The Rundown - Quarterfinals

Four teams took to the ice this weekend as we looked to narrow the field from six to four teams who are in pursuit of a Canada West banner and a berth to the U SPORTS National Championship in Elmira, Ontario. UBC and Mount Royal earned the byes this week by finishing atop their respective divisions while Saskatchewan, Regina, and MacEwan are already making plans for next season. That left Alberta, Calgary, Manitoba, and Trinity Western to sort out who would be moving on to the Canada West semifinal series and who would join the three teams in getting ready for next season. Let's find out which two teams are moving on in this week's edition of The Rundown!

FRIDAY: The opening game between the Spartans and Dinos took place at Father David Bauer Arena where Trinity Western came in looking to put forth a good effort after missing out on hosting a playoff game. Calgary was looking to find its winning ways again after stumbling into the playoffs on a three-game losing streak. Both teams knew that winning meant everything in these games so a good start in Game One would be crucial!



Spartans goals: Ella Boon (1), Kyra Anderson (1), Keelyn Pisani (1), Kailey Ledoux (1), Ella Boon (2)
Spartans assists: Sadie Isfeld (1), Brook Dorash (1), Kara Yackel (1), Sadie Isfeld (2), Michela Naccarato (1), Emily Karpan (1), Chayce Kullman (1), Kyra Anderson (1), Olivia Leier (1)
Spartans netminder: Kate Fawcett (26/27)

Dinos goals: Jess Martens (1)
Dinos assists: none
Dinos netminders: Amelia Awad (5/8) in 12:10; Maisie Cope (22/24) in 47:50

Result: 5-1 victory for Trinity Western over Calgary.

SATURDAY: The Dinos came into Game Two in do-or-die mode as they needed to rattle off two-straight wins to keep their season alive. The Spartans, having won Game One, were looking to close out the Dinos and head home with the sweep in order to get ready for the semifinal series. Would we see a Game Three played in this quarterfinal on Sunday?



Spartans goals: Chloe Reid (1), Chloe Reid (2), Kyra Anderson (2), Olivia Leier (1)
Spartans assists: Kailey Ledoux (1), Kyra Anderson (2)
Spartans netminder: Kate Fawcett (15/17)

Dinos goals: Josie McLeod (1), Bree Kennedy (1)
Dinos assists: Kyla Mitenko (1), Brooklyn Anderson (1), Solana Cooper (1), Alex Spence (1)
Dinos netminder: Maisie Cope (27/30)

Result: 5-1 victory for Trinity Western over Calgary. Trinity Western wins the series 2-0 over Calgary and will move on to the semifinal.

FRIDAY: The opening game between the Bisons and Pandas took place at Clare Drake Arena where, historically, no team not named the Pandas wanted to play. Manitoba, however, had just come off a series against Alberta where they had taken three of four possible points, so it seems that the Bisons might be carrying some momentum into the quarterfinal having won five-straight games that started with the win in Edmonton. Alberta had swept MacEwan one week earlier, so something had to give as these two teams met with a berth in the semifinal on the line!



Bisons goals: Brenna Nicol (1), Julia Bird (1), Louise Fergusson (1), Alyssa Rasmuson (3), Emily Shippam (1), Sadie Keller (1)
Bisons assists: Claire Moorman (1), Glory Plett (1), Hanna Bailey (1), Brenna Nicol (1)
Bisons netminder: Emily Shippam (18/20)

Pandas goals: Ryann Perrett (1), Hayleigh Craig (1)
Pandas assists: Annie King (1), Riley Smith (1), Jadynn Morden (1)
Pandas netminders: Mackenzie Dojahn (22/25)

Result: 5-2 victory for Manitoba over Alberta.

SATURDAY: The Pandas came into Game Two with their backs against the wall, and that always seems to make them more dangerous because they've been in this situation before. The Bisons come into Game Two playing their best hockey of the season with six-straight wins to their name, and they were looking to make it seven wins and a sweep over the Pandas to wrap up the series. Would this series need a third game on Sunday?

