Rested Huskies hoping for Cinderella run at national championship

It has been nearly a month since the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team has played in a competitive game.

But heading into Thursday night’s game at the U Sports championship tournament against the top-ranked Concordia Stingers, the Huskies feel they’re ready to go toe to toe with one of the best programs in the country.

“(The tough competition) pushes us to practise our best every single day and do our best on and off the ice,” Huskies goalie Camryn Drever said ahead of Thursday’s game. “If you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best, so I’m not mad we’re starting off against Concordia. I’m excited — bring them on!”

The Huskies last played Feb. 18 against the Calgary Dinos, who won 2-0 in the third game of a best-of-three Canada West quarterfinal.

Since then, Saskatchewan head coach Steve Kook and the team took some time off to regroup. Ten days ago, they got back on the ice to prepare for what will be a major challenge ahead.

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Kook said he talked to others in the hockey world about ways his team can manage to get back into playoff mode after nearly a month off since its last game.

“Fortunately, our coaching staff knows a lot of people that were in this situation where they were hosting and lost out early,” Kook said. “We talked to (Saskatoon Blades forward) Fraser Minten, whose (team) hosted when he was in Kamloops.

“I had my assistant coach from years ago come back and address the team the other day. He got traded to the Weyburn Red Wings when they won the RBC Cup (and) they had 51 days off (from the end of their SJHL playoffs). They all told us to take time off, get away from the game — and fortunately for us it was reading week, so they really got away.”

Kook said when the players came back 10 days ago, they scrimmaged against themselves and also a nearby neighbour.

“We’re fortunate to have one of the best AAA U18 teams in the country here, so we did some controlled scrimmages with the (Saskatoon) Stars and were very cognizant of not trying to get injured coming into this thing,” Kook said.

“I think the team is ready, we’re just waiting to face these guys (Concordia) over here.”

Concordia is ranked as the No. 1 seed because it went undefeated in the regular season and playoffs.

The game Thursday might seem like an uphill battle, but the Huskies have learned recently that miracles can happen.

Just last week in the U Sports men’s basketball Final 8 tournament in Laval, the hosts were ranked as the eighth seed.

Laval had only won six games during the 16-game regular season, but qualified for the tournament as its host. The Rouge et Or ended up upsetting three of the top-ranked teams in the country and won the national championship.

Concordia head coach and former American Olympian Julie Chu suggests the Stingers aren’t looking too far ahead and are focused on playing a good Saskatchewan team.

“For our team, whether we’re a one seed or an eight seed, we just wanted to be a part of this and know everyone is great,” Chu said. “We know that Saskatchewan is a really good team and we have to be prepared.

“What we did in the past is awesome – it’s fun and great to win – but we haven’t won anything right now, so that’s our preparation and focus. We know that they aren’t going to make it easy and hopefully we aren’t going to make it easy on them too.”

If there’s one challenge facing Concordia outside of the Huskies, it will be the expected sold-out crowd at Merlis Belsher Place on Thursday night.

Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saskatchewan time.

The action at Merlis Belsher Place is to begin at 1 p.m., when Waterloo takes on St. Francis Xavier.

The quarterfinals will continue Friday with UBC facing Montreal at 1 p.m., followed by Toronto taking on New Brunswick at 7 p.m.

The winners of those games will play in the semifinals on Saturday. The bronze- and gold-medal games will take place on Sunday.