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SPORTS AND RECREATION HOCKEY 12 Wednesday February 24 2016 6.8103 in x 6.3125 in By JOHN LYNCH Fort Smith native Shaun MacPherson and the Mount Royal Cougars are setting them- selves up for an epic battle they hope will re- dene their history. Over the weekend the Cougars knocked o the University of British Columbia Thunder- birds 7-1 and 3-0 to capture their best-of-three quarternal matchup in two straight games. This weekend the Cougars will face o against the University of Alberta Golden Bears for the rst time ever in the playos. The semi- nal series to be played in Edmonton goes Friday Saturday and if necessary Sunday. Last year the team knocked o the Sas- katchewan Huskies in the rst round of the playos before losing to the University of Calgary in the second round. The Cougars entered the playos on a high note. Their 17 wins eight losses and three overtime losses was good enough to give the squad third place in the regular season. The eight-team league also features the Universities of Lethbridge Saskatchewan Calgary Manitoba and Regina. Neither Le- thbridge nor Regina made the playos. We wanted to get into the playoffs that was our goal and we made it Cougars coach Bert Gilling said. Look we were even chal- lenging for a bye into the last week of the season. Now we are very happy and proud of our guys now and relish the opportu- nity to go up against University of Alberta in the semifinals. We know it is going to be tough but it is another milestone for our program. MacPherson injured in playoff tilt against UBC UnfortunatelyFridaysgameagainstUBCdid notgowellforMacPherson.Itwasnotknownat presstimewhathisstatuswillbeforthesemi-- nalseriesagainsttheGoldenBearsthisweekend. Shaun sustained a lower body injury in Fridays game that I did not know about until Saturday morning Gilling said. Right now he is day-to-day. MacPherson said a big goal for the team would be to get to the nal because that would guarantee them a spot in the University Cup Mar. 17-20 in Halifax. MacPherson nished the regular season with two assists in 25 games and an im- pressive 8 ranking putting him in seventh place among his 24 team mates on the roster. Even among top rookie scorers in the league MacPhersons plus-minus ratio would put him amongst the top six group when considering that statistic alone. That would be fantastic he said when talking about the possibility of heading east next month. MacPherson signed with Mount Royal last spring after nishing his junior career as captain of the Kindersley Klippers of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League SJHL. Last season he had 10 goals and 26 assists in 52 games and was widely re- garded as one of the best defencemen in the SJHL in 2014-15. Gilling said MacPherson has continued to progress with his play and is seeing about 15 minutes of ice time per game. Some nights he has been getting a little more penalty kill time Gilling said. He is in the regular rotation and there is a feeling for his future growth with the team. In the other quarter-nal series the Uni- versity of Calgary Dinos defeated the Uni- versity of Manitoba two games to one and will now travel to Saskatoon this weekend to take on the University of Saskatchewan in the other semi-nal. PhotocourtesyofMountRoyalUniversity Fort Smiths Shaun MacPherson is day-to-day after suering a lower body injury in a playo game against the University of British Columbia on Feb. 19. His Mount Royal Cougars will face the University of Alberta Golden Bears in the semi-nals.