Scores Are Important

The answer to the very simple question, if you're a fan of Manitoba Bisons women's hockey, is yes. It's Friday evening and work had me out of town for most of the day, so I kind of expected that the Bisons' website may have some updates on it considering that they were tagged on social media and used their own social media to broadcast the message in which they were tagged. Somehow, though, the Bisons' website shows no scores nor updates on how the women's hockey program is doing in Europe. Once again, the point of having a website might have been lost on the those who oversee the production at Bisons Sports.

Making their way to Slough, England yesterday were the Manitoba Bisons women's hockey team who were in town to face the Queen Bees Ice Hockey Club. The team originally called Bracknell, England home which is 30 minutes southwest of Slough, but the team can now be found playing on the outskirts of London's west end. The team is currently assembling itself for another season of high-tempo hockey in the Women's National Ice Hockey League, but they have a number of players back from last season's championship team thus far and are looking to make noise in England again with their brand of hockey!

What makes a game between the Bisons and one of England's most successful senior women's team important is that this keeps the game growing in England where we've seen the national squads do amazing things over the last couple of years combined with having a British netminder in Ella Howard join the Calgary Dinos last season. Playing good competition makes teams better, so this exhibition game between the two clubs can help on both sides as the Bisons prepare for another competitive Canada West season one month from now while the Queen Bees get to play good competition to help raise their games. Having better teams and higher competition to play will only make English hockey better in the long run.

Because club teams don't have the same ability to select the best players from across the land for games as the French National Team and Dutch National Team did, I expected the Queen Bees to be on the wrong end of the score on Thursday. That's not to say they wouldn't give a heckuvan effort nor would it be fair to say they were overmatched in any way, but there is still some disparity between Canadian university hockey and English senior women's hockey. That should be fairly obvious, so let's see how the Bisons fared against the Queen Bees!

Ok, so a bit of a rough outing for the Queen Bees as they had the lamp lit seven times behind them, but this is still just an exhibition game. I wouldn't take it as a sign of the fortunes the Queen Bees may have this season nor would I put a lot of faith in seeing Manitoba score seven times as a reflection of how they'll play against Canada West competition. It does bode well that the Bisons seem to be finding chemistry as their European tour winds down, but we'll see how they play against the Saskatchewan Huskies in two weeks' time.

Again, there was no boxscore posted anywhere online that I could find, but Rachel Cartwright score the Queen Bees' lone goal with assists going to Ellie Wakeling and Chrissy Newman. I had mentioned that Cartwright was one of the players to watch back on Monday after she led the Queen Bees in goals and points last season, and it seems she's back at it early this season with her goal yesterday. Wakeling and Newman also got mentions on Monday for their offensive abilities from last season, so the Queen Bees seem to have a few key peices back and ready to roll for their 2022-23 Women's National Ice Hockey League season.

Because there's no boxscore, we can't get a sense of who had good games for the Bisons, but it would seem that this trip proved beneficial for the squad if they're finding line combinations, defensive pairings, and chemistry while determining who the de facto starter will be following the departure of Erin Fargey. Having an idea of who will play with whom should put them ahead of the pack of Canada West teams who are just opening camps this past week.

While the scores in the games against the French National Women's Team favoured the 12th-ranked team on the planet considerably, the Bisons were able to score wins against the 19th-ranked Dutch National Women's Team and the Queen Bees Ice Hockey Club in England to even their record at 2-2 on this European tour. They saw rookies score goals, they had veterans play well, and the goaltending got better as the tour went on. All of those positives are a good foundation on which to build for September 17 and 18 when the Bisons play the 2022 bronze-medal winning Saskatchewan Huskies in Yorkton, Saskatchewan!

The season may have started in Europe, but the work starts now for this Bisons women's hockey team. There are no nights off in Canada West hockey, so it will be up to the women to keep this momentum rolling when they land back on Canadian soil. The potential is there, but it's just waiting to be reached.

Now if only we could get Bisons Sports to give the same efforts in updating its website, we'd all be moving in the right direction.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!