From The Daily Evergreen
By Zach MacFarlane
Washington State begins its January journey, taking on the Washington Huskies at the home rink of the Tri-City Americans in Kennewick, Washington.
With a month left in the regular season, the Cougars sit eight points behind the third-place Huskies in the conference standings. Coming off a significant sweep against Eastern just before the break, WSU looks to continue snapping losing streaks with its contest against UW.
The Cougars faced off against Washington in a two-game series in Seattle earlier this season, but were unsuccessful in both games. Although they came up short yet again, it was the closest they had come to beating UW in a number of years, holding the Huskies to within one goal for five of six periods.
The Cougars have registered an even 12-12 record this year. The Huskies are just three games above the Cougars with a 15-7 record and 43 team points.
The Cougars have their weapons, but have much more depth than ever before this season. The top stars for WSU, team captain Cole Carlson and alternate captain Van Rayner, have combined for 56 points so far this season. Meanwhile, rookie David Bushkin is tied with Samuli Sihvonen for third-most on the team with 17. A handful of players are closing in on their tenth point of the season.
To counter that, the Dawgs have a sporadic offense with seven players having 10 points or more and four more players having over 20 points. The high-powered offense, led by forward Benjamin Lampman and Dominic Wolfe, has recorded 112 goals in their 22 contests.
The goal-tending matchup should be the difference-maker yet again. With only three goals scored in the first five periods in the first series, WSU goaltender Alexei Kuhl held off over double the shots his teammates put up on the opposition. He comes into the new year with a .909 save percentage.
UW carries multiple strong goaltenders, with Jonah Nash and Zach Reddy both posting a record of 6-3 this season. Nash has registered a .921 save percentage, while Reddy trails behind with a .909.
The cross-state rivals will kick off the new year battling it out at 7 p.m. Friday night and 4 p.m. Saturday at the Toyota Center.
(Originally published at https://dailyevergreen.com/193849/sports/apple-puck-rivalry-kicks-off-new-year-at-toyota-arena/#)
