Cougars oust Bisons from Mac’s

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

Doug Taylor Photo

 

For the second game in a row, the CFR Bisons were entrenched in a tough battle against the Cariboo Cougars, who played a structurally sound game en route to defeating the Bisons 5-3 and eliminating them from the Mac’s tournament on Dec. 29 at the Max Bell Centre.
Down 2-0 after the first period, head coach Sandy Henry said they put themselves in an unfortunate situation early on, starting off behind, and that playing four games in four days was hard mentally.
“I think we learned something about our team that we do have some bite when we need to have it,” said Henry. “I think we were tired and I saw that in us. And not so much that our legs won’t move. It’s just making those key decisions, and the details slip away out of the game when you’re that tired. That was the difference in the first, we made a couple of mistakes, and bang it’s in the net.”
However, Henry thought they made the necessary adjustments and were able to limit the Cougars rush to the nets. At that point he felt they were able to take a little bit of control of the game.
“I think you saw, even when it was 4-2, we didn’t roll over and just started coming hard again,” said Henry. “I’m happy with the boys. I thought they were standing around more in the third. The little details of the game still weren’t quite there. I know they’re disappointed, but when you break it out into what you learn from it, it’s going to help us in the long run.”
He added that some rest would’ve helped in between the first two and the last two games.
He also said there was no excuse in the Lloydminster game because they were on the same schedule and against the Cougars, a better start was needed.
The team’s effort was evident, because they were able to battle back many times. However, Bisons forward Gary Haden said they couldn’t get that next bounce and that four games in four days showed how well their condition was.
“You got to be ready for everything,” said Haden. “Any time you don’t win you’re disappointed for sure. We worked hard and let the chips fall where they may and it wasn’t our day today.
“When all the lines play how they can play and when we had four lines rolling and scoring, no one can stop us,”
Tyson Scott, Kyle Gordon, and Brett Trentham scored in the loss.