EDMONTON, AB – A dominant second period in which they scored three times over a five-minute stretch held up as the difference, as the Manitoba Bisons advanced to the Canada West Semifinal with a 6-2 Game 3 win over the Alberta Pandas.
Brenna Nicol scored once and assisted on the two other Bison goals in the second period, to go along with a first period goal, as her four-point night powered Manitoba in their road playoff series win.
Norah Collins,
Hanna Bailey, and
Julia Bird also scored for Manitoba, who will visit the division-leading Mount Royal Cougars next week.
It was Manitoba's first conference road playoff series win in a decade, the last coming in 2016 when they beat Saskatchewan as well as Alberta.
"Our group did well to stay emotionally even; not too high or too low. We focused on being direct and staying committed to our game plan, so I thought that helped with our success this weekend," said Bisons head coach Jordan Colliton. "The Pandas had a great push late. We were down one defenceman, and they gutted it out. We blocked shots, kept them to the outside, we matched their physicality. Kudos to the Pandas, they really pushed us to the brink."
Abby Soyko and Natalie Kieser scored for the Pandas, who despite a furious comeback effort in the third period, could not dig themselves out of their second period hole.
Emily Shippam stopped 20 of the 22 Alberta shots she faced in the win, while Pandas starter and Game 2 hero Mackenzie Dojahn was pulled after allowing four goals on 19 Bison shots.
The visitors opened the scoring for the second time in the series, as Nicol took advantage of a big bounce off the boards behind the Pandas net, sliding the loose puck through Dojahn's five-hole.
Despite being outshot 8-3 in the first, the Pandas found a spark in the final minutes. Soyko scored her first of the series on a Pandas powerplay, using a defender as a screen before beating Shippam far side over the blocker.
Manitoba stole the game in the second, starting with a Collins tally five minutes in. Her first of the series restored the Bisons one-goal lead. Nicol doubled the lead two minutes later, as she tipped in a point shot past Dojahn. Just over two minutes later the Bisons lead grew again, with Keller beating a screened Dojahn from distance to make it 4-1.
Kieser gave the hosts some life early in the third, as she beat Shippam with a shot from the circle on a Pandas powerplay to cut the lead down to two. However, that was as close as Alberta would come, as Shippam made the next eight-straight saves to keep the lead intact. Two empty net goals sealed the Bison series win.