Bisons goals: Sophia Heidinger (1), Kelsey Huibers (1)
Bisons assists: Sara Harbus (1), Louise Fergusson (1), Louise Fergusson (2)
Bisons netminder: Emily Shippam (18/21)

Pandas goals: Abbey Bourdeaud'hui (1), Ryann Perrett (2), Hailey Carothers (1), Natalie Kieser (1)
Pandas assists: Raegan Yewdall (1), Kelly Stanford (1), Annie King (2)
Pandas netminders: Mackenzie Dojahn (34/36)

Result: 4-2 victory for Alberta over Manitoba.

SUNDAY: Do or die. Win or go home. All the marbles. For two teams separated by a single point in the standings and having split four games this season, it seems almost appropriate to have a fifth game to determine the winner. With the rubber match set to go Sunday night, which of these teams will earn the right to play in the Canada West semifinal next weekend?

Bisons goals: Brenna Nicol (2), Norah Collins (1), Brenna Nicol (3), Sadie Keller (2), Hanna Bailey (1), Julia Bird (2)
Bisons assists: Aimee Patrick (1), Louise Fergusson (3), Brenna Nicol (2), Sadie Keller (1), Julia Bilous (1), Jessie Haner (1), Brenna Nicol (3)
Bisons netminder: Emily Shippam (20/22)

Pandas goals: Abby Soyko (1), Natalie Kieser (2)
Pandas assists: Riley Smith (2), Abby Soyko (1)
Pandas netminders: Mackenzie Dojahn (15/19) in 29:33; Grace Glover (4/4) in 29:15

Result: 6-2 victory for Manitoba over Alberta.

There are no standings to worry about per se, but the playoff picture needs to be updated. Frankly, I don't get how Trinity Western crosses back into the Western Division when they had crossed into the East Division as the third-place team, but that's what Canada West has in its setup this season. I think it's dumb as it seems that the second-place teams were the ones doing the crossing. Make it make sense.

It should be noted that the TWU-UBC series has times posted in PST while the Manitoba-Mount Royal series has times posted in MST.

West Preview

No one should be surprised that UBC was 6-0 against Trinity Western this season, outscoring them 20-7 in those games. On UBC ice, the Thunderbirds outscored the Spartans 10-4, so one might think this series favours the Thunderbirds in every way. It won't be as lopsided as one may believe, but I suspect that the very well-rested T-Birds will let Grace Elliott, Annalise Wong, Jaylyn Morris, and Elise Hugens do what they do best to get them back to the Canada West Final.

Trinity Western will push back with the likes of Kyra Anderson, Ella Boon, and Chloe Reid who had great series against the Dinos, but they're going to need Kate Fawcett to steal them a game at the very least if the Spartans hope to dethrone the Thunderbirds in the Battle of British Columbia. Trinity Western was good against Calgary, but they'll need to be better against UBC if they want a banner.

East Preview

The Mount Royal Cougars will welcome the Manitoba Bisons to Calgary next weekend. The Cougars were 3-1-0 against the Bisons this season including one overtime victory, and were 2-0 at home back in October against the Bisons. Clearly, things have changed for the Bisons as the calendar flipped, so this should be a good test for the Cougars if they want to play for a banner. They'll be led by Allee Gerrard, Sydney Benko, Kiana McNinch, and Julia Duke up front while Summer Fomradas and Isa McPhee push the offence from the blue line. Scout Anderson will likely see the bulk of the goaltending work.

The Bisons come into Calgary having eliminated last season's Canada West champions, having won seven of their last eight games, and having won five of their last six road games. Led by Brenna Nicol, Sadie Keller, and Louise Fergusson through the Alberta series, they'll try to kick-start the big guns as Dana Goertzen, Aimee Patrick, Norah Collins, and Sara Harbus had just one goal and one assist combined. Emily Shippam will need to come up big once again next weekend, but that secondary scoring has to please Jordan Colliton.

It will also mark the first playoff series between student and master as Colliton was Mount Royal's assistant coach under Scott Rivett last season. Will the familiarity she has with the Mount Royal lineup help the Bisons in their quest for a banner? We'll find out next week!

Honour Roll

Each week on The Rundown, I highlight the best performances from the weekend's games. It won't always be the top scorer or the best goalie, but I'll have a reason for who gets picked each week. Making history is always a good reason to be named to The Honour Roll, but Emily Shippam is not the player named this week. Instead, it's a player who racked up six points in territory where visitors haven't had much success in helping her team win twice on the road as Manitoba Bisons forward Brenna Nicol made The Honour Roll this week!

