Playoffs get underway Friday - Feb 25th

Cougars Hockey gets back underway this weekend as both the men’s and women’s teams prepare to face off in their respective best-of-five semi-final series, which begin Friday, Feb. 25th.

The Cougar men will face the Augustana Vikings Friday night. Puck drops at 7:30 p.m. at Flames Community Arenas.

The two teams played each other four times in the regular season, with the Cougars getting the better of the Vikings, taking the season series with a record of 2-1-0-1.

The Vikings finished six points behind the Cougars in the regular season, prompting the matchup between the second and third seeded teams. The Cougars are coming off a first round bye, while the Vikings needed just two games to dispatch of the Portage Voyageurs in their best-of-three quarterfinal series.

The Vikings’ Torrie Dyck and Scott Aucoin were one-two in ACAC scoring over the regular season. Barry Horman and Joe Vetere of the Cougars ranked sixth and seventh, respectively.

The other semi-final matchup features the top-seeded SAIT Trojans against the Concordia Thunder.

Meanwhile, the top-ranked Cougar women will face the Grant MacEwan Griffins on Friday afternoon. That game will begin at 4:30 p.m.

The Griffins have been a thorn in the Cougars’ side all season. Despite owning a league-best 21-1-0-2 record, the Cougars’ solitary loss and both ties have come at the hands of the women out of MacEwan.

The Cougars’ roster boasts three of the top four scorers in the conference. Captain Chrissy Hodgson led the ACAC with 33 points, while Chelsey Morrill (28 pts) and Taralynn Suzuki (22 pts.) were the third and fourth leading scorers.

The Cougars also have a two-headed monster between the pipes, as Leanne Pfliger and Kendall Kilgour are both in the top three in GAA and save percentage.

The other semi-final will be the SAIT Trojans against their counterparts from Edmonton, the NAIT Ooks.