Cougars roundup – Feb. 2, 2012

Numerous teams claw at the final playoff spots

Autumn McDowell
Sports Editor

Men’s hockey

All of the playoff spots in the Canada West division have owners, except for the last one, which will come down to a dogfight between the Cougars and the Lethbridge Pronghorns?

The Cougars were hoping for a win last weekend, but knew that the Calgary Dino’s were not about to roll over and hand them the prize.

Friday night featured a goalie clinic as Andrew Hayes and Dustin Butler went toe-to-toe.

Walker Wintoneak lit the lamp for the Dinos just over two minutes into the first, but Tyler Penny replied to get the Cougars on the board with a power-play marker roughly 10 minutes later.

From there, Calgary’s Kevin King plotted the go-ahead goal with 12 minutes left in the second. Despite Hayes’ solid performance in net – facing three times the amount of shots that Butler faced – the Cougars couldn’t seal the deal, dropping 2-1 to Calgary.

Night 2 featured a goalie swap for Regina, as Lucas Gore was between the pipes. Gore faced nearly four times the amount of shots that Butler had to contend with on Saturday. Despite only letting two out of 38 shots passed him, the Cougars were unable to light the lamp on any of the 10 shots they mustered on goal. Kodie Curran and Brock Nixon were awarded with goals, and all the Cougars got was a 2-0 loss and an extra-long and awkward bus ride home.

The Cougars are back in their own barn this weekend to face their archnemesis, the Lethbridge Pronhorns. The Cougars (4-16-2) are now five points back of Lethbridge (6-15-3) for the final playoff spot. Two Cougars wins, and they are back in the mix, but two Cougars losses would end their hopes at the postseason. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7:00 p.m. both nights at the Co-operator Centre.

Men’s and women’s track and field

The track and field team was in action last weekend in Saskatoon at the Sled Dog Meet.

Bruce McCannel, the head coach of the track and field team, was very pleased with how the team performed as it added yet another auto-qualifier for the CIS championships.

Justin Baker won the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.30 seconds, narrowly surpassing the CIS qualifier of 8.32 seconds.

Chantelle Labrecque recorded a personal best by nearly 50 centimeters in shot put on her way to setting a new Cougar record with 13.00m.

Tevaughn Campbell (60m), Ethan Gardner (30m), Arthur Ward (triple jump), and Ahmed Al Kabary (long jump) all earned gold in their respective events while 12 total Cougars athletes made it to the podium.

The Cougars are slated to be back in action in Winnipeg this weekend at the Bison Classic.

Women’s volleyball

The women’s volleyball team was rewarded with two wins last weekend against the UBC Okanagan.    

Friday night was a marathon five-set match that showcased the blocking ability of Tiffany Herman and Michelle Sweeting, who both finished the game with 11 blocks.

The Cougars dropped the first set 25-21 before battling back for a 25-18 win in the second set. Okanagon took the third set by a rather convincing tally of 25-15, but Regina fought back once again in the fourth to earn a 25-22 fourth-set victory to push a sudden-death fifth set.

The Cougars were able to continue the momentum that they gained in the fourth set to carry them to a 15-11 fifth set win.

Regina came out on Saturday prepared for another lengthy match, but ended up scoring three-consecutive set victories (27-25, 25-22, 25-17) against the Okanagan squad.

The Cougars are currently ninth out of a possible 11 in the conference, two places back of the final playoff spot.

Regina (4-12) is scheduled to travel to Alberta (11-5) this weekend to take on the third-place Pandas.

Women’s wrestling

Three members of the women’s wrestling team were in action last weekend at the Guelph Open.

Jasmine Slinn (48 kilograms) and Lisa McKibben (67 kg) both finished fourth place in their respective divisions, while Kristine Longeau – who also wrestled at the 6 kg division – had a rough weekend finishing with an 0-2 record.

The Cougars are slated to play host to both the men’s and women’s Canada West championships from Feb. 10 to 11 at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health and Sport.

The women will look to put a stop to the University of Alberta team, which is currently top-ranked in the league, while the men will look to retain their conference title.