Bisons happy with weekend tournament

Times Editor

 

Going into their annual preseason tournament, all the UFA Bisons wanted to do was give their organization a chance to evaluate their players.

And after tangling with three division rivals during the Sept. 16-19 home tournament, the local triple-A Midget team let the players decide who does and does not make the 2010-2011 squad.

“We were able to make some decisions,” said Bisons head coach Parry Shockey. “A majority of the decisions have been made by (the players during) their opportunity to play. (The players) know that they’ve had every opportunity to prove themselves.

“It’s funny, when you have to release guys, sometimes they already know – they’ve done the math themselves.”

The Bisons started the tournament with a 3-1 loss to the Red Deer Optimist Rebels on Sept. 16, before a tough 3-1 loss to the Calgary Northstars the following day.

On Saturday morning, the Bisons tied the Calgary Buffaloes 5-5, ranking them in fourth place going into the tournament’s semifinals.

However, the Bisons defeated the first-ranked Northstars 3-1, earning a trip to the championship game on Sunday morning. Despite a solid effort, the Bisons lost 4-2 to the Rebels.

“We haven’t worked on powerplay or penalty kill – so everything we’re doing is off of a board,” said Shockey. “We’re at a little bit of a disadvantage with Red Deer – I know that they’ve been going for a while now and are close to their (final) numbers.

“We have some practice time coming up, so we’re looking forward to that. We’re looking forward to doing some team building, getting ourselves ready for the opening part of the season.”

Despite winning only one game during the weekend – ironically it was the semifinal game, which earned them no worse than a second place finish – the coaching staff was pleased with the way the team played. 

“I like when we were in chance and paid attention to detail – we did a lot of good things,” said Shockey. “I didn’t like when we broke down and reverted back to old habits – that’s just the way it is, that’s human nature.

“At the end of the day, we saw some guys who basically bought right in. Then we saw some guys with raw talent that we can work with.”

The Bisons are now in the process of preparing for their final preseason game Sept. 26 at the Max Bell Arena in Calgary versus the Northstars (2 p.m.).

According to Shockey, it is the final game for a handful of players to make an impression before the team makes its final roster cuts.

“We’re dealing with some tremendous young men,” said the coach. “It’s unfortunate – this is a tough time because we have to let some good players go and good people go. It goes with territory.”

“I have to disconnect my (phone) number for a couple of days,” joked Shockey.