing from Jaimen Yakubowski and Donovan Neuls for the goal less than three minutes into the game.

The Huskies were able to extend the lead on a Parker Thomas goal as he stick handled around McCauley to finish a 3-on-0 opportunity in the second period.

Then it was Layne Young’s time to shine. After scoring an astounding 107 points in 57 games for the North Battleford Stars in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, the 21-year-old has had a tough time getting into the Huskies lineup.

Less than two minutes into the third period Young was able to breakthrough for his first goal as a Huskie.

“We finally got an opportunity to play (Young) in a game and jeez, he got rewarded,” Adolph said. “We’ll take away the positives from that.”

“I’m really glad (Young) scored because he’s a really good, young player.”

McVeigh added another goal before Shane Collins extended the lead to 5-0.

Regina’s Tyler Kreklewich would be the lone Cougars player to land on the score sheet after sneaking a wrist shot through Huskies goaltender Taran Kozun.

The two-game series ended with 173 penalty minutes assessed to both teams, proving that the provincial rivalry is alive and well in Canada West hockey.