Hardworking herd seeing results at Mac’s

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

UFA Bisons vs SSAC Athletics
Dec. 29 Max Bell Centre
The UFA Bisons were left searching for answers after Athletics goalie Matt Berlin turned in a stellar performance as he stopped everything the Bison threw at him.
The Herd was able to score two late power play goals from Shane Fraser and Austin Cameron, but lost 4-2.
Assistant coach Sandy Henry admits if the Bisons capitalized on some early chances the outcome of the game would have been different.
“I thought maybe really early in the game we had a significant number of chances and for whatever reason didn’t finish them. (We) didn’t do that extra little thing it takes to finish pucks against a good goalie,” said Henry. “I think eventually we lost a little of the momentum because we couldn’t get that to go in, and maybe a little bit of frustration with how the game’s going, you’re working hard getting chances and not getting results.”
The Athletics, who were playing their fourth game in four nights, played the game simple and buried their chances at pivotal times whereas the Bisons could not keep pace.
“I think we got off our game thinking about feeling sorry for ourselves a little bit and in 60 minutes of hockey, there’s not any time to feel sorry for yourselves because you get behind the eight ball. They continued to score on their chances,” said Henry. “I was happy that we gutted up, we got one, if we could’ve got that one earlier in the game and it would’ve created a different momentum for us.”
The Bisons were noticeably making Berlin’s job easy, as they did not get enough traffic in front of him as a lot of the shots were coming from the perimeter.
“We talked about our net front presence in the offensive zone, it wasn’t good enough. Goalies in this league, if they see pucks from 30 feet out, they’re hard to beat,” said Henry. “In the third period we got that traffic and I think we got some pucks through and they had a chance to go in.”

UFA Bisons vs Tisdale Trojans
Dec. 30 Father David Bauer Arena
The surging Tisdale Trojans gave the UFA Bisons all they could handle in the final round robin game.
Despite having a 3-1 lead after two periods, the Bisons were determined to not let this one slip away and held on for a 3-2 victory to advance to the quarterfinals.
“I think it was a lot of good, tough play and a lot of guys really trying their best, so when you do that, you do survive,” said head coach Dan MacDonald.
The Bisons were able to sustain an early lead and battled hard against a resilient Trojan team.
“It’s always our plan, we wanted to initiate everything and that’s what makes us a good team,” said MacDonald.
“I thought we forechecked really well and our defensive zone play was very good and we had some good goaltending, so when you add all that up and we had a chance to be successful.”
There were times when the Bisons had to make some adjustments but they always picked up their man skating back into their zone.
“The biggest thing was picking up the right guy when we came back and that’s something we haven’t done real well this year but we did it well today. If you focus hard on what you’re supposed to do and what your responsibilities are, that’s what allowed us to overcome the thrust they had,” said MacDonald.
Fraser, Trgve Many Guns and Gary Haden scored in the win.

FA Bisons vs Calgary Buffaloes

Dec. 31 Max Bell Centre
The UFA Bisons showed the ‘never say die’ attitude in their quarterfinal game against the Calgary Buffaloes on New Years Eve at the Max Bell Centre.
The Bisons were down 3-0 to the Buffaloes halfway through the game, but turned it up a notch once they found their legs.
“I think we didn’t get out of the gate quite how we wanted. I don’t know if we thought we were giving them too much respect,” said assistant coach Sandy Henry. “We didn’t seem to be finishing too many checks and we’re trying to do a little bit too much with the puck.”
Will Conley was able to make it 3-1 by roofing a shot over the Buffaloes goalie Nick Sanders in tight with 3:21 left in the middle frame and gained some momentum back going into the third.
“We came back and regrouped, I thought our second period got considerably better and in the third we were the better team,” said Henry.
It appeared the Buffaloes had sat back on the puck the rest of the game and that’s where the Bisons kept pressuring them and kept the fans on edge in the later stages of the game.
Gary Haden snapped one blocker side to inch closer to tying the game at 8:52 of the final period, and two minute later, Barrett Sheen got one through traffic from the point to tie the game.
The Buffaloes caught a break at their own blue line and went down on a three-on-one, and Damon Porter finished it by chipping it over Kurtis Chapman to win it 4-3 with 7.1 seconds left.
“At the end, yeah a little bit of a bad hop off our defensemen at their blue line, (the) stick gets knocked out of his hands, he takes a second to pick it up. We’ve kind of have it plugged up in the neutral zone but not quite and then they make a play,” said Henry. “We didn’t quite have enough to win the game and in the same respect, it’s a great step for our team, we’re just continuing to show that resiliency and that’s just basically work ethic.”
The Bisons worked hard through the duration of the tournament and Henry believes that is only going to make them stronger going forward.
“We were happy with the whole tournament. I think our team made some steps again and that’s what we’re looking for in the big picture because our guys are getting better everyday,” said Henry.