The Rundown - Week 4

Interprovincial rivalries were on full display this week in three of the series while the fourth was about two teams needing to find their way back into the win column. While some teams have jumped out to a solid position in the standings that has allowed them a little breathing room, others are beginning to climb the standings and jockey for positions as the season unfolds. Without question, there are teams that need wins and points, but there are also teams looking simply to create an identity. Eight teams took to the ice this weekend with six looking for provincial bragging rights early in the campaign as we check out all the action on The Rundown!

FRIDAY: While both MacEwan and Manitoba needed points this weekend, there was a bigger stir in the Manitoba capital as head coach Jon Rempel was not behind the bench on Friday for the Bisons after he was reportedly given the weekend off. One had to wonder how this would affect the home team, but the Griffins weren't concerned with who was or wasn't on the bench as this game got underway. Brianna Sank was in net for MacEwan while the Bisons opted to start Meagan Relf!

Manitoba ran into penalty trouble in the first minute, and the Griffins made them pay. Makenna Schuttler's first goal of the season came on the power-play at 1:43, and the Griffins led 1-0 early in this game. The Bisons seemed a little out of sorts as they took another penalty minutes later, and the Griffins would strike again just after the penalty expired as Allee Isley notched her second goal of the season at 6:34 to put the visitors up 2-0! The home side seemingly woke up around the midpoint of the period, though, and they pushed back hard. They'd be rewarded for their increased pressure when Rachel Gottfried teed up a puck that found its way through traffic past Sank at 13:53, and the Bisons cut the deficit to 2-1. The teams exchanged power-plays late in the period, but the intermission would see the 2-1 score hold as MacEwan led 12-9 in shots.

The second period saw Manitoba resume its pressure on MacEwan as they turned the puck up ice whenever possible. Sank was solid all period in keeping Manitoba at bay, but Camille Enns' shot found room past the screen to get by Sank at 8:49 to tie the game at 2-2! An infraction-free period with action at both ends of the ice was certainly entertaining, but this game would hit the second break tied 2-2 with Manitoba taking a 20-17 edge in shots.

Whatever coaches Jordy Zacharias and Amanda Schubert said between periods seemed to hit home as the Bisons dominated the early portion of the period. Aimee Patrick struck just 25 seconds into the frame, and then she added a second goal at the 3:20 mark to put Manitoba up 4-2! Just 28 seconds later, Samantha Sichkaruk notched her first goal of the season to make it a 5-2 game as the Bisons absolutely suffocated the Griffins in their own zone for the opening four minutes of the period. Manitoba would be whistled for a penalty shortly after, and Jesse Jack converted on the power-play to make it a 5-3 game at 4:57. A late goal by Ashley Keller would round out the scoring as she picked up her first goal of the season with 24 seconds to play, but the Manitoba Bisons claimed their first victory of the season with a 6-3 win over the MacEwan Griffins! Meagan Relf picked up her first win with a 20-save performance while Brianna Sank stopped 27 shots in the loss.

You may have noticed that this recap saw me call the Manitoba team by their proper name. I will gladly call the Bisons by their right name when they play as well as they did on Friday. There were still mistakes, but this is the best performance in terms of effort and winning puck battles that I've seen in two years. They were down, they rallied back, and they imposed their will on their opponents just like the bison did in the image below. If this how they approach games going forward, get out of the way when the Bisons play!

SATURDAY: Both teams were back for an afternoon tilt in Winnipeg, and one had to wonder if Manitoba could ride the momentum from a big win the night before or if there may be a letdown that would allow MacEwan to capitalize. MacEwan certainly played well enough the night before to earn points if not for one defensive lapse at the start of the third period. Brianna Sank was back between the pipes for the Griffins for this game while Meagan Relf was back in the Manitoba crease!

Manitoba jumped out to a very quick lead when Brianna Sank lost the puck behind her net while players battled for it, and that allowed Dana Goertzen to find Kylie Lesuk who potted the puck into an undefended side of the net just 28 seconds into the game for the 1-0 Manitoba lead! Once again, though, the MacEwan power-play rallied the visitors as Kori Paterson got her stick on Joie Simon shot to deflect it down past Relf at 10:53 to tie the game at 1-1! It seemed like that score would hold, but Jesse Jack had other plans as she beat Relf with nine seconds to play in the period, and MacEwan took a 2-1 lead into the break after outshooting the Bisons by a 9-7 count!

Once again, Manitoba used some incredible pressure coming out of an intermission to add to their goal total. Kate Gregoire went five-hole on a breakaway just 52 seconds into the frame to make it 2-2, and Sarah Dennehy found the back of the net on the power-play at 2:39 as Manitoba led 3-2. Two minutes later, Ashley Keller added her name to the scoresheet as she found room past Sank, and the Bisons were up 4-2 just 4:47 into the second frame. A four-minute double-minor against the Bisons later in the period was killed off by some aggressive penalty killing, and the Bisons took that 4-2 lead into the intermission after jumping ahead 26-15 in shots.

The third period saw both teams play a little more physical as both worked through some frustrations. The power-plays wouldn't strike, but Maria Ayre's goal at 17:15 made things a little more interesting as MacEwan trailed 4-3. Manitoba, however, would withstand a final push from the Griffins down the stretch to claim a sweep over the Griffins with a 4-3 win! Meagan Relf earned her second victory of the weekend after stopping 15 shots while Brianna Sank made 31 stops in the setback.

Seeing the offensive outburst from the Bisons this weekend gives me hope that we're not going to see a timid team any longer. Again, there are things that need to be fixed which is understandable, but seeing the talent using hard work and effort to win games is exactly the trademark of Bisons teams in the past. If this continues next week, the Bisons may scare a number of teams once again.

We'll move west down the Trans-Canada Highway into Saskatchewan where the Huskies hopped on a bus for a trip south to Regina to meet the Cougars. This is the first instance in the U-Prairie Cup between these two teams, so the stakes were a little higher as both teams wanted wins and points in that interprovincial competition as well as for the Canada West standings. Camryn Drever was in the Huskies' crease while Arden Kliewer was defending the Regina net.

Both teams were fairly content to test the other's defence early on, but not much was hitting the net. Regina's Julianna Giacobbo was whistled for the only two infractions in the period, and the Huskies made the Cougars pay on Giacobbo's second offence as Mallory Dyer found the puck that bounced off Paris Oleksyn, and Dyer buried it for the power-play goal at 16:34 to put Saskatchewan up 1-0! That would be the only tally of the first period as the Huskies held the lead and had an 8-7 edge in shots after 20 minutes.

If there was any belief that one team may have an advantage in this game, the second period looked a lot like the first period where it was evenly played with both sides finding chances. At the 7:40 mark, the Huskies added a second goal as Isabella Pozzi's shot glanced off Kara Kondrat to get by Kliewer to make it 2-0 for Saskatchewan. A late penalty called on the Huskies didn't hurt their lead as they hit the second intermission holding a 2-0 lead and a 19-17 count in shots over the Cougars.

A much more defensive period was the atmosphere in the third period as Saskatchewan locked down their zone while Regina wasn't giving up any free passes. Arden Kliewer would be summoned to the bench late as Regina pushed for goals, but Kelsey Hall hit the empty net with ten seconds to play to ice the game and give the Huskies a 3-0 win over the Cougars! Camryn Drever earned her fourth win and second shutout of the season with 23-save blanking of Regina while Arden Kliewer stopped 21 shots in 58:07 of work in the loss.

The win pushes the Huskies to a 5-0-0 record. They remain the lone undefeated team in Canada West as Saskatchewan is off and running!

SATURDAY: The back-half of the U-Prairie Challenge moved back to Saskatoon as the Cougars met the Huskies at Merlis Belsher Place. Despite the score one night earlier, it was clear these teams were evenly-matched based on all other stats. Could the Cougars break through that Huskies defence on Saturday night? Would we see the Huskies stand tall once again? Arden Kliewer was back in the Regina net while Colby Wilson was the starter for Saskatchewan.

Another period where both sides had chances was played out through the first 16 minutes, but we'd see one of the goose eggs broken when Shaylee Scraba's shot was stopped by Wilson, but Kaitlyn Gilroy jumped all over the rebound to score her first of the season at 16:34 as Regina went up 1-0! The two sides exchanged power-plays in the opening frame that didn't help either side, so we'd hit the break with the Cougars up 1-0 in goals and 9-7 in shots!

The second period saw Saskatchewan push back despite giving up two power-plays to Regina's lone infraction, but Arden Kliewer was on her game in the middle frame. She made a couple of big saves to keep the Huskies off the board despite their pressure, and we'd reach the second intermission with Regina still holding that 1-0 lead despite Saskatchewan holding a 22-16 edge in shots.

Saskatchewan dug in again during the third period as they pushed for an equalizer, but Kliewer wasn't having any of it. Later in the period with Regina killing a power-play, a Saskatchewan turnover just inside their own blue line saw Lauren Focht pick up the loose pick and she wired a puck past the glove of Wilson for the shorthanded goal and the 2-0 lead at 13:24! Despite a furious effort in the remaining six minutes of the game, the Huskies simply could not solve Kliewer on this night as the Regina Cougars picked up their first win of the season with a 2-0 blanking of the Saskatchewan Huskies! Arden Kliewer stopped all 34 shots for her first win and first shutout this season while Colby Wilson took the loss on a 20-save night.

Don't sleep on the Regina Cougars. They'll pounce if you're not ready to play as they hand Saskatchewan its first loss this season!

FRIDAY: We'll just keep heading west on the Trans-Canada as we roll into Calgary where the Dinos were hosting the Pandas in the first half of the two-game series. Calgary needs to find a consistent game they can play through 60 minutes as they seem to be able to score, but defensive lapses erase that success. Alberta, meanwhile, is a well-oiled machine again this season as they looked to extend their winning streak. Halle Oswald was back in the Pandas' net while Gabriella Durante was between the pipes for the Dinos!

We only needed a couple of minutes to open the scoring as Jada Johns' wrist shot beat Oswald at the 3:49 mark to put the Dinos up 1-0, marking the third-straight game where the Dinos scored the first goal. They'd double their lead nearly four minutes later when Courtney Kollman picked off a pass and broke in Oswald, beating her through the five-hole at 7:08 as Calgary went up 2-0. Alberta seemed to snap out of whatever slumber they were in after Kollman's goal as the Pandas began to play as expected. Izzy Lajoie setup Natalie Kieser on a two-on-one, and Kieser buried the puck at 12:07 to close the gap to 2-1. Calgary would get one more power-play in the latter part of the period, but the Pandas would kill that off as the teams hit the intermission with Calgary up 2-1 and leading 12-10 in shots.

The second period saw a parade to the penalty box begin and end with Calgary infractions, but both teams played shorthanded at times. The Pandas, however, made sure to capitalize on their opportunities as Sara Kazeil scored her first of the season on the advantage after sneaking in from the point where Cassidy Maplethorpe found her for the goal at 12:57 to make it 2-2! That final penalty to Calgary that I noted also came into play in the scoring as Izzy Lajoie's deflection on the power-play just got by Durante with eight seconds left in the frame as Alberta carried the 3-2 lead into the intermission while outshooting Calgary by a 27-20 count.

The third period was a little less penalty-filled, but Calgary was called for a pair of indiscretions, and the second one would hurt. Izzy Lajoie would find her way to the front of the net where her shot would get past the screen and Durante for her third goal of the season, and the ;ower-play marker at 15:21 pushed the score to 4-2 in favour of the Pandas. With no other goals recorded in the final four minutes, the Pandas skated to the 4-2 win over the Dinos! Halle Oswald picked up her fifth win on night where she stopped 22 shots while Gabriella Durante suffered the loss despite making 34 saves.

Every week, it seems like someone steps up for the Pandas to help them win another game. Izzy Lajoie had herself a night with two goals and a helper as the Pandas win again!

SATURDAY: The series shifted north to Edmonton as the Dinos and Pandas met at Clare Drake Arena for the second of two games. Calgary is doing things correctly by establishing leads early, but they've let those leads slip away in each of the last three games. Alberta, meanwhile, has shown that they're lethal on the power-play once more this season. Calgary wants to end their trend while Alberta wants to prolong theirs as Gabriella Durante was in net for the Dinos while Misty Rey got her first start for the Pandas at home!

The first period saw Calgary bring the fire as they pressured Alberta and had a number of shots and second chances, but Rey was equal to the task. Back-to-back penalties to Calgary didn't hurt the Dinos, but they also couldn't capitalize on a late power-play. At the end of 20 minutes, the score remained 0-0 as Calgary held a 12-9 edge in shots.

The Pandas flipped the script in the second period as they put every puck they could on net. Just before the midway point, Izzy Lajoie broke the stalemate she found room past Durante for her fourth goal of the season at 9:08 as the Pandas went up 1-0. Despite a couple of power-plays, the Pandas could find no other goals while Calgary's lone power-play opportunity was unfulfilled as well. At the second break, Alberta held that 1-0 lead and a 26-16 advantage in shots.

Calgary killed off a penalty in the early part of the third period as they looked to build some momentum, and they'd catch a break when the puck pinballed around the Alberta net before Josie McLeod poked it home behind Rey at 10:40 to tie the game at 1-1! Once again, though, penalties would hurt the Dinos as Jadynn Morden continued her torrid start to the season with another power-play goal - her eighth tally of the campaign already! - at 14:52 to put the Pandas back up by a goal! Despite a late penalty on Alberta, the Dinos would get no closer as the Alberta Pandas downed the Calgary Dinos by a 2-1 score! Misty Rey picked up her first victory of the season with a 21-save performance while Gabriella Durante was on the losing end of this game after stopping 36 shots.

Alberta posted football highlights from this weekend of an away game played in Manitoba, but they don't post women's hockey highlights with that game being played at home. What does it take to make a highlight reel outside of a desire to showcase your athletes?

FRIDAY: The final hop down the Trans-Canada takes us into Vancouver where the Trinity Western Spartans visited the UBC Thunderbirds. UBC has been cruising along as they claimed sole possession of first place in Canada West last week, and they intended on keeping it with another strong performance this week. Trinity Western, meanwhile, looked to keep their momemtum going after starting the season without a regulation loss in four games. Karsyn Niven was in the Spartans' crease for her first-ever Canada West start while Elise Hugens was between the pipes for the Thunderbirds.

There were a pile of goals in this game, but it didn't hit blowout status. We'll still work through this quickly due to the number of goals, though, as Grace Elliott kicked things off at 2:14 with her third goal of the season, and Jaylyn Morris made it 2-0 with her second of the campaign at 14:34. UBC controlled virtually all of the offensive stats despite TWU having a couple of good rushes as UBC took a 2-0 lead and an 11-2 shot count into the first intermission.

Olivia Buckley's first of the season made it 3-0 for UBC 5:49 into the middle frame before Trinity Western finally got one back as Brooklyn Anderson snuck one under Hugens' pad at 9:11 for her third goal to push the score to 3-1. That celebration was short-lived, though, as UBC responded 43 seconds later when Chanreet Bassi scored her second goal of the campaign on a rebound to restore the three-goal UBC lead. Kara Yackel added her name to the scoresheet for the first time this season at 13:14 as she hammered home a one-timer to cut the lead to 4-2. Makenzie McCallum would open that three-goal gap before the end of the period as she deflected a shot past Niven at 15:28 for her fifth goal of the season. We'd hit the second break with UBC leading 5-2 and holding a 26-8 edge in shots. Not a typo.

Cassidy Rhodes needed just 11 seconds to make it 6-2 as she turned a defensive-zone turnover by the Spartans into her first goal of the season, and McCallum added her sixth goal at 4:22 to round out a busy night of scoring in Vancouver. With no penalties in the final frame, the horn would sound on a 7-2 UBC Thunderbirds victory over the Trinity Western Spartans! Elise Hugens picked up her fifth victory with an 11-save effort while Karsyn Niven lost her first Canada West start despite making 29 saves.

No highlights from UBC again. Why celebrate the reigning champs?

SATURDAY: The series shifted south as the two teams headed to Langley where Trinity Western hosted UBC in the second game of the two-game set. One had to wonder what it would take to slow the Thunderbirds down after three-straight wins of five-or-more goals while the Spartans wanted to climb back into the win column by defeating their archrivals. Kayla McDougall was in the crease for the T-Birds while Kate Fawcett was the starter for the Spartans.

I'd like to say that the first period was an even period between two teams focused on not allowing the other to get good scoring chances, but I'd be lying if I laid that on you. Just before the midway point, Cassidy Rhodes sniped her second goal of the season at 9:43, and Madisyn Wiebe scored her fifth goal at 17:50 to make it 2-0. Kara Yackel got one back on the power-play with ten seconds left in the period, and the teams went to the rooms with the T-Birds up 2-1 in goals and up 20-6 in shots.

I'm hoping the stats in this game are verified because the second period saw UBC with a pair of power-plays to TWU's lone advantage, but neither would find goals through the middle frame. I make the point about the stats, though, because, as per the gamesheet, Trinity Western apparently didn't record a shot in the period even with that power-play. After 40 minutes, the 2-1 UBC lead held as the score, but the shots showed a 33-6 difference between the two teams.

The third period was a little closer than the first two as UBC defended their lead well, but still found chances. TWU was called for a late penalty that allowed Rylind MacKinnon an empty-net power-play goal for her fifth of the season at 19:07 to make it 3-1 before Sierra LaPlante scored 12 seconds later for her first goal. When the dust settled, the UBC Thunderbirds had claimed a 4-1 win over the Trinity Western Spartans! Kayla McDougall earned her second win of the season with an 11-save night while Kate Fawcett likely deserved a better fate after stopping 39 shots.

No highlights. Why do I even bother with this?

CANADA WEST WOMEN'S HOCKEY

School	Record	Points	GF	GA	Streak	Next
UBC	7-0-0-1	15	40	11	W6	vs MAC
Alberta	6-1-1-0	14	25	8	W5	BYE
Saskatchewan	5-1-0-0	10	17	7	L1	@ TWU
Mount Royal	3-2-1-0	8	17	9	W2	vs MAN
Trinity Western	3-2-0-1	7	16	19	L2	vs SAS
Manitoba	2-4-0-0	4	14	27	W2	@ MRU
Calgary	1-6-1-0	4	14	22	L4	BYE
Regina	1-6-0-1	3	9	31	W1	BYE
MacEwan	1-7-0-0	2	12	30	L7	@ UBC

Schedule Quirk

As you can see above, three teams are on a bye week which, frankly, never made sense to me and still doesn't to this day. In any case, there will be just three sets of recaps next week instead of the normal four. The good news is that we'll start seeing the number of games played even out among most of the teams so statistical comparisons and analysis will be a little more telling since most teams will have played the same number of contests. Nonetheless, three teams are on bye weeks next week, so The Rundown will be a little shorter.

Retraction Needed

Last week's edition of The Rundown had me predicting that MacEwan would miss the playoffs based on the fact that the adjusted power-play percentage they were sporting was a negative value - they had given up more shorties than they had scored with the advantage. I am here to state that the math was incorrect on that as I had forgotten that Saskatchewan had been awarded a shorthanded goal when they weren't, in fact, shorthanded.

Because of me forgetting about this and Canada West not verifying stats submitted to them, I want to retract my statement about MacEwan's playoff chances based on their special teams. Add in the fact that they were 3-for-11 this past weekend, and MacEwan's adjusted power-play efficiency is actually ok. It's not the best in the conference by any means, but there's something to build on if the Griffins are going to work on it.

Bench Boss Absences

Losing one coach in a season is pretty rare for any of the U SPORTS conferences, but the number of coaches who have left or are on leave from their posts make up nearly half the conference. The five coaches who are still standing where they did one year ago seem pretty safe, but it's crazy to think that Howie Draper, Carla MacLeod, Jean LaForest, and, now, Jon Rempel are all somewhere else on Fridays and Saturdays rather than coaching their teams.

Prior to this season, Lindsay McAlpine was the last coach to step away from her team in 2022 after she was named as MacEwan's Associate Athletic Director. Danielle Goyette left Calgary in 2021 to take a position with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Michelle Janus was relieved of her duties at Lethbridge in 2019.

While turnover in any sport happens from time to time, this is the first time I can recall more than one team replacing a head coach with an interim or new coach. We'll have to keep an eye on what Rempel's status is as the weeks progress, but we'll wait for the University of Manitoba and Bisons Sports to issue a statement about what direction the women's hockey program is headed.

First Goal Woes?

I mentioned that Calgary had lost three games when scoring the first goal - two against Mount Royal and one against Alberta - over the last two weeks. Again, the general trend in Canada West is that teams win about 75% of the time when they score first, but the Dinos have fallen below that trend's number.

Of the 180 minutes played in those games, the Dinos held the lead for 60:42 of that time - 33.7% of those three games. Calgary really needs to keep its foot on the gas pedal once it scores against good teams because they seem to stop scoring once they get those leads. They're also 1-for-11 on the power-play in those three games, and Calgary really needs to kick it up a notch when they have the advantage to help their even-strength scoring. In short, Calgary's gotta score more after scoring the opening goal!

The New-Look Griffins

If you happen to take in a game that features MacEwan as the visitors, pay close attention to their uniforms because they're different than all of the other Canada West teams in terms of their design. As you can see to the left, they have a solid burgundy torso with a white hemstripe, but the sleeves are almost completely white outside of a sleeve stripe. This unique design wasn't actually what MacEwan ordered, but the first round of jerseys showed up with the burgundy replaced by a red colour similar to the Detroit Red Wings, so they went back to Adidas for some recolouring. In the rush job to get the jerseys ready for MacEwan, it seems Adidas missed the burgundy on the forearms that had been ordered, leaving MacEwan with the jerseys seen above.

The strange part? I actually like them better with the white sleeves as they're completely unique in terms of their design! I'm not saying that MacEwan is going to have the jerseys replaced again, but I'd keep these jerseys if the decision were mine. They looked sharp this weekend while the Griffins played the Bisons! Big stick-tap goes out to Dwayne for the info on these jerseys because I had no idea!

The Last Word

The Bisons climbed back into the hunt for a Canada West playoff spot thanks to their inspired play this week. Again, I want to make it clear that there are still mistakes that can be cleaned up and systemic issues that can be improved, but this was the first time in two years that I've seen this team combine talent and a relentless work ethic to play a complete 60-minute game. Frankly, it was some of the most entertaining hockey I've seen from the Herd in some time.

With two of the three teams chasing them sitting idle next week, the Bisons have a chance to put some breathing room between themselves and the rest of the field chasing them if they can defeat the defending U SPORTS National Champions. Mount Royal will certainly be more of a test for the Bisons than perhaps MacEwan was, but, if the old saying is true, you've gotta beat the best to be the best. And while no one is handing out championships in Week 5 of the season, adding points to their total will certainly put pressure on the other teams chasing the Bisons to step up their games.

While things certainly didn't go well in the first four games of the season, the Bisons have shot at leapfrogging two more teams next week with a second weekend sweep. It won't come easy and Mount Royal certainly won't roll over for the visitors in those games, but a couple more inspired games from the Bisons could really change the entire look of the standings.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!