Over, and over, and overtime – What the puck?

At what point do you flip a coin for the winner?

Cougars set Canada West record for longest game ever played

Article: Autumn McDowell – Sports Editor

[dropcaps round=”no”]A[/dropcaps]fter the marathon that they endured this weekend, something needs to be said about the Cougars women’s hockey team.

Our own Regina Cougars went to war with the Saskatchewan Huskies last weekend, and neither of the teams would go down without a fight.

Friday night’s contest resulted in a 0-1 Cougars loss in double overtime, but not even two extra periods would be enough time to settle the score between these teams the very next night. Saturday night featured a Cougars 2-1 win in quadruple overtime with second-year defenceman Alexis

Larson being crowned hero, which sent the team to the all-important game three.

Once again, Sunday’s game went to double overtime, and with fans holding up signs saying “Just pass it to Larson,” it looked as though the Cougars might pull off the upset, but unfortunately, the Cougars couldn’t come out on top, losing 2-1 to their provincial rivals. And it only took nine regulation periods and eight overtime periods to do so.

In total, a combined 260 shots were fired during the over 280 minutes of hockey that was played across the three-game series. The Cougars’ win in game two set a new Canada West record for the longest ever played at over 122 minutes.

I don’t think these two teams could be more evenly matched if they tried. Neither goalie gave up more than two goals during any game of the series, despite facing nearly 50 shots, forwards on each side of the ice had quality chances down the stretch and everyone was battling in the corners and strong on the puck.

Playing at such an intense level during these marathon games night after night is a testament to both teams work ethic, and more importantly, their strength and conditioning this season.

What makes this performance extra impressive is all of the doubt that was cast on the Cougars hockey team from the beginning. In pre-season coaches polls, the Cougars were slated to finish fourth, and powerhouse Alberta was poised to finished first, which they did in the regular season.

During their first playoff series, no one thought the Cougars would stand a chance against Alberta, who had won three out of four games against Regina during the regular season. But, in true Cougars fashion, the team persevered, and slayed the top dragon, earning themselves a spot in the Canada West final – something that no one thought they could do.

Even though the Cougars didn’t finish their season with the Canada West banner, they made everyone in the Cougars athletics community proud, proved the critics wrong and made many people wish that they could be out on the ice with them, including myself.

Those games, though I assume were extremely tiring, seemed like such fun to me. Being on the edge of your seat for the entire game, knowing that one of you could be the hero at the end of it and be swarmed and dog piled by all your teammates is something that I wish I could experience.

Seeing the women’s hockey team play this season really makes me wish that I would have been allowed to play hockey when I was growing up.

[button style=”e.g. solid, border” size=”e.g. small, medium, big” link=”” target=””]Image: Jordan Dumba/The Sheaf[/button]