‘A Moral Victory’
Bisons take a point off of powerhouse Pandas
Regan Sarmatiuk Staff
After falling to the nationally second-ranked Alberta Pandas by a 6-3 score on Friday, January 27, the Bison women’s hockey team rebounded with a solid effort in the Saturday rematch, coming away with a 1-1 tie. It was the first time that Manitoba has taken a point away from a series versus the Pandas in at least the last two seasons.
“On Friday [we played] horrendous in the first two periods. We stood around and watched them play — they just toally dominated us,” said Bison head coach Jon Rempel.
The Bisons were outshot in the first two periods of Friday’s game, 16-1 and 12-3 respectively, and Alberta scored two goals in both the first and the second period.
In the third period, Rempel switched up his lines a bit, a move that appeared to work, as the Bisons scored three goals in the third — two from Leanne Kisil and one from Stephanie Messner — to draw within one goal of the Pandas.
However, Alberta’s Jennifer Newton was able to capitalize on the power play after an ill-timed Manitoba penalty before adding an empty-netter with less than a minute remaining to secure a 6-3 win for her team.
“We had them on the ropes big-time [in the third period] and we continued that over to Saturday,” said Rempel, whose team had a much stronger start in the rematch.
The first period of the Saturday game featured somewhat of a defensive battle, as the shots were a meager 3-2 in favour of Alberta. The Bisons scored the first goal of the game in the second period on the power play, on a shot from the point by defenceman Amanda Schnell.
“I think that [first goal] sort of seemed to wake them up, because they brought the heat after that,” said Rempel.
Alberta tied the game about 12 minutes later and then proceeded to pepper Bison goaltender Stacey Corfield with shots; the Pandas outshot the Bisons 20-3 in the second period and 12-4 in the third. Corfield, however, put in a stellar performance, stopping 38 of 39 shots faced on the night, and the Bisons were able to tie the Pandas, marking the first time that two of Rempel’s fifth-year players have ever taken a point away from a series with the Pandas.
“It was the best game I’ve seen [Corfield] play this year,” said Rempel. “To be in the game with a team with so much skill and so much ability as Alberta, your goaltender has to be on top of her game, and she was on Saturday, and the rest of the team rallied around her.”
Rempel said that tying the talented Panda squad was a big step for his team and for the program in general.
“Psychologically, going down the stretch [this] particular game could be — I’m not saying that it will be, but it could be — a huge boost for us,” said Rempel.
“Even though it was just a tie, it felt like a win . . . . I felt it was a moral victory, so I was really proud of my group.”
The Bisons, who currently sit in third place in the Canada West conference, four points behind Regina and three points ahead of Lethbridge, will face Lethbridge at home on Feb. 4 and 5. Game time is 2:00 p.m. both days.
