CHARLOTTETOWN – It wasn't their goal heading into the weekend, but the No. 6 seed Manitoba Bisons showed their motivation for winning the consolation bracket on Saturday at the 2019 U SPORTS Women's Hockey Championship.
Facing the No. 7 seed UPEI Panthers in front of a raucous, early morning home crowd at MacLauchlan Arena, the Bisons scored twice in the third period to seal a 3-1 win.
The victory means Manitoba moves on to the consolation final, where they'll meet the winner between No. 5 seed St. Thomas and No. 8 seed Toronto on Sunday at 11 a.m. AST.
"We talked about it, there's 34 teams across Canada in women's hockey and only six of them get to play on March 17," said Bisons head coach Sean Fisher after the game. "We're one of them and we feel there's an inherent duty, obligation, and responsibility to play the right way with that."
"Only three buses are leaving this island a happy bus and we want to be one of them."
Physicality was the name of the game on Saturday, as UPEI played a solid game in front of their own net, backed up by a great performance from second-year goalie Camille Scherger, who finished with 40 saves.
Through all the great chances, though, the Bisons found the net three times. Fifth-year Alanna Sharman opened the scoring for Manitoba, notching her third of the tournament in the second period. Then, in the third, Alexandra Anderson and Natasha Kostenko scored within 1:34 of each other to make it 3-1.
Kostenko also talked up the motivation for her team to finish the tournament as winners.
"Of course, it's going to hurt, of course we came here looking for better results, but sometimes that's just not how the cookie crumbles. You have to take what's given to you," said Kostenko. "We made nationals, that's still a huge accomplishment for everyone in that room."
UPEI's goal came from Taylor Gillis at the 5:58 mark of the first period, with assists to Faith Steeves and Sophie Vandale.
Leading up to that, Manitoba dictated a lot of the action in the first 25 minutes of play. Their first of seven power plays came five minutes in, which resulted in a quality chance for Jordyn Zacharias that went off the post. Alexandra Anderson also had a shot draw iron, keeping the game scoreless.
Later in the period with UPEI back on the kill, Scherger started to settle in between the pipes — making a great glove save on Erica Rieder, then two more on the forward combination of Kostenko and Lauryn Keen.
With the game scoreless heading to the second, the Panthers finally sustained pressure, resulting in the game's first goal. Taylor Gillis rushed in to the left of Bisons goalie Lauren Taraschuk — when her initial shot was saved, she buried the rebound to make it 1-0.
Six minutes later, Manitoba would tie it up. At an impossible angle, Alanna Sharman banked the puck off of Scherger's back, scoring her third of the tournament after potting both of Manitoba's goals against Guelph in the quarters.
Shortly after, a pair of penalties on UPEI resulted in a 5-on-3 opportunity for Manitoba, one they weren't able to capitalize on. In fact, despite seven opportunities on the man advantage, the Bisons scored all three of their goals at even strength.
Their second marker came 11:28 into the third, as Alexandra Anderson powered a shot that went off a Panthers player and in. Shortly after, the Bisons' top forward line rushed in, as Lauryn Keen tossed a pass across to Karissa Kirkup — when her shot was stopped by Scherger, Kostenko picked it up and buried the puck to make it 3-1.
"We ran into a pretty good goaltender and the score could've been more than 3-1," said Fisher. 'When you get scored on first, that's also kind of deflating and you're wondering how the girls were going to respond to that — but they showed a lot of character and it was a character win."
The Bisons now await the results of this afternoon's consolation semifinal between Toronto and St. Thomas, playing the winner in the consolation final at 11 a.m. AST on Sunday, March 17.
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