MHKY Final Preview: Huskies, Cougars set for championship rematch
Best-of-three series begins Friday night in Calgary
Article by Brian Swane, special to CW
In a rematch of last year’s battle for the Dr. W.G. Hardy Trophy, the 2026 Canada West men’s hockey championship final will see the Mount Royal Cougars host the Saskatchewan Huskies at the Flames Community Arena in Calgary.
All the action will be streamed at Canada West TV – Powered by BioSteel. The FCA is guaranteed to be rocking, as Games 1 and 2 have already been announced by MRU as sellouts.
The best-of-three series gets underway with Games 1 and 2 on Friday (March 6) and Saturday (March 7) at 7 p.m. MST. Game 3 will be played at 7 p.m. MDT on Sunday (March 8) if necessary.
Twelve months ago, the Huskies captured their 12th all-time conference championship, defeating Mount Royal 2-1 in a hotly contested best-of-three final in Saskatoon. The teams split the first two games of the series, before Saskatchewan captured the championship by shutting out the Cougars 3-0 in Game 3 at Merlis Belsher Place.
This time, home ice advantage will belong to the Cougars, who had a record of 12-1-2 at the Flames Community Arena during the regular season. Last week, Mount Royal hosted the Calgary Dinos for a best-of-three semifinal series that went the distance, with the Cougars prevailing by a score of 2-1 in Game 3.
Saskatchewan has already won one series on the road this postseason, sweeping the UBC Thunderbirds at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre in the semifinal round last week. The Huskies had the conference’s second-best away record during the regular season, going 10-3-2 on the road.
Mount Royal went 4-2 against Saskatchewan during the 2025-26 schedule, including 3-1 in games hosted in Calgary. In four of their six regular season meetings, the Cougars and Huskies were either tied or separated by just one goal going into the final minute of the third period.
The Cougars and Huskies feature veteran-heavy rosters, with at least a dozen players on each side that were part of last year’s championship final, including Mount Royal defenceman Clay Hanus, who scored in overtime of Game 2 of that series, and Saskatchewan forward Carter Stebbings, who had a pair of goals in his team’s series-opening victory.
Both teams averaged well over four goals per game during the regular season. Mount Royal is led offensively by Canada West First Team All-Star selection Connor Bouchard, who finished third in Canada West with 39 points from 11 goals and 28 assists during the regular season. Saskatchewan’s Chantz Petruic, a 2025-26 Canada West Second Team All-Star, tied for the Canada West regular season with 18 goals, and also registered 19 assists.
Goals might not be quite as easy to come by in this series, however, as goaltenders Nolan Maier of Saskatchewan and Mount Royal’s Shane Farkas have proven tough to solve so far this postseason: Maier boasts a goals against average of 1.20 and save percentage of .958, while Farkas has a 1.69 goals against average and save percentage of .918.
Regardless which team comes up on top, it will be a monumental triumph. A Saskatchewan victory would give the Huskies back-to-back Canada West titles for the first time since winning three in a row from 1998 to 2000. Mount Royal, meanwhile, is seeking its first-ever Canada West championship.
Following the Canada West championship series, Saskatchewan and Mount Royal will compete at the University Cup, the U Sports men’s hockey championship, in Halifax from March 19-22.