In seven previous playoff games, Nicol had recorded two goals and an assist. She doubled that output in three games this season, scoring the opening goal and adding the primary assist on the game-winner in Manitoba's 5-2 win on Friday. She was kept off the scoresheet on Saturday, but she roared back in the elimination game on Sunday by scoring twice - opening the scoring and scoring the game-winner - and adding two more helpers in pushing the Bisons to a 4-1 lead through 29:33 of play as the Bisons took control of the game.

Six points on a weekend is always big, but to be involved in so many key goals that helped the Bisons advance is where Brenna Nicol elevated her play. The Bisons will need another big weekend out of her next week, but her efforts on key plays this weekend did not go unnoticed as Manitoba Bisons forward Brenna Nicol made the list!

Stay Out Of The Box

Manitoba entered the series with Alberta with the third-best penalty-killing efficiency in Canada West, having surrendered just ten power-play goals on 85 shorthanded opportunities (88.2%). One has to wonder if the team simply abandoned all sense of how to kill penalties on their late-season surge because the Pandas were quick to inflict damage at an alarming rate with the extra player.

Alberta scored five times on 12 power-play opportunities, pushing the Bisons' penalty-killing efficiency to 58.3% - easily the worst of the four semifinalists. That being said, it also goes to show how important both sides of the special teams coin are as Alberta scored five of its eight total goals with the player advantage while Manitoba survived their series with Alberta in spite of the woeful PK numbers.

How, you ask? By going 6-of-9 on their own power-play opportunities.

If Manitoba cleans up their PK effort over this next week, the Cougars may have their hands full in their semifinal series next weekend.

Olympic Success!

The image to the right is the medal ceremony at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, and #53 who is receiving her bronze medal is none other than UBC Thunderbirds forward Vanessa Schaefer! Schaefer played in all seven games for Switzerland, but was held pointless in the tournament. She finished with a -4 rating in 64:12 of ice time, averaging 9:10 of ice time per game. However, she and her teammates would capture the bronze medal after a 2-1 overtime win over Sweden as the defence-first Swiss come home with hardware!

Schaefer returns home to prepare for the series against Trinity Western where she'll play a more prominent role for the Thunderbirds. Can she add a Canada West championship and a U SPORTS National Championship to her Olympic bronze medal?

Total Members: Two

I wrote a couple of articles this weekend about Manitoba Bisons netminder Emily Shippam being credited with a goal on Friday night, and Saturday's article was a plea for better record keeping in women's hockey by all parties, especially by those whose entire purpose is to manage the game. I had also asked that if anyone knew of any other goalies who had scored in U SPORTS, and I got a whopping zero responses to that request which was expected.

Where I didn't expect silence was from both Canada West and U SPORTS who had a chance to really promote Shippam's goal as a "look over here" moment. Neither even attempted to post any history of goalie goals by women who scored which is all sorts of disappointing considering that U SPORTS and/or the OUA should have footage of the Nicole Kesteris goal somewhere. Instead, it was radio silence again.

If anyone can tell me what responsibilities U SPORTS and the four conferences have in keeping and updating women's hockey records, I'd be grateful. HBIC has more U SPORTS women's hockey history on it than the sites for those five "entities" do, and that's shameful.

Closed On Weekends

If it wasn't for the Calgary Dinos being true to their YouTube effort, there likely wouldn't have been highlights for Game Two of their series against Trinity Western. As you likely saw with Manitoba and Alberta, there were only Game One highlights because the Pandas don't make the effort and Canada West, who posted the Game One highlights, didn't bother to post anything for Game Two.

It's hard to be supportive of anything Canada West does at this point. They seem to be more in the camp of "don't" than "do", and I honestly wonder what their purpose is other than saying "we exist". Once again, I'll bring in Bob and Bob from Office Space to ask the obvious question because it seems like Canada West's offices are closed on weekends when most of their member schools are competing.

The Last Word

One team from British Columbia will head to the U SPORTS National Championship. That's guaranteed with the Trinity Western-UBC semifinal series as these two teams meet in the playoffs for the first time. Can the Spartans upset the Thunderbirds for their first appearance in the Canada West final or will we see the Thunderbirds play for another tapestry for their arena en route to Elmira, Ontario?

The other semifinal features the two most recent National Champions from Canada West as Manitoba won in 2018 while Mount Royal captured the championship in 2023. There has obviously been turnover on the Bisons' side, but the efforts we've seen from Manitoba since the calendar flipped to 2026 cannot be ignored. The Cougars, though, have been in this situation before and they'll be ready to roll on Friday when the series opens. Is this the year the Cougars earn a banner or will the Bisons get a shot at adding another to their arena?

We'll know those answers by next Sunday. Four teams are left standing. Only two will advance. Who will those two teams be?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Why Keeping Records Matters

I spent more time than I probably should have in searching for information that shouldn't be this hard to find. As we know, Manitoba Bisons goalie Emily Shippam was credited with a goal last night in the Bisons' quarterfinal game against the Alberta Pandas in Edmonton, and I had put my stake in the ground that she may have been the first U SPORTS women's hockey netminder to have that honour. Both U SPORTS and Canada West have zero history of goalie goals posted anywhere, so I took a leap of faith that Shippam's goal made her the first woman to do so. I am here today to say that she was not first, but she's now part of a very small group of goalies.

That brings me to the goalie pictured above. Seen in the image is former Toronto Varsity Blues netminder Nicole Kesteris who suited up for the Varsity Blues from 2010-2015 in the OUA. Kesteris was recruited by former Varsity Blues head coach Karen Hughes to join the team where she showed she was ready for the university game by being named to both the OUA and CIS all-rookie teams in 2010-11 after going 8-8-0 with a 2.13 GAA and a .933 save percentage.

Kesteris would add a number of accolades to her résumé in her university career including graduating with a major in human geography and a double minor in sociology and environmental geography, but we're going to focus on a game on October 20, 2012 when the Varsity Blues were hosting the the Windsor Lancers. It was in this game where Nicole Kesteris made U SPORTS history.

According to the recap from that game, "with the score 3-3 in the second, Windsor pulled their goalie on a delayed penalty call, setting the stage for Kesteris’ goal. The Blues goaltender was credited with the goal after she made a pad save on a Windsor forward in the slot. The Windsor player then fired a pass back to the point, where it missed its’ intended target and travelled the length of the ice into the Lancers net." Apostrophe catastophe aside in that final sentence, Kesteris would score Toronto's first-ever goalie goal and, from what I've read, U SPORTS' first women's hockey goal by a goaltender.

As you can see, Kesteris was credited with an unassisted goal to make it 4-3 at 14:33 of the second period with Brittany Kirby being the Varsity Blues player who had committed a tripping penalty.

According to Kesteris' biography on the Varsity Blues website, that first Toronto goal was upgraded to "became the first female goalie in the CIS to be credited with a goal versus Windsor on Oct. 20". Again, I take no issue with this claim being made because there is simply no record of any other goaltender having scored a goal, but that's more of a function of U SPORTS and its conferences not having records online for people to read and reference. Which is all sorts of wrong.

This only makes things worse for everyone in hockey because, during my wee-hours-of-the-morning research, I stumbled across the player biography for Shanley Peters who suited up for the University of Wisconsin-Superior in the NCAA. The Manitoba-born, former Pembina Valley Hawks netminder played from 2010-14 with the Yellow Jackets, and her biography reads, "Made history on November 15 when she was credited with a goal in a 2-2 tie with UW-Eau Claire, making her the first goaltender in women's hockey history to score a goal".

Except she wasn't the first as I showed above. Nicole Kesteris scored on October 20, 2012 while Peters scored her goal on November 15, 2013, nearly 13 months after Kesteris had achieved the feat. Was she the first Yellow Jackets netminder to be credited with a goal? I'm sure she was and I won't debate that. Was she the "first goaltender in women's hockey history" to score? Absolutely not by all measures.

If we want to make things even more murky in the women's hockey goalie goals category, the goal by Peters erases the history made by Manitoba-born, former Pembina Valley Hawks goalie Corinne Schroeder as well. Schroeder was credited with a goal on September 25, 2021 with the Quinnipiac Bobcats as she scored against the Maine Black Bears. At the time, I had written that Schroeder was "the first female goalie in NCAA history to be credited with a goal of any kind" which we now know is not accurate thanks to Shanley Peters.

NCAA goals aside, this is why keeping accurate records in women's hockey is important. In just this article, I've debunked several statements and claims made by teams and organizations because the information is not accurate in any way nor is it easily accessible. The point is that no one should have to spend time hunting down simple stats like I did last night-slash-this morning. And the fact that me doing this work has now affected other records in other leagues is why accurate and accessible record-keeping is vitally important.

Because none of U SPORTS or its respective conferences make this information available, I guess I'll have to step in to fill the void despite me not being on those organizations' payrolls and despite me not having any association with those organizations or their respective teams. Here is the list of goalies who have been credited with goals in U SPORTS women's hockey that I have found:

• Nicole Kesteris (TOR) vs. Windsor Lancers - October 20, 2012
• Emily Shippam (MAN) at Alberta Pandas - February 20, 2026

If you know of other U SPORTS women's hockey goalies who have accomplished the feat, please let me know either by emailing me or posting in the comments, but you must provide a date and evidence that it happened. As much fun as it may sound, I don't really want to spend hours at night hunting down information that U SPORTS and the four conferences should already be making available to everyone.

Congratulations to all of Nicole Kesteris, Emily Shippam, Shanley Peters, and Corinne Schroeder for being part of a very exclusive club! Based on the four goalies who were mentioned in this article, it seems that Manitoba has a firm grasp on the unviersity-level women's hockey goalie goals, but membership is always open to any goalie who can accomplish the feat! Goalie goals are always awesome!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Is This The First One Ever?

I normally save all the Canada West women's hockey chatter for Sunday on The Rundown, but tonight will need its own entry on HBIC because we might have witnessed history tonight. As you know, HBIC will push whatever article I may be working on to a later date if there's a goalie goal scored with video evidence, and it appears we have one tonight that could be very historic! The woman to the left is Manitoba Bisons netminder Emily Shippam, and she was the starter for the Bisons tonight against the Alberta Pandas in Edmonton in Game One of the Canada West quarterfinal series. I'll recap the game on The Rundown, but it appears that Shippam might now be in the record books!

First, let's go to the video of why Shippam may have made history!
Shippam was credited with a goal at 18:55 of the third period after the shot by Alberta Pandas forward Hailey Carothers went off Shippam's arm, off the boards, and down the ice into the vacant net to put the Bisons up 4-2 in the game, eventually winning 5-2. What makes this goal historic is that I can find no other records of any Canada West or U SPORTS women's hockey goalie being credit with a goal of any kind! Emily Shippam may be the first goalie to have a goal credited to her in any U SPORTS women's hockey competition!

To give you an idea of how rare this is in U SPORTS hockey, I went all the back to 2009-10 to see how many goalies had scored in both men's and women's hockey. I found three goalies who did in men's hockey as Alberta's Kurtis Mucha scored in 2012-13, Western's Lucas Peressini scored in 2018-19, and Saskatchewan's Taran Kozun scored in 2019-20. The women's stats for the same time period are non-existant entirely as it only shows the normal goaltending stats rather than having point totals included. Because of this, it appears that Emily Shippam is the first goaltender to be credited with a goal!

Because Canada West and U SPORTS have criminally underreported women's statistics for decades, I'm making it official: Manitoba Bisons goaltender Emily Shippam is the first U SPORTS women's hockey goaltender to be credited with a goal. I'm willing to change this if anyone can find proof that another goaltender was credited with a goal before Shippam, but this is the image that matters right now.

Clearly, Emily Shippam played a big role in the Bisons win tonight as she recorded the victory after stopping 18 shots, and she scored her first career U SPORTS goal at 18:55 of the third period to put Manitoba up 4-2! That's a great day at the office for Shippam as the Bisons are one win away from a Canada West semifinal appearance after Shippam helped her own cause in Game One with a goal!

Congratulations go out to Manitoba Bisons netminder Emily Shippam who, based on all the reading and research I've done, is the first goaltender credited with a goal in U SPORTS women's hockey history!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

***Update: Emily Shippam is NOT the first goalie to be credited with a goal. I'll have more on this on Saturday when I discuss the lack of statistical records kept by U SPORTS in another HBIC article.***

The Hockey Show - Episode 700

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, somehow made it to the 700th show in its history. There aren't many weekly shows that have lasted as long as this hour has, but we're climbing the rungs of history at UMFM. When you consider that The Simpsons has been on the air for 37 seasons and only have 805 episodes to their name, we must be holding our own in the hockey chatter realm. In all honesty, though, we are grateful and thankful for each and every person who has tuned in for a segment or a season or the entire run of shows, and we're hoping to deliver another good one today! Buckle up because we have a couple of great guests joining us tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

You may have heard us talking about the Cross Border Classic earlier this year as we looked to get Sledge Hockey Manitoba a little real estate on the hockey map, and Teebz and Jason are excited to chat with Team Manitoba goaltenders Paul Hamm and Jon Derry tonight! We'll talk to them about being selected as the netminders for Team Manitoba, how they got into sledge hockey, their other pursuits, the upcoming Cross Border Classic, the Olympics, the Paralympics, and more! This show should be a beauty with medals on the line in Italy and two great guests who love the game of hockey in Paul and Jon, so hunker down around the radio for The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!

If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The UMFM website's streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store.

If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard! And because both Teebz and Jason are on the butterfly app where things are less noisy, you can find Teebz here and Jason here on Bluesky!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason chat with Team Manitoba parahockey goalies Paul Hamm and Jon Derry about playing the game, their upcoming series, the biggest tournaments on the planet, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: February 19, 2026: Episode 700

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

A Corny Evening Of Hockey

If you're a fan of Lego, you know that the company has been producing a line of minifigures over the last number of years that feature all sorts of wacky characters along with a number of licensed characters not released in sets. One of those figures that came was the one you see to the right as they had a minifigure dressed up like an ear of corn. What one would use this for in a Lego setting outside of being a mascot is harder to imagine, but what if there was a hockey team who decided to dress like the corncob guy? You may chuckle at that question, but that's happening this weekend in the ECHL as one team has decided to get "corny" with their look on Saturday. Settle in and lend an ear for this story of kernels, skates, and rather unique uniforms that will hit the ice!

The Iowa Heartlanders will host the Cincinnati Cyclones on Saturday, but the midwest ECHL team won't be in one of their normal uniforms that to Saturday's game being "Cornfed Country Night" at Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa! It seems that the Heartlanders are pulling out all the stops for this one as they'll give away Corn Thunderstix to fans as they come into the arena, there will be a pregame pyrotechnic show, the arena rock will be replaced with country music, and there will be giveaways for fans all night!

Of course, there will be the normal arena games between periods, and you know there will likely be a few cornhole boards setup along the concourse. It sounds like the concession stands will feature a lot of popcorn, there will be face-painting for the kids, and fans who want a larger-than-normal beverage can purchase the Heartlanders Boot Mug ticket package which comes with the boot-like mug seen to the left! Unfortunately, the toe appears to not be fillable so there won't be any physics needed to prevent spills, but that's a pretty cool promotional item nonetheless! I wonder how many Heartlanders Boot Mug tickets have been sold?

Ok, since I lured you into this article with the promise of corncob-clad players, the real deal are the uniforms to the right. Obviously, the players have to wear helmets so the hats shown in the image is just for fun, but the Iowa Heartlanders will wear the uniforms you see to represent "Cornfed Country Night" on the ice! I honestly can't think of any other team ever dressing as ears of corn for a hockey game, but it seems we can cross that one off the "did it happen in hockey?" list. If you're thinking, "I want one of those," fans can get their hands on these uniforms thanks to the Heartlanders putting them on Dash Auctions where both the jerseys and the pants shells can be won!

My hope is that a good crowd comes out on Saturday for this game between the Heartlanders and Cyclones. Currently, both teams sit at the bottom of the ECHL Central Divsion with the Cyclones having a nine-point edge on the Heartlanders. Cincinnati is 21-22-3 this season while Iowa is 16-28-4, so both teams will need to win games if they hope to have a shot at the playoffs. The good news is that Cincinnati is just six points back of the Indy Fire for fourth-place in the Central Division, but the Heartlanders have some serious work to do being 15 points back. A win on "Cornfed Country Night" would help that cause!

It should be a fun night on Saturday at Xtream Arena in Coralville and we'll get to see what the Heartlanders look like as they skate around the rink as ears of corn. "Cornfed Country Night" wouldn't work everywhere and it may not even be wanted anywhere else, but it works well in Iowa where, 90 minutes northeast, there was a story about a summer sport that came to life thanks to a cornfield!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!