Bisons Rewind: Bring On The Dogs

While most of the Canada West teams focus on the Alberta Pandas as being their arch-rivals with the success that the Pandas have had over the years, we often forget that there are some other great rivalries in Canada West hockey. UBC always seems to find themselves in battles with various Canada West teams. Mount Royal was always a tenacious opponent for a number of the teams at the top of the standings. And we can't forget about the Saskatchewan Huskies who always seem to in the hunt for a Canada West championship every season.

As we learned yesterday, the Bisons crossed the mid-race line in first-place as they went into the December break as they held a three-point advantage over the UBC Thunderbirds. Manitoba would pull of a 9-1-1-1 record through the second-half of the season, earning them the top spot in the Canada West Conference, a quarterfinal bye, and the #1-overall ranking nationally by U SPORTS.

That doesn't mean that these playoffs would be a walk in the park for the Bisons as just three points separated second-place through fourth-place as Saskatchewan earned the second-place bye, setting up tow quarterfinal series: the first featureing third-place UBC against sixth-place Mount Royal while the second series pitted fourth-place Alberta against the fifth-place Regina Cougars.

UBC would need a pair of overtime victories, including a triple-overtime win in Game One, to sweep Mount Royal out of the playoffs while Alberta used a pair of 2-1 victories to eliminate the Regina Cougars in a sweep. That would set the semifinal series up that saw UBC travel to Saskatchewan while Alberta made the trip further east to meet the Bisons.

Saskatchewan would skate past UBC by scores of 2-0 and 2-1 to book their place in the Canada West Final while securing a berth at the U SPORTS National Championship in London, Ontario. It would either be Alberta or Manitoba who would face them, and things didn't start well for Manitoba in Game One with a 4-1 loss. However, an epic flight back from Pyeongchang saw Venla Hovi return to the Bisons lineup following a bronze-medal performance with Finland at the 2018 Winter Olympics, and she'd record an assist in the Game Two victory by Manitoba as Alexandra Anderson scored the overtime winner at 9:19 of the extra period to send the series to a third and deciding game.

Honestly, in looking back at the games we should have saved, not saving the Game Three quadruple-overtime battle between Alberta and Manitoba was a mistake. Who would have known, though, it would take seven periods of hockey to find not only a winner, but one single goal that night on Sunday, February 25, 2018? It would be Venla Hovi's shot from the high slot area that Jordy Zacharias would deflect past Kirsten Chamberlin at 13:30 of the seventh period to give Manitoba the 1-0 victory and a chance to play for the Canada West title while securing the second berth at the U SPORTS National Championship in London, Ontario.

And that would lead us to Friday, March 2, 2018 where the second-place and eighth-ranked Saskatchewan Huskies rolled into Wayne Fleming Arena for a Canada West championship series with the first-place and top-ranked Manitoba Bisons. Here's the broadcast!

Game Notes

• Manitoba and Saskatchewan split the season series 2-2 in 2017-18, but Saskatchewan actually won the tie-breaker by outscoring Manitoba 6-5 in the four games.
• All four goalies in the series - Lauren Taraschuk and Rachel Dyck for Manitoba and Jessica Vance and Chloe Marshall for Saskatchewan - were 1-1 on the season in the season series.
• Alanna Sharman and Caitlin Fyten were the leading scorers for Manitoba with two points apiece in the regular season against the Huskies. Kaitlin Willoughby and Emily Upgang led the way against Manitoba with two points each that season against the Bisons.
• Vance's first start for the Huskies came on November 10, 2017 against the UBC Thunderbirds who she shut out by a 2-0 score.
• The only team that Vance didn't record a shutout against this season was the Alberta Pandas.
• This game would be the third-straight game that Lauren Taraschuk started in the playoffs after Rachel Dyck was tagged for the loss in Game One against Alberta. Dyck was outstanding in that game, but Jon Rempel made the switch in trying to spark his team for Game Two.
• Including shootouts, Saskatchewan was 1-2 in extra time in the 2017-18 season.
• Entering this game, Manitoba was 5-1 in extra time in 2017-18 including the playoffs to this point.
• Kaitlin Willoughby came into the series with a goal and an assist in two playoff games in 2017-18.
• The move by Jon Rempel to insert Allison Sexton into the lineup in place of Mekaela Fisher would prove wise in this series, but Sexton was quiet in Game One in her first playoff game.
• To this point in the playoffs, the Bisons had only trailed for three minutes and 18 seconds in three games against Alberta.
• To this point in the playoffs, the Huskies had only trailed for 20:42 in two games against the Thunderbirds.
• Steve Kook, the head coach of the Huskies, was given the game misconduct following a very physical third period in Game Two against the Thunderbirds. It was assessed at 20:00 of the third period thanks to his discussion with officials.
• The controversy at the end when Fyten scores is that it appeared that Venla Hovi might be called for a penalty after interfering with the Huskies defender attempting to close the gap on Fyten to prevent her from getting the shot away. The referee who was closest to the play seemed to blow his whistle moments before the puck went into the net - audible on the broadcast, might I add - but he waved off his whistle blast when challenged by the Huskies.

Captain Caitlin Fyten's overtime game-winning goal with just 8.6 seconds left in the first extra frame sent Manitoba to the 1-0 victory in Game One, and we'd get set for Game Two the next night where we'll pick up the next Bisons Rewind broadcast tomorrow as the Huskies needed a win to stay alive while the Bisons looked to close out the series and earn the Canada West championship banner!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!