Cameron Doherty, Huskie Athletics
SASKATOON – For 267 minutes and 32 seconds Saskatchewan Huskies netminder Taran Kozun was perfect, with that mark setting a new Canada West record for a regular season consecutive shutout streak in the Huskies 6-1 victory over the Mount Royal Cougars on Feb. 2 inside Merlis Belsher Place.
Stretching from near the end of the second period on Jan. 19 up until the 15:58 point of the third period tonight, the second-year from Nipawin was unbeatable over nearly four complete games as his 267:32 mark was 12 minutes longer than the previous record set by Kris Lazaruk of the Calgary Dinos in 2014-15.
Jesse Forsberg tallied twice while Carter Folk, Collin Shirley and Sam Ruopp all added a goal to help the Huskies sweep Mount Royal and move their record to a conference-best 23-3 in the process.
Connor Chartier scored the lone goal for the Cougars with Brad Kennedy picking up an assist. Mount Royal falls to 11-10-5 with the loss and are holding onto fifth place in the conference despite their current six-game losing skid.
In the process of setting the record, Kozun made 26 saves for his 19th win of the season. In net for Mount Royal, Colin Cooper recorded 33 stops on the night.
After a cagey start to the game Folk scored the first goal of the contest when he jammed home a puck past Cooper from right in front of the net.
Saskatchewan went on a parade to the penalty box after that goal however and the Cougars best chance of the frame came from the hard work of Jamal Watson, who stole a puck and moved it over to Connor Rankin. The third-year forward tried to outwait Kozun but the Huskies' goalie came up big for the stop to send the teams into the first intermission with the score 1-0.
Five minutes into the second period Forsberg drove hard to the net and while Cooper made the initial stop, the Huskies' captain was able to gather the rebound, patiently work his way past a pair of sliding defenders and rifle the puck in off the post for his first of the night.
The Huskies made the lead three with four minutes left in the frame.
A Cougars penalty had just expired and before the defender could work his way back into play, Folk moved the puck over Jaimen Yakubowski and while his blast on net was stopped, Donovan Neuls made no mistake in burying the rebound.
An action-packed third period saw the teams combine for four goals.
Forsberg, Shirley and Ruopp all struck first for the Huskies before Chartier scored the lone goal of the weekend for Mount Royal to snap Kozun's record-setting streak.
Both of these teams will wrap up their 2018-19 Canada West regular season slates next weekend.
The Huskies will travel to Winnipeg for a two-game set with the Manitoba Bisons while the Cougars will play a home-and-home series with the Lethbridge Pronghorns, beginning in Calgary on Friday night.
All of that action can be watched live on canadawest.tv.