Throughout her hockey career, second-year Bisons forward Katie Chatyrbok has shown that she's comfortable making adjustments.

The first occurred in her grade ten season in 2015-16.

Chatyrbok was coming off of a year where she was a city champ and top scorer with the Dakota Lancers, as well as a provincial champ and all-star for the Winnipeg East AA Saints. The following year she made the transition from her neighborhood area of St. Vital all the way to River Heights to play prep hockey at St. Mary's Academy, an all-girls school.

"I knew quite a few girls from St. Mary's just from playing with them beforehand, so that made the transition a lot easier, but it probably took about a half a year to get used to the school part," she says.

"One of the major differences I found was that all of the courses go year-round, so you're taking math from September to June and when your final exams come around you're reaching all the way back to September to write them.

Wearing the uniform was also a major difference, but I actually really liked it because you just wake up and throw it on and you don't have any decisions to make. It made my mornings so much faster."

Chatyrbok's shift to SMA was made easier by Dave Chell, a teacher at the school who was also the scouting director for the hockey team.

"I think he was my first class walking in in grade ten, and I walked in late because we had morning practice. So it was my first day at St. Mary's and I walked into his classroom and he introduced me to everyone and got me seated," she says with a smile.

"He made the transition so much easier. He just made everything interesting and he's such a happy man all the time that it just made it so interesting to listen to his lectures."

Playing with the Flames also helped Chatyrbok — an assistant captain in her later years — develop further connections with eventual Bisons teammates Sarah Dennehy and Kate Gregoire, who stepped right into the lineup as rookies this season.

"I was probably 12 or 13 when I met Sarah, and I met Kate when I was probably 15 or 16. I've been friends with Sarah since way back when and we've kind of grown up together. We played Saints together and then SMA for three years and now she's come to here, so we've grown up basically playing hockey together. Kate, I met probably just playing against each other, and then when she kind of started skating with St. Mary's before she was on the team and then came onto the team."

A versatile two-way player, Chatyrbok prides herself on her hard work and 200-foot game. These attributes were evident in her rookie season last year, where she played in 25 regular season contests as well as playoffs and nationals for a veteran Bisons roster.

Her role was increased in part due to a pre-season injury to all-time great Alanna Sharman, who returned to the team for the back half of the year.

"I kind of expected to play maybe five, six, seven or eight games, somewhere in that range. That's just kind of what I figured would happen, because I knew coming in to such a veteran team that it would be really hard to crack the lineup, so I definitely did not expect to play as much as I did.

Then [Sharman] got hurt and we had a pretty small roster last year. I think it helped the transition to this year where we have so many young people. Playing against Alberta in the conference finals and in PEI for nationals, I think it helped in dealing with the pressures that I didn't think I would deal with and has helped shape where I am today."

Chatyrbok finished the 2018-19 season with three points, while also providing the Bisons with solid defensive play. She netted her first career U SPORTS goal in early December, scoring on a breakaway against Calgary.

"That was one of the greatest moments," she says happily.

"I was so excited that I think I jumped about three feet in the air when I scored. I just got on that breakaway and I'm so bad at breakaways and I thought there's no way that this is going in. It just happened. I don't even know where it went, I was so excited."

Manitoba is in a transition year this season, with a roster that includes ten rookies. Despite being a young player herself, Chatyrbok — who's played in every game this year and has five points — has been able to aid the freshmen, having been in their shoes a year ago.

"Being in my second year and having that much experience from nationals and from the finals and dealing with all the pressures from last year has helped transition me into this year in just being calm and collected going into games. I know just from last year how hard it is to go from high school to university and to deal with the stresses of school and everything and hockey on top of that. I've kind of tried to be someone that people can talk to if they need."

A little over a month into the season, Chatyrbok was also re-united on a line with Dennehy and Gregoire. The trio have picked up steam as the year has progressed, including four goals over the last five games for Gregoire and six overall.

"They're not afraid to play number one. They have energy and they can skate," commented Bisons head coach Jon Rempel.

"[Chatyrbok] provides the physical piece to that, but when they have to dump it she's first on pucks a lot. That allows the other two room, and you can just tell the other two are way more comfortable now in how to defend and how to attack with their speed. They have the ability to change the flow of games and hem teams in when they're really buzzing and hard on pucks."

Despite being eliminated from playoff contention, Manitoba is also coming off of one of their more memorable moments of the season.

Down by three entering the third on the road against Saskatchewan last weekend, the squad recorded a season high four goals, including two in seven seconds with the game-winner courtesy of Gregoire.

"It's very exciting and I think it projects well for what it's going to be like in the next four to five years," noted Chatyrbok of the big win.

"I think everyone saw this past weekend that okay, we can do this and we can have these big comebacks and we can score. Even though the seasonis coming to a close after this weekend, it's exciting looking to next year and the years after that we're going to be a good team and a force to be reckoned with."