REGINA, Sask. - Friday night (Jan.10) the Saskatchewan Huskie men's hockey team, ranked sixth in the U SPORTS Top 10, returned to regular season action with a U-Prairie Challenge meeting with the Regina Cougars at the Co-Operators Center. The Dogs earned a 6-3 road victory thanks a trio of powerplay goals and scores from five different student-athletes in green and white. With the win the Huskies improve to 13-4-0 on the season and keep pace with the division-leading Alberta Golden Bears while the Cougars drop to 3-14-1. 

The win, coupled with the Huskie women's team's victory Friday night, also extended the USask lead in the U-Prairie Challenge to 21-7 with two more hockey games set to come on Saturday (Jan. 11). 

In an explosive opening period, the Huskies and Cougars combined for five goals, with the visiting Dogs answering on two occasions to tie things up before ultimately taking the lead after the first 20 minutes. After Regina's Eric Pearce got things started on a powerplay, the conference's best unit on the advantage returned the favour when Chantz Petruic scored his eighth goal of the campaign.

Just over four minutes later, following another UofR score, Ty Prefontaine would settle things at 2-2 with a point shot that made it through traffic and into the netting. Petruic would then give the Huskies their first lead of the night with his second of the game and ninth on the year.

A slow second saw just one goal, a Parker Gavlas score on the rush thanks to a heads-up pass from Ethan Regnier. 

In the third, the home team would cut the lead to one before the Dogs returned to the scoresheet. This time it was Chase Bertholet who beat Regina goalie Adam Evanoff on a 2-on-1 rush. For the former ECHLer, it was his first career Canada West goal after joining the Huskies over the Christmas break. 

Vince Loschiavo would solidify the win on another late powerplay, scoring his eighth of the campaign and bringing the USask powerplay to 50% (3/6) on the night.

The Cougars and Huskies are back it tomorrow night, this time at Merlis Belsher Place in another UPC showdown. Get your tickets at HuskieTickets.com.