A third straight playoff showdown between the Regina Rams and Saskatchewan Huskies takes place Saturday in Saskatoon, and bragging rights are on the line.
The provincial rivals met in each of the last two Canada West championship games with the Rams pulling an upset in 2024 and the Huskies returning the favour in 2025.
Mirroring what’s happened in all six Rams-Huskies confrontations since the start of the ’24 season, those playoff matches were close one-score games. That’s not expected to change this time either.
The Huskies had the best offence in the conference this year and as a team scored just under 36 points per game. The Rams had the best defence in Canada West, surrendering the fewest points overall at just over 18 per game.
Saskatchewan boasts the most prolific passing attack, while Regina has the top rushing offence.
Mark McConkey has been a player or coach with the Rams for nearly 20 years and notes the recent comparisons are striking. He sees it as a sign the Rams program has caught up to the Huskies.
“When I played, it was sometimes some pretty one-sided games,” said McConkes, now Regina’s coach. “We beat them a couple times in a few years and then it went away, and then it came back. Right now, we’re playing good football. Every time we play them, it’s close.”
The Rams running back situation has been a hot topic all season long. Reigning Canada West leading rusher Marshall Erichsen missed last year’s playoff confrontation with Saskatchewan due to injury and was limited to just two games this year.
Carter Ashman has been carrying the load and ended up as the conference’s second-leading rusher and nearly led in all-purpose yardage, too. He swears he’s not running out of gas and isn’t hoarding all the credit either.
“I’m nothing without my O line,” Ashman told the SportsCage. “They’re the best in Canada West for sure.”
Ashman will be backed up by Kaiden Banfield, who’s back after seeing limited duty in the regular season finale against Manitoba. Damien Cherry is available, too. Senior Christian Katende has missed the last two games with injury and will be a game-time decision.
The Rams have had trouble with third quarters at times this season. Never was that more on display than in the lone meeting with the Huskies when they were outscored 21-0 in 38-31 loss in early October.
Huskies quarterback Anton Amundrud, who led the conference in passing this year, shredded the Rams for 369 yards that day. It was easily the worst showing or Regina’s defence all season, an event still fresh in the memory of Rams defensive coordinator Sheldon Gray.
“We’ve looked at a lot of the mistakes we made,” Gray said. “We’ve made our adjustments for their offence and how they attacked us and we need to learn from that. We can’t have a repetition of that third quarter or even some of the drives they had in the first quarter.”
The Huskies are paying on home turf where they have won 10 straight games and haven’t lost since falling to the Rams in the Hardy Cup two years ago. They’re clearly favoured in this game but windy conditions could play a factor in Griffiths Stadium. The elements are felt a lot more than in other parks like Regina’s Mosaic Stadium. This has all been noticed by the U of R staff, including coach Gray.
“There’s no coverage,” he said. “It just blows in from the prairies up there. We know when the wind is howling.”
It remains to be seen if that slows down the high-powered Huskies passing attack like it did in their last home game. They barely squeaked out a win over the last-place Alberta Golden Bears before getting thumped by UBC last week in chilly, wet west-coast weather. That loss cost them the top seed entering the Canada West playoffs.
Rams receiver Kaleb Senz missed the season finale in Manitoba but is expected back for this game. Meanwhile, Huskies defensive back Sam Pratt has been ruled out.
Beautiful football weather for this game. Temperatures are forecast to hang around 11 C at kickoff before cooling down to 8 C by the end of the game with lots of sunshine over Griffiths Stadium. Winds are expected to hit 35 km/h before slowing.
This game will be broadcast live on www.620ckrm.com The pregame show starts at 1:45 p.m. with kickoff at 2.
McConkey also came on the SportsCage on Thursday. Check out his segment below.
