WINNIPEG – Kyra McDonald's overtime winner lifted the Trinity Western Spartans to a 5-4 comeback win over the Manitoba Bisons in Friday night's game at 'The Flem, as the Spartans improved to 8-6-1-0 and the Herd fell to 6-8-2-3.
 
The Bisons had one of their best starts of the season. After McDonald was taken off the ice for tripping just over a minute in, the Bisons' powerplay went to work. Sophia Anderson found herself with time and space at the left circle, and fired a hard wrist shot over the glove of Kate Fawcett to open the scoring for the Herd at 17:05 for her first of the season.
 
Manitoba continued to find lanes to the Trinity Western net and at 5:08, Claire Moorman threw a puck on net knee high, that the Bisons' captain Dana Goertzen deflected over Fawcett's pad to double the Bison lead 2-0.

Penalties had a large presence in the second period. Kasey Ditner of the Spartans found herself in penalty trouble early, taking a bodychecking penalty two minutes in, followed by a hooking minor four minutes later. Her first penalty wouldn't come back to bite her, but the Bisons capitalized on the second.
 
Late in the advantage, Manitoba entered the zone with numbers, and Louise Fergusson fired a shot from range that squeaked past Fawcett to give the Herd a 3-0 lead.
 
Two minutes later, the Spartans took advantage of a power play opportunity to get on the board. After a handful of nice saves from Emily Shippam, Chayce Kullman's shot from the top of the left circle deflected off traffic in front to put the visitors on the board.
 
Two more penalties, one on either side wouldn't yield results but the Spartans found more life. In the dying seconds of the period amidst a long offensive push, Michela Naccarato pushed the puck back to the point for Presleigh Giesbrecht who wired home the wrister to make it a one goal game.
 
Trinity Western continued to surge and six minutes into the third period the game was back to even. Kailey Ledoux stripped a Bison defender of the puck in the neutral zone, went in on a breakaway and beat Shippam upstairs to make the game a 3-3 tie.
 
The Spartans continued to push the pace and Ditner found redemption. After taking six minutes in penalties earlier in the game, she received a pass from McDonald by the left circle. She then fired a shot off the leg of a Bison defender that ricocheted into the back of the net to give the Spartans their first lead of the night with under seven minutes to go.
 
"We stopped doing things that allowed us to go up three nothing, and gave them some life, gave them some hope through the rest of the game, through the second and third period. So I think that's really where it shifted, just sort of details. We didn't play for 60 minutes that way," said Bisons' head coach Jordan Colliton.
 
The Bisons pushed hard, and in the late stages of the period found a spark. With under a minute left, Aimee Patrick jammed the puck into the net beneath a chaotic crease battle to send the game to overtime. There was an extended discussion after the goal, but the officials agreed with the initial call and overtime was on the way.
 
Overtime was back and forth with phenomenal goaltending on full display. Shippam and Fawcett made countless saves from close, at range and everywhere in between. Ultimately it was a two on one from in tight that sealed the deal as Ella Boon sent a pass across to McDonald who fired it past Shippam for the overtime game winner.
 
The Bisons and the Spartans rematch tomorrow at The Flem' at 2pm.
 
"They have skill. I think they brought a will to win today and our group, we've had some tough opponents, but we haven't had a lead and had that pushback, and so it was a good lesson for our team today," said Colliton.