Box Score Written by: John Gaudes
WINNIPEG - The Manitoba Bisons men's hockey team took care of business on Saturday, November 16th at Wayne Fleming Arena, as they completed a weekend sweep of the Lethbridge Pronghorns with a convincing 7-0 win.
With the win, unranked Manitoba improves to 4-7-1, while unranked Lethbridge remains last in the conference at 1-11-0.
Manitoba was led by forward Taylor Dickin, who notched a hat trick with three goals. Also getting in on the rout were Craig Scott, Jesse Paradis, Dylan Kelly and Ian Duval, who all scored. Joe Caliguiri had his second straight shutout, stopping 23 shots in the win.
For Lethbridge, two goalies put forward their efforts between the pipes. Starter Damien Ketlo had 17 saves, but gave up the first four goals. Dylan Tait replaced him, making 22 saves and giving up three goals.
Lethbridge took ten minutes of penalties in a free-flowing game, Manitoba took just six.
"It was really important to get our confidence offensively," said Bisons head coach
Mike Sirant. "Frustration sets in when things don't go well offensively, so it was good to see guys getting rewarded for their efforts. Certainly something we can build on looking forward."
Manitoba started Saturday evening where they left off Friday, pushing the pace to their liking and getting scoring opportunities early and often. Their first payoff came from Scott, whose defender lost a stick as he came streaking in, allowing him to wrist it stick-side past Ketlo to put the Bisons on the board. 11 minutes after that, Paradis scored on a similar break-in - sending a shot into the top corner on a 3-on-1 break to give Manitoba a 2-0 lead into the first break.
In the second, the Bisons broke the game wide open. 30 seconds in, Kelly snagged a rebound to put in an easy backhander. Four minutes later, Dickin caught Ketlo out of net, intercepted his pass and put in another easy goal. Ketlo was then pulled in favour of Tait, but Manitoba didn't let up - Dickin scored again 16 seconds after his first goal off a face-off. A breaking goal for Duval at the six-minute mark put Manitoba up 6-0, a lead they carried into the second break.
The Bisons went quiet until late in the third, when Dickin went backhand past Tait to complete his hat trick.
The Bisons men's hockey team finish the first half of the season on the road, starting with a weekend back-to-back at UBC. The first game goes on Friday, November 22nd, with the puck drop at 7 p.m. CST. The Pronghorns, meanwhile, return home to play Mount Royal next, on the same date at the same start time.
