BOX SCORE WINNIPEG - A team that's come on slowly and surely to become one of the hottest in Canada West, the Bisons women's hockey team were looking to keep the ball rolling with a weekend sweep of the Calgary Dinos on Saturday, January 18th at Wayne Fleming Arena.
After trailing by a goal, though, the Dinos had the response in the matinee game - they scored two goals in the last 20 minutes of play to beat Manitoba 2-1 in overtime. The win moves Calgary to 10-11-1, while the Bisons fall back into a tight race for second place at 13-5-4.
Calgary got their game-winner on the stick of Sarah Astle, for just her second goal of the year. The tying goal was scored by Erika Mitschke, her fifth. Starting goalie Amanda Tapp put together a strong afternoon, especially down the stretch, for 22 saves.
Manitoba's lone goal was scored by Amy Lee. Kyleigh Palmer kept her point streak alive by earning the assist. Dée-Ana Marion had 26 saves in the losing effort.
"We need to be better when closing out games," said Bisons head coach Jon Rempel. "That's four games in a row that we haven't done what we needed to do in the third period."
After losing the previous night, Calgary predictably came out with energy to start Saturday afternoon. An early Manitoba penalty gave them two brilliant chances in front of an open net, but a scrambling Bisons PK kept them off the board. Riding that high, the Bisons dominated zone time for six minutes after - eventually resulting in the fifth of the year for Lee at 11:52, who earned an open shot thanks to a quality rush from Palmer.
Scoring went quiet after that - the Bisons got a chance on the power play midway through the second to add to their lead, but the Dinos effectively held the puck against them to fight it off.
Calgary slowly turned up their aggression after that, and were rewarded at the 6:12 mark of the third period - a point shot by Mitschke was redirected by a Bisons stick to beat Marion, knotting the game up at one. A furious, physical finish followed that, and Tapp was outstanding to close regulation, peaking with a shoulder save on a breaking Palmer with ten seconds to go.
Astle's goal came at the 3:25 mark of OT, as she put it through traffic to beat Marion five-hole and put a cap on the comeback win.
The Bisons women's hockey team now travel to UBC, where they'll play Canada West's top team in a weekend back to back. First game will be Friday, January 24th, with a puck drop at 6:00 p.m. CST. Calgary travels home to play Alberta, first game on January 24th at 7:00 p.m.
