Bisons even series

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

Doug Taylor Photo

 

The CFR Bisons rebounded after a 4-2 loss in Game 1 to the Calgary Flames on March 6 with a more consistent effort en route to a 5-3 win in Game 2 on March 8 at the Strathmore Family Centre.
Nursing a 5-1 lead heading into the third period, it appeared the Bisons had this game in the bag, but a couple bounces went the Flames way to make the game 5-3 by the halfway point of the third period, making for some anxious moments in the latter stages of the contest.
The Bisons found themselves down two men with less than five minutes to go in the game and were able to find a way to kill it off.
“When you’ve had no momentum in the period and you’re hanging on for dear life, it’s a poor time to be taking penalties 200 feet from your net,” said Bisons head coach Sandy Henry. “Hats off to our penalty kill guys. I thought they really eliminated the 5-on-3 for them and that’s a talented offensive team (that) didn’t generate hardly a shot and when they did, Hunter was there. That’s adversity, that’s a learning curve for us and now we know.”
According to Henry, the game plan from the start was to get pucks on net and it worked.
“They like to push their forwards out really high into the neutral zone,” said Henry. “I thought we gave up too many odd man rushes in the first period because we were pushing our forecheck with three guys and once it’s through those three guys it’s odd man.”
Bisons defenseman Cole Clayton said the team did a good job of buckling down and sacrificing themselves to block shots, all while getting the win for goalie Hunter Virostek.
“We knew last game we went up early and then we gave it up,” said Clayton. “This game we weren’t going to let that happen. We just kept firing on all cylinders and at the very end of the game they had some chances, but we just buckled down and didn’t let them score.”
Kaden Hanas, Gary Haden, Cole Reinhardt, Matt Halkovic and Kyle Gordon each scored in the win.
In Game 1, Henry said the Flames outworked them, which created too many odd man rushes against them. As a result, the boys were caught watching the puck in their own end.
“I think we need to get a little better forecheck pressure on their defenseman takeaway some of their time,” said Henry. “We got to be a little more heads up in our defensive zone. I thought we got puck watching a little bit and it opened up some back door opportunities for them.”
He added also that the team will need to be more sharp on their penalty kill because if you make a mistake against the Flames, the puck will be in the back of the net.
Cole Reinhardt and Tyson Scott scored in the loss.
Game 3 was played in Calgary on March 10, while Game 4 will be back in Strathmore on March 12 (6:30 p.m.). Game 5, if necessary, is March 15 (7:30 p.m.) in Calgary.