REGINA, Sask. - A capacity crowd at The Co-operators Centre was in for a wild ride on Saturday night, as the No. 3-ranked Saskatchewan Huskies pulled out a 6-5 win in a crazy game over the University of Regina men's hockey team.
Andrew Johnson scored twice for the Huskies, and John Lawrence, Tanner Lishchynsky, Alex Forsberg and Jaimen Yakubowski also found the net. Corwin Stevely, Colton Sparrow, Zach McPhee, Cody Fowlie and Ian McNulty replied for the Cougars.
There were fireworks in the opening minutes on ShineOn night, as the Huskies scored just 19 seconds in and again at the 1:48 mark. Regina got one back at 2:09 but the Huskies regained their two-goal lead a few minutes later.
Lawrence scored the first goal for the Huskies, batting a rebound past Michael Herringer for his fifth of the campaign. Johnson doubled the lead shortly after, taking a pass in the slot from Sam Ruopp and ripping a wrist shot glove side on Herringer. Regina answered thanks to Stevely's second, as he deflected a Brody Luhning point shot to beat Jordon Cooke. The Huskies answered thanks to Johnson again, as his pass intended for Levi Cable went off a skate and through the legs of Herringer.
Dawson MacAuley came on in relief of Herringer following Johnson's second goal, stopping 11 Huskie shots in the final 14 minutes of the first period.
Regina kicked off the scoring in the second period, as a point shot from Austin Bourhis was knocked down in front and Sparrow was able to slip it around Cooke to cut the lead to one. McPhee notched a powerplay goal just over two minutes later, deflecting a high point shot from Tyler King to draw the Cougars even.
The third period had the same hectic pace as the first, with a flurry of goals in the middle of the frame. The Huskies took a 4-3 lead at the 6:11 mark of the third as Lishchynsky was in the right spot at the right time but Regina replied a minute later as Fowlie put home a rebound to even the score again. Saskatchewan went back up at 8:24 thanks to Alex Forsberg but again Regina answered as McNulty put a wrist shot by Cooke at the 9:15 mark.
The two teams struggled for traction for a few minutes but Yakubowski found the net for the game winner with 1:32 remaining. The third-year forward went flying down the right wing and flipped a shot on goal from a tough angle, but it slipped through the pads of MacAuley and trickled just across the line for the deciding marker.
The Cougars pressed for another equalizer in the final minutes with MacAuley out of his net, but Cooke was up to the challenge, making a couple of big saves as the Huskies held on.
MacAuley made 36 saves for the Cougars (3-11-2) while Cooke stopped 23 shots for the Huskies.
Both teams will head into the December break and be back in action the first weekend of January. Regina will host Mount Royal University for a weekend set on Jan. 5-6. Saskatchewan will kick off the new year with a visit to Lethbridge.