The University of Saskatchewan Huskies women's hockey team led from nearly start-to-finish en route to a 3-2 over the provincial rival Regina Cougars at Merlis Belsher Place.
The Huskies outshot the Cougars 32-20, en route to the series sweep as they moved to 2-0-0 on the season.
"Sweeps are hard to come by in our league. So anytime we can get four points over the weekend, that's a good thing," said Huskies head coach Steve Kook.
Jasper Desmarais was the story of the night, as the first-year player scored her first career U SPORTS goal just 3:36 into the hockey game and that got the Huskies out on the right foot.
After scoring in the home-opener last night in Regina, Kennedy Brown re-deflected a Sophie Lalor wrister early in the second, before Jordyn Holmes extended the Saskatchewan lead to three, an advantage they would hold through 40 minutes of play.
Regina made things interesting, as Jordan Kulbida scored just eight seconds into the third, before Ireland Sorestad potted her second of the season less than 50 seconds later to make the score 3-2. But that was as close as the visitors would come on the evening.
"I thought that tonight was actually a real solid game for the whole 60 minutes for us, less 45 seconds," said Kook.
Kook was pleased with how his team performed in the second night of the home-and-home.
"They're a fast club, like they're really fast and I thought we did a good job in battling that speed and I thought we did a way better job of managing the puck today, which we needed to do," said Kook.
Along with Desmarais, fellow-first years Kendra Zuchotzki and Larissa Bohlken added their first-career points in the green-and white on the night. The trio were among 14 rookies making their U SPORTS debuts this weekend. Kook was pleased with how his young-team handled the game in the waning moments.
"The defense are growing leaps and bounds just by fire here. They're right in the fire," said Kook.
That's where these rookies grow is stressful situations like that, where you're putting them in positions of trust and they perform. So I'm real excited how they're going to come out of this weekend."
Huskies goaltender Camryn Drever stopped 18 of the 20 shots she faced on the evening, including a flurry around her cage late with the Cougars pressing for the equalizer. The third-year netminder also shut the door on a Regina penalty shot at the end of the first period, which kept Saskatchewan up one.
Regina, who received 29 saves from Arden Kliewer, fell to 0-2-0 following the defeat and they'll look to get into the win column for the first time next weekend, as they play host to the Alberta Pandas.
Meanwhile, the Huskies are back on home ice, welcoming in the visiting Manitoba Bisons for a pair of conference clashes, as they look to build upon their red-hot start.
