Off on the wrong foot
Mario Prusina
Times Editor
The UFA Bisons started the new season with a pair of losses against a couple of South Division Rivals.
The local triple A midget team dropped their season opener 3-2 to the Calgary Royals on Sept. 28, before being throttled by the Calgary Flames 9-4 on Sept. 30.
“It’s funny, you try and differentiate and figure out ‘did you play well’ or ‘were the guys working hard,’ and those type of things. The more I think about it, the more I’m comfortable we were,” said head coach Jeremy Friesen after the loss to the Flames. “We couldn’t get a save – it wasn’t the first shot that was going in, the rebound control was very poor and kicking out to the slot. We would have had to do everything perfect to eliminate those things and we’re not there yet.
“We are very comfortable with the goalies that we have, we just need to challenge them and they’ll tell you themselves that they need to be a lot better.”
According to Friesen, the Bisons came out flying against the Flames and dictated the play early on. Despite scoring first and outshoot their opponent 19-9, the Bisons found themselves down 4-1 going into the first intermission.
“Anytime you can control the play and dictate the play like that and come out that lopsided of a score, it’s frustrating for the guys,” said the coach. “The encouraging thing from a coaching stand point is that there was no finger-pointing, there was no letdown, there was no quit anywhere.”
On Friday night, the Bisons had a very ‘disappointing’ start to the game, said Friesen. The team was overwhelmed early in the game but began to turn things around in the second period. In the third period, the Bisons came out with a dominant performance and scored a pair of goals.
Unfortunately for them, it was not enough to earn a point.
“It wasn’t our best game,” said Friesen. “We stressed a lot all week in practice about execution and attention to detail. Our work ethic was there, it really was, but passes were off and guys were standing still when they got the puck. It was just the little things that we’ve been stressing for the last two to three weeks.
“Our second period was better and we showed flashes of what we are capable of doing, with some inconsistent breakdowns.
“The third period was our hockey team – that’s what it takes and that’s what we need to do. We came at them from a lot of different directions and we didn’t really stop.
“Hockey is a game of bounces – they got a couple and they deserved them – we took a period off and we didn’t get them. That’s the way the game goes. We learned a valuable lesson and we move on.”
The Bisons will take the lessons from this weekend when they travel to Grande Prairie on Oct. 6 and Edmonton the following day to take on the Canadiens. The herd will then play two more road games before the home opener on Oct. 20 (5:30 p.m.) when they host the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers.