WINNIPEG – Jared Walker led the Bisons as they won their opening playoff game in a walk.

The University of Manitoba Bisons routed The University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 6-0 in the first game of their Canada West Quarter-final match-up.

Walker had a hand in five of the Manitoba goals, scoring a goal and four assists. Also scoring for Manitoba was Chris Falloon with two, Kyle Howarth, Calin Wild, and Riley Dudar. Krister Toews stopped 23 shots to earn the shut out.

“I think we played pretty solid for sixty minutes. Stayed pretty disciplined,” said Bisons head coach Don MacGillivray. “But it’s only one game. It doesn’t matter if it’s 1-0 or 6-0. We’re both back at it here tomorrow and hopefully we’ll bring our A-game tomorrow.”

The Herd opened the scoring nearly halfway into the opening period. Howarth was able to navigate a point shot through a crowd in front of the T-Birds net untouched, and into the goal. Howarth’s powerplay marker came at 7:48 of the first period.

Just under three-minutes later, Manitoba struck again to go up by two. UBC defence was unable to clear a rebound in front of netminder Gerry Festa, and Wild was able to slide the puck under the lunging goalie. Wild made the score 2-0 at 10:43.

The Bisons added one more before closing out the first period. Falloon buried a Travis Kornelsen pass as the two broke in on Festa. Falloon’s goal came at 18:23.

Manitoba chased Festa from the net, after Walker fired a shot from the left wing, that handcuffed the UBC netminder. The Herd’s fourth goal came 4:45 into the second period and Francois Thuot was called into action for the T-Birds.

Dudar widened the gap to five goals when he scored at the 17:40 mark of the second period. As Dudar and Walker streaked into the UBC zone, Dudar nearly lost the puck in his skates, but was just able to get enough wood on it to direct it into the net.

UBC grew frustrated near the end of the game, giving Manitoba a two-man advantage after a bench minor for unsportsmanlike conduct. Falloon scored his second of the game on a blistering slap shot from the high slot. Falloon’s goal made it 6-0 at 16:02 of third period.

Game two of Manitoba and UBC’s Canada West Quarter-final match-up will go Saturday evening at the Max Bell Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. If necessay, game three will go Sunday at 7 p.m. as well.