It was an emotional farewell to Bisons head coach Mike Sirant at Wayne Fleming arena on Friday night. The Bisons fought hard to give their coach a winning send-off but came up short, falling 4-1 to the Alberta Golden Bears. Sirant has been head coach of the men's hockey team since 1992 and will be retiring at the end of the season. 
 
"There's a lot of MJHL guys that come up that maybe wouldn't get recruited at other universities," said Bisons captain Geordie Keane. "[Sirant] picks out guys that are hardworking, and maybe do all the little things right. He gives them a chance. He's not a guy that'll just view stats."
 
Despite the lopsided final score, the Bisons worked hard against one of the top 10 teams in the country.
 
Neither team was hesitant to get physical, demonstrating some big hits including one from Bisons forward Keane, who lowered the boom on Golden Bears defenceman Jayden Platz.
 
On a double minor penalty for Alberta, the Bisons spent quite a bit of time in their own, defending or chasing cleared pucks. During the four-minute powerplay, the Bisons only managed to get three shots on net.
 
With about five minutes to go in the first, Golden Bears forward Matt Fonteyne made a great pass to forward Daneel Lategan. Lategan went forehead, backhand to put the puck past Harkness to open the scoring.
 
Alberta outshot in the second period, 26-11, but they didn't start with many high dangerous chances. That didn't seem to matter though; the pressure was enough.
 
As Golden Bears Fonteyne came down the ice, he passed to forward Josh Prokop. Fonteyne snagged the drop pass and took a wrist shot over the blocker of Harkness to go up 2-0.
 
Alberta seemed to be dominating the game, but Bisons forward Chase Hartje stepped up. With 33 seconds left in the middle period, and some space in the offensive zone, Hartje picked the corner to cut the Golden Bears lead in half.
 
"We were feeling good going in," said Keane. "The boys were trying to rally for [head coach] Mike, as his last game. We had a lot of confidence in that room. We competed really hard; the bounces just didn't go our way tonight."
 
To open the final period, Bisons Hartje took a penalty giving the Golden Bears their two-goal lead back. Fonteyne received the pass and picked the corner while Bisons netminder Simon Harkness couldn't see, sending the puck behind him.
 
The Bisons continued to battle, clawing for their playoff spot, but the Golden Bears were the better team.
 
As the clock ticked down, Bisons forward Devon Skoleski had a good chance, but it went wide. Forward Hayden Ostir tried to keep the pressure on in the offensive end but fanned on it, and Alberta snatched it. Fonteyne scored a hat trick on the empty netter to close the night.
 
"It's do or die tomorrow," said Keane.
 
The Bisons will face the Golden Bears again tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m.