Hockey: CW recap - Bisons bounce back for split

With only one Canada West series this weekend, all eyes were on Winnipeg where the Manitoba Bisons started their 2010-11 campaign by hosting the Regina Cougars Friday and Saturday night.

It was the tale of two very different games for the Herd who came out Friday night and dropped the opener 5-2, before coming back and laying a bruising on the Cougars Saturday night in a 7-0 rout of the Queen City Crew.

Friday night it was former Bison Terrance Delaronde who did the most damage for Regina, netting a pair of specialty team goals to go along with an assist in the victory.

Delaronde got the Cougars, and their powerplay, going in the first when he scored the first of two Regina markers with the man advantage. The Winnipeg product would score his second goal of the game short-handed in the third to make it 4-2 at the time, before the Cougars' Lucas Isley capped of the scoring late.

Manitoba got goals from Jared Walker and Tyler Dittmer in the losing cause - the two goals came back-to-back, and made it 3-2 in the third before Delaronde's short-handed tally extended the lead.

Saturday night would be a much different game for the Bisons, getting two goals late in the first period in a span of just over a minute, including the second goal of the night with only three seconds left in the opening frame.

Nolan Waker and Blair Macaulay lead the way offensively with two goals a piece, while reigning CIS Goalie of the Year Steve Christie bounced back from giving up five goals Friday night to secure his first win of the season, in shutout fashion.

Regina goaltender Adam Ward got relieved after five goals on 23 shots, giving way to backup A.J. Whiffen who played out the final 21:36, surrendering two goals on seven shots.

For Regina, the Manitoba series marks their second split in as many weekends to open the season. The Cougars will head to Saskatoon this coming Friday for a game against the Huskies, before returning Saturday night to the Queen City for the second half of the home-and-home.

Manitoba meanwhile will have to wait nearly two weeks for their next game action, as they won't see game action until the 23rd of October when they travel to Rutherford Rink to take on Saskatchewan.

Just floating this out there, but does anyone else think the scheduling for this first month qualifies as hodge podge? Bye weeks, one-series weekends - it seems to be all over the place. There must be some rhyme, or reason to it, but overall it's a very fragmented way to start the season for a lot of teams.
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2 comments:

  1. In the Saturday game, Adam Ward was "relieved" by the referee with a gross misconduct for tossing the net over the 5th Bison goal! I don't know if that means he must sit next Friday's game.

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  2. I believe that will be a one game suspension.

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