Box Score WINNIPEG – Kate Gregoire, playing in her team-leading 99th regular season game as a Bison, was the hero on Friday night at The 'Flem, scoring her third goal of the year with four minutes to go in the second period to give Manitoba an eventual 2-1 win over Trinity Western.
 
It was also Gregoire's 55^th career point, moving her into 12^th all-time in program history.
 
Emily Shippam was solid in net, stopping 19 of 20 shots for her second straight win. Over the last two games she's stopped 45 of 46 shots she's faced.
 
The Spartans got 35 saves from Kate Fawcett, but offensively, they could not solve Shippam for most of the evening, including on three partial breakaways.
 
The win gives the Bisons a four-point lead over TWU for the sixth and final playoff spot, and the two teams will go at it again tomorrow at 2 pm with post-season implications at stake.
 
"A lot of them look at the standings, they already know this is a big weekend," said Bisons head coach Jordyn Zacharias postgame. "We aren't focusing too much on playoffs. We were just focusing on this game and how we could be successful."
 
The Spartans held a 5-0 lead in shots on net for the vast majority of the opening frame. They also successfully killed off a five-on-three, including a breakaway, but could not beat Shippam, who made it 32 straight saves dating back to her shutout last Saturday against Calgary.
 
Trinity Western had two partial breakaways in the span of a minute, including a brilliant chance off a turnover by Kyra McDonald 12 minutes in, but Shippam made the blocker stop.
 
The final two minutes were all Manitoba, as they out-shot TWU 6-0, scoring the game's first goal along the way. Two Spartans ran into each other in the neutral zone, with Norah Collins picking up the loose puck, deking out a Spartan along the way.
 
She then fed Samantha Sichkaruk – playing with a brand new stick – on a three-on-one and she made no mistake with a wrist shot that beat Fawcett for the lone goal of the opening period.
 
"{Sichkaruk] is definitely the heartbeat of the team in a lot of ways. She's relied on defensively and obviously she creates a lot of offence," said Zacharias.
 
"To see her get rewarded today, she bought a new stick this morning, I said you know what it's going to come in handy for you and it did."
 
The Spartans tied things up just under midway through the second. A shot from the blue line was stopped by Shippam, but McDonald was able to corral the loose puck in front after a few whacks from both sides to level the score.
 
The Herd re-took the lead with four minutes to go, thanks in part to Sarah Dennehy, who stole a loose puck in the neutral zone, using her speed to drive near the crease.
 
With patience and vision, she found line mate Julia Bird with a no-look pass. Bird then flipped the puck to Gregoire, who went bar down for the eventual game-winner.
 
The Spartans had an early chance in the third to tie the game on another partial breakaway, this time from Olivia Leier, but Shippam was up to the task, closing the five-hole.
 
With five minutes to play, the visitors once again had a golden opportunity, this time on their lone power play. Multiple shots were rocketed from the left wing, but each sailed wide as the Bisons closed out the one-goal victory.