Buffs force Bisons split

Justin Seward

Times Reporter

 

It was a highly anticipated game between the Calgary Buffaloes and UFA Bisons at the Strathmore Family Centre on Sunday afternoon – as both teams played physical, skated hard and weren’t giving each other a lot of room in the neutral zone. Bisons assistant coach Dave Attwood thought his team took too many unnecessary penalties and stopped using their speed in the 3-1 loss to the Buffs. “We knew that the Buffaloes would be tough because they gained some separation in the standings. The games are just as important to us, for either that bye if we’re second or home ice advantage if we’re third,” said Attwood. “What’s more important is that we’re trying to test ourselves against the good teams. Yeah we lost today, but that’s a split with the Buffaloes, we won in their barn and they won in ours so that’s a team we got to have our best game against and today we just took too many penalties.” He admits that the Buffaloes used their speed effectively and the boys just could not seem to slow them down and were one step behind. Jordan McConnell scored the lone goal in the loss. The Bisons played a much more consistent game on Saturday night in Lethbridge as they were able to get some more separation from the fourth-place Hurricanes with a 4-2 win. Captain Shane Fraser opened the scoring just 15 seconds into the game with the assists going to William Conley and Jordan McConnell. The Hurricanes were able to get one back to tie it at one after the first period. Lethbridge was able to take the lead with 4:57 to go in the second before Conley was able get the Bisons back on even terms at 4:25, with assists going to Fraser and Sebastien Kilcommons. The boys pulled away in the third as Zachary Vinnell scored at the 10:20 mark from Conley and Quaid McBean Conley scored his second of the game from McConnell and Fraser at 2:25 to round out the offense. The Bisons will conclude their regular season schedule with three road games starting Feb. 7 (5:15 p.m.) against the Calgary Northstars at the Max Bell Centre.