Box Score At a time of the season where winning has never been more crucial, a matchup between teams with one-point between them in the standings becomes one of the biggest games of the year.
 
Unfortunately for the Manitoba Bisons, they ran into a hot goaltender on Friday, January 31, as the Regina Cougars took the first game of the two-game weekend series 3-1 at the Wayne Fleming Arena.
 
Cougars goaltender Andrew Hayes was phenomenal from beginning to end, stopping 41 of the Bisons 42 shots to lead his team to a win despite a 42-22 shot differential in favor of Manitoba. With the loss, the Bisons drop to 9-11-3, while the Cougars move to 10-11-2 and a one-point lead on Manitoba in the standings.
 
The Bisons certainly weren't lacking scoring chances, and as the team moves towards tomorrow's rematch, head coach Mike Sirant says his team simply needs to capitalize.
 
"If we capitalize on some of our chances, that changes the complexion of the entire game," says Sirant. "You have to give (Regina) credit, they played a perfect road game. They had excellent goaltending, but they capitalized on their chances, and obviously we didn't do that tonight."
 
The first period saw a lot of action, but thanks to solid goaltending, no team was able to get on the board. Although Regina was ahead in the shot differential after the first, it was the home team that held the majority of the scoring chances.
 
Unfortunately for Manitoba, Hayes started out hot right out the gate, stopping two breakaway chances from Dylan Kelly, and another from Jordan DePape. The best chance of the period belonged to DePape, who made a beautiful move to throw off Hayes, but just rang it off the crossbar in what looked like a sure goal. 
 
To put it simply, the second period belonged to Hayes. With the Bisons outshooting Regina 16-10, the home team controlled the pace offensively throughout a lot of the period, and it was Hayes who put his team on the right track.
 
With massive saves on breakaways, 2-on-1's, and scrambles in front of the net, Hayes was tremendous in the second, and his teammates took notice. The first response came just over a minute into the period. After Hayes made a big save in the other end, the Cougars moved the puck into the Bisons zone where it was Troy Hunter who found the loose puck in front to give his team the 1-0 lead.
 
After the Bisons continued to struggle in finding an answer for Hayes in the second, the Cougars capitalized once again with just over two minutes left in the period. In a similar fashion as the first goal, this one came on another loose puck, but this time it was Ian McNulty who made Manitoba pay, making it 2-0 going into the third.
 
In the final period, the Bisons continued to create chances, but the Cougars continued to capitalize on what they could get. Just over five minutes into the third, Regina was able to get on the board once again as Tyler Murray found Tyler Henry alone in front, who found the bottom corner on a one-timer, giving the Cougars a three-goal lead.
 
The rest of the period saw some fairly even play, and the Bisons were actually able get on the board with a Craig Scott shot from behind the net that somehow managed to leak through Hayes to spoil his shutout. Unfortunately for the Bisons, it was too little too late at that point, and Regina was able to hold on for the victory.
 
These two teams will play the second game of their weekend series on Saturday, February 1 at 1 p.m. C.S.T. at the Wayne Fleming Arena.