By Brant Batters

WINNIPEG – The Herd got a weekend sweep to vault over the visiting T-Birds into fourth spot in the Canada West standings. Manitoba won by the same 3-2 score they defeated UBC by on Friday evening.

Scoring for this Bisons was Nick Cowan, David Brown and Rob Smith. Craig Lineker and Darrell May tallied markers for the T-Birds.

“We’re battling against these guys for home ice advantage right now,” said Bisons captain Rob Smith. “The standings, there are few teams that are tight, within a few points. So we needed the wins. Coming off road games, we had four game losing slide and we needed to get back on track.”

Manitoba improves their record to 11-10-1. Good for 23-points, one better then UBC, with two-games in hand. The T-Birds drop to 11-13-0.

“It’s the result we wanted,” said Bisons head coach Don MacGillivray. “I’m not crazy about how we played but at the same time it was a lot like a playoff game. I thought UBC was battling hard.”

MacGillivray credits the Bisons penalty-kill for their success on the weekend, which only allowed two T-Birds goals on 16 powerplay opportunities.

Cowan opened the scoring for the Bisons at 3:46 of the second period. Skating in on the opposite wing, Cowan snapped a shot from the right face-off dot, picking the top corner. Just 19-seconds later, Manitoba scored again with a very fortunate bounce. Brown dumped the puck into the UBC end and goaltender Francois Thuot went behind the net to play it, only the puck careened off the glass and into the open net. Thuot was out of position and didn’t have a chance to make a play on the puck. That put the Herd up 2-0 at 4:05 of the middle stanza.

UBC cut the lead by one less then two-minutes later on the powerplay. Lineker’s pint shot avoided the crowd in front of Manitoba netminder Krister Toews and found the back of the net. Lineker’s goal came at 6:32.

The T-Birds started the third period shorthanded, but still managed to knot the game at two-a-piece. May blocked a shot at the UBC blueline, creating a break-a-way for himself. May went five-hole on Toews, tying the game 54-seconds into the final period.

Playing four-on-four hockey, Manitoba regained the lead. The Herd were pressuring low, and Mike Hellyer’s shot from the left of Thuot rebounded straight to Smith. The Bisons captain made no mistake with the open net, putting Manitoba up 3-2 with 4:20 remaining in the game.

Toews made 23-saves picking up the win for the Bisons. Thuot stopped 26-shots in the losing effort for the T-Birds.

Next up for the Bisons, they will remain at home to host the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns (5-16-0). Both Friday and Saturday games are scheduled to start at 7 p.m. at the Max Bell Arena. The T-Birds will return home to face the No. 3-ranked University of Saskatchewan Huskies (15-3-5). Games are scheduled for 7:30 locally at the Winter Sports Centre.