Bisons get ‘Cowtown’ split

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The CFR Bisons would like to throw out their performance against the Calgary Buffaloes last Saturday night as they seemed to have been caught flat-footed all game long, and it showed in a 4-2 defeat by their archrival.
First-year forward Matt Halkovic thought they had the potential to pace themselves with the Buffs but unfortunately the game plan was not executed well enough.
“We flat-out didn’t compete, and they out worked us,” said Halkovic. “That’s what it basically comes down to in every game. You just need to work hard to win these games and we just didn’t do it against the Buffs.”
He added that getting out of their own zone was an issue and turning the puck over lots in the neutral zone prevented them from getting any pressured attacks going.
“We tried to adjust,” said Halkovic. “We were not working hard enough in our own zone to get the puck out and in the neutral zone we weren’t skating hard enough. I didn’t think any of us adjusted until the last 10 minutes of the game but at that point it was too late.”
Kyle Gordon and Cameron Shorrock scored in the loss.
It was a much different story on Sunday afternoon against the Calgary Royals to earn the split with a 3-1 win and a game where the effort was much better.
“We worked a lot harder on getting the puck out of our zone, turning over the pucks less and getting pucks on net,” he said. “Obviously our first line with Kyle Gordon and Gary Haden, they’re always capitalizing on their chances and that was the case (on Sunday).”
He thought that going into the first intermission either tied or ahead set them up nicely for the rest of the contest.
It was Gordon with two and Shorrock with one in the win.
The Bisons will have a pair of home games this weekend when they host Grande Prairie on Halloween at 5:15 p.m., and then the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers will be in town on Nov. 1 at 2 p.m.