October 5 - The Bisons started their Great Plains division schedule Friday night at the Max Bell Arena with a win over the Lethbridge Pronghorns 4-0. The win opens the Bisons regular season with a record of 1-0, while the Pronghorns take the loss at 0-1.

The Bisons opened the scoring within the first two minutes of the game with power play goal at 1:29 by Sarah Stebeleski. A second goal was added midway through the first, when the Pronghorns got in to penalty trouble having two in the box. A sharp pass from Bison captain Leanne Kisil was fed to a waiting Meghan Ross in front of the net.

The Bisons third goal came on the power play when a weak pass from Shannon Hoogsteen trickled through the crease at 3:08 in the second period. Katherine O’Rourke was quick to jump on the loose puck and put it past Lethbridge netminder Mackenzie Rizos. