A four goal second period was the difference on Saturday night at The RINK, as Mount Royal finished off a sweep of the Manitoba Bisons with a 7-2 win. With the win, the Cougars improved to 6-2-2-0 while Manitoba fell to 4-4-0-0. 

Both teams got the bodies on their opponents early, establishing a physical presence from puck drop. 

Bisons defenceman Ryan Gottfried, who was responsible for numerous blocked shots yesterday, finished his check on the end boards seconds into the contest, providing an early spark. 

On the other end, Cougars top-liner Connor Bouchard ran his man into the visitor's bench, as the two sides proved there was no love lost from yesterday. 

Power plays for both sides opened up the offence with ten minutes to go. The Cougars — who scored on special teams yesterday — got the first chance, but were unsuccessful as the hosts closed up lanes well. 

Three minutes later, the Cougars two minor penalties in quick succession and the Herd capitalized for their first goal of the weekend. 

Brett Davis, who came into the weekend with 11 points, netted his fifth goal of the season, while top-line teammates Devon Skoleski and Colton Veloso got the helpers. The assist for Skoleski marked the seventh time in eight games that he's recorded a point. 

"I think it was a little bit more of an open game today. Yesterday we were having trouble getting things going and getting o-zone time," Davis said postgame. Kudos to them for keeping us to the outside, but I thought today we had a little bit more o-zone time and a little bit more movement. Hopefully we can move on from that."

With 2:52 to go in the period, the Cougars pushed back. Spencer Moe banged away at a rebound in front off a shot from Robbie Holmes for his third goal of the year to even the score entering the second. 

Mount Royal opened the floodgates in the mniddle frame, scoring four times, including two goals less than two minutes apart. 

Jared Power gave his team the lead on the power play at 5:54, tapping in a loose puck in front, and at 7:25, the Cougars got more depth scoring. Zafir Rawji cleaned up a shot that originally went off the post. 

With just over five minutes left in the period, Mount Royal made it 5-2, as Blake Stevenson got his first of the year, continuing a series of strong shifts from the visitors where zone time was a factor. Overall in the game, the Cougars recorded 51 shots, compared to 13 for the Bisons. 

The Bisons cut into the Cougars' lead with both teams a man down, as Samuel Stewart took advantage of the open ice, throwing a snap shot on net that Hayden Ostir got his stick on for his first of the season. The momentum was short lived though, as Nolan Yaremko went bar down just over 30 seconds later for his fourth of the season to round out the scoring. 

Manitoba swapped their goalies in the third, with Simon Harkness making a bevy of critical saves throughout the period. On multiple occasions he made saves from point blank range, including a two-on-one with five minutes to go. 

The Bisons went to the power play just over midway through the period and generated a few solid chances, however it was the Cougars who scored short-handed for the third time this season. Yaremko broke away on an odd-man rush and was stymied on the original chance one-on-one with Harkness, however he collected the puck and with Harkness off of his feet and out of the net, was able to score for the second time.

The Cougars added another goal from Power in the final two minutes to round out the scoring. 

Manitoba will be on the road next weekend taking on Alberta while MRU will host Regina.