CALGARY - In a rare Thursday night matchup, the Manitoba Bisons (8-3-0-0) picked up their first win in five seasons against the Calgary Dinos (2-8-1-0) 5-3 at Father David Bauer Arena, on the eve of the biggest Canadian sports party weekend of the year.
Coming off a short week after Saturday's win in Virden, the Herd would strike first. With the offensive zone pressure,
Brandon Funk would open the scoring with his first as a Bison at 7:28 of the first period. After knocking down a clearing attempt from the Dinos on the half-wall, Funk would eventually slip behind his defender as the puck moved from
Erik Pastro (second assist) behind the goal line to
Sam Borschowa (second assist) at the blue line, who would then walk in and find Funk for the tip-in. Shots after one period were 10-6 in favour of Calgary, but the Bisons would be in front where it mattered, 1-0.
With Calgary's Jake Poole in the box for slashing
Joel Purdom just over halfway through the second period, the Manitoba power play took a couple turns, but started to move the puck on the left wall. After a couple cycles with conference-leading point-getter
Skyler Bruce and
Lucas Brennan (eighth assist, tied for the conference lead),
Tanner Willick would pick up his sixth assist on a swing to
Dawson Pasternak who would take a couple steps in, dodge a defender and rip a shot bardown to join Bruce with his team-co-leading sixth goal, his conference-co-leading fifth on the power play at 13:40.
The Dinos would cut the lead in half with 4 minutes left in the second as play was four-on-four, with Sam Oremba picking up his first. With the ice still more open,
Eric Alarie would steal the puck from a Dino defenceman, break up on a delayed two-on-one rush and feather the puck over a sliding defender for his third assist as
Ben Bonni sent a knuckleball past the Dinos' Carl Tetachuk for his first of the season just 23 seconds later. With the two-goal lead restored, and on the third power play opportunity of the night,
Erik Pastro (third assist) managed to get the puck through Tetachuk and the crease to
Grady Lane for Lane to chip in his second of the season at 19:28. The shots came alive in the period with the Bisons outshooting the Dinos 17-11 for a 23-21 advantage and a 4-1 lead after two.
Early in the third, with Bonni already in the penalty box and Lodoen having just arrived in the box himself, the Dinos would cut the lead to two with Pavel Bocharov's second of the season at 2:59. Not to be outdone by Pasternak,
Eric Alarie would rip one above the glove of Tetachuk on the power play for his sixth of the season at 10:37. Pasternak would save the puck from exiting the zone and dish it to Alarie to match Bruce's stat line of 14 points with his eighth assist. A late flurry from the Dinos brought the difference back to two with a power play goal at 18:16 from Remy Aquilon, but that would be as close as it got.
Braden Holt stopped 32 of the 35 shots he faced to improve to 4-2-0-0, while Carl Tetachuk fell to 1-7-1 with 23 saves on 28 shots.
The rematch kicks off the party in Cowtown at Father David Bauer Arena at 4:30 MBT and can be seen on
CanadaWest.TV.
