There's little room for error
Feb. 12, 2010 - Regina Leader-Post
By Ian Hamilton
The number-crunching continues for the University of Regina Cougars men's hockey team.
The Cougars are still alive in the race for a Canada West playoff spot, but they need to continue the pace they've been on in recent weeks -- or even improve on it.
"If we felt before that we needed four (wins) in our last six games, we probably need five now -- just because we dropped that one to Manitoba," Cougars head coach Blaine Sautner said Thursday before his squad headed to Lethbridge for games today and Saturday against the Pronghorns.
After beating the visiting Manitoba Bisons 4-0 on Feb. 5, Regina lost 3-2 in Saturday's rematch. That ended the Cougars' winning streak at three.
But the Cougars are 5-2-1 in their past eight games, a run which has improved their record to 9-12-1 and pulled them into the race for a playoff spot.
The Calgary Dinos (10-9-5) hold down the fourth and final spot with 25 points, two more than Lethbridge (10-11-3) and six more than Regina (which has two games in hand on the Dinos). Calgary visits the third-place Saskatchewan Huskies (12-7-3) this weekend.
"We're not done until someone tells us we're done or until we run out of games," said Sautner, whose team swept the Pronghorns when the teams met in Regina in early November. "We're forging ahead and going into every game looking to do what has helped us in the second half.
"But the fewer games you have left, the more desperate you get. I don't think that changes. The guys know where we're at and what has to be done."
The Cougars have been a different team in the second half. After scoring 26 goals and allowing 51 over their first 14 games, the Cougars have scored 30 times in eight games since the Christmas break while holding their opponents to 22 goals.
Regina's power play is better, its forward lines have been stabilized, and its defensive zone coverage has improved. That explains the second-half surge.
Despite the impact those alterations have had on the team's fortunes, the loss to Manitoba on Saturday was deflating.
"If you're 15-and-5 and you lose a 3-2 game, you probably think, 'It's not that bad. We played well. We can rebound from this. Here we go,' " Sautner said. "When you're in our situation and every game is a must-win, 3-2 losses are tough. When you don't get the bounces, that's tough to come back from."
Sautner admitted the Cougars likely were more down after Saturday's loss than they would have been after a defeat in, say, October -- just because they're in the stretch drive.
"No one outwardly said that to anybody else, but they probably were," Sautner said. "My immediate focus was, 'OK, so we didn't get this one. We didn't play badly, but we didn't play our best, especially in the first period.'
"But we can't focus on what we didn't do. We have to focus on what's ahead of us. I wanted to get back to work Monday and get ready for Lethbridge."