LETHBRIDGE — The Lethbridge Pronghorns' rocky start to 2020 continues, thanks to Friday's definitive 5 – 2 loss to the fourth-ranked Saskatchewan Huskies at the Nicholas Sheran Arena on Friday night.
 
Twelve different Huskies players grabbed points in the convincing win, a win that saw the visitors land 62 shots on Lethbridge's starting netminder, Jack Burgart. Saskatchewan's Taran Kozun made 22 saves to secure the win for his team.
 
The Huskies were led by defenceman Sam Ruopp with a goal and an assist on five shots. Andrew Johnson and Donovan Neuls rounded out the three stars of the game.
 
Period one saw four combined goals, starting with a trio from the visiting Huskies. Saskatchewan's Tanner Lishchynsky forced a turnover in the neutral zone and Logan McVeigh carried it into the Pronghorns zone. McVeigh found a lane to Carson Stadnyk in front of Burgart, and Stadnyk buried it low blocker side to open the scoring.
 
Inside the seventh minute, the Huskies set up a similar play to their first goal, this time on a partial two-on-one featuring Donovan Neuls and Carter Folk, the former forcing his pass between two Pronghorn defenders and the latter one-timing it past a netminder in desperation.
 
The third Saskatchewan goal came about halfway through the frame, as Neuls got the puck loose to Jeff Faith at the high point, and his shot beat a screened Burgart to widen the Huskies lead to three goals.
 
Lethbridge began to dig into the deficit late in the frame as Russ Maxwell and Torrin White paired up on a two-on-one. Russ gets the puck to White just to the side of Kozun and backhands it behind the goalie to close the gap by a goal.
 
The second frame started on relatively even footing, despite the Huskies outshooting the Pronghorns 23 - 6 in the first period alone. Lethbridge showed glimpses of a push early on, but Saskatchewan found a way to score their fourth not long into the frame. 
 
After digging it free from behind the Lethbridge net, Saskatchewan's Justin Ball found a rushing Sam Ruopp in front of Burgart, and he one-timed it top-shelf to restore the three-goal lead.
 
Just past the game's halfway point, following a penalty to Spenser Jensen for slashing, Dalton Sward recovered the puck from a Lethbridge faceoff win, connecting with a breaking Luke Coleman who tipped it past his only defender at the Huskies' blue line. Catching the aggressive Kozun on his heels, Coleman's puck touched the twine on a backhand-forehand deke to cut into the lead once more.
 
Five minutes later, Saskatchewan negated the Coleman short-handed goal thanks to the offensive vision of Evan Fiala, whose poise in the high slot allowed him to take advantage of an open shooting lane to restore his team's three-goal lead for the final time in the game.
 
With the win, the Saskatchewan Huskies (13-4-2, 28 Pts) hold on to third spot in the Canada West conference. The Lethbridge Pronghorns (5-13-1, 11 Pts) sit in eighth place in the conference as they battle the UBC Thunderbirds (4-11-4, 12 Pts) and the Regina Cougars (5-12-2, 12 Pts) for the final spot in the Canada West playoff race.
 
Game two of this weekend's set takes place Saturday, January 11, at the Nicholas Sheran Arena. Puck drop is at 7 PM. All of the action can be watched on Canada West TV presented by Co-op.