Hockey: Bisons stampede Pronghorns - take over first place in CW

The Manitoba Bisons continued their strong start to the Canada West season, with another home sweep, this time over the Lethbridge Pronghorns in the first full weekend of Canada West action.

Manitoba vs. Lethbridge - Winnipeg, MB
The Bisons picked up another pair of home victories, with a 3-2 victory followed up by a 4-0 win over the Pronghorns. With the pair of wins, the Herd find themselves in sole posession of first place with eight points - one more than second-place Alberta.

Mike Hellyer picked up a goal in both contests, and leads the Bisons in scoring through four games with two goals and three assists. In net, Steve Christie picked up his first shutout of the season Saturday night - Christie has started all four games this season for the Bisons which should come as no surprise after he started all 28 regular season games in 2008-2009.

Regina vs. UBC - Regina, SK
In Regina, the T-Birds came out strong Friday night in their season opener sparked by a pair of goals from Brandon Campos, as they went on to secure a 4-1 win.

Saturday night's game saw the Cougars and T-Birds take things to a shootout, as the two teams were tied at 2-2 after 65 minutes. Dillon Johnstone scored the lone goal in the shootout, as he beat Francois Thuot , giving the Cougars their first victory of the season after three-straight losses to open the season.

Alberta vs. Calgary - Calgary, AB/Edmonton, AB
The Bears travelled south Friday for their first road game of the season, and the Dinos first regular season game. Mark Howell made his debut for the Dinos behind the bench, and thanks to a shootout winner off the stick of Brock Nixon, Howell got his first win at Calgary with the 3-2 shootout victory over his Alma Mater.

Saturday night saw the Bears thoroughly outplay the Dinos in the second half of the home and home series, with four Bears tallying three point performances as Alberta won 9-2. Conference leading scorer Chad Klassen was among the Bears who put up three points Saturday - tallying a goal and two assists. Klassen now has 10 points on the season, one more than linemate Derek Ryan.