U of S Huskie hockey teams ready to make SaskTel Centre their new home

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“We were told we would never be able to get back in there again. We had another opportunity probably about a month ago, before they finished the full furnishings of the hospital, to get the rest of our stuff out, just in case, for the rest of the season.”

The Huskies will make SaskTel Centre home for this season, whatever that season may look like. They’ll find out by Oct. 8 whether or not the Canada West conference will have regular-season games starting in January.

With a potential season stuck in the COVID penalty box indefinitely, the uncertainty of what lies ahead weighs in the back of the players’ minds.

“Well, in all honesty, it sucks but it’s something we’ve got to roll with and just keep working at it,” admitted Huskies forward Emily Upgang. “We have to expect a season will happen, or some form of a season and games, or whatever. We have to expect that and prepare if it does happen.”

The Huskies have nearly all of their eligible players returning along with 11 newcomers, three of whom are transfer students — two from the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns (sisters Meg and Mallory Dyer) and one from the University of Waterloo Warriors (Jayda Sachs).

“We lost a bunch (from last season) and then we were low on defencemen and that showed last season,” noted Kook. “At one point, we had five D and one of them was (captain) Brooklyn Haubrich who we pulled back from forward. We were short on defence, anyways, and we graduated four.”

Leah Bohlken, Morgan Willoughby, Emma Nutter and Kayla Kirwan have all graduated along with fifth-years Haubrich, Elizabeth Salyn, Shyan Elias, Rachel Lundberg and Courtney Cormack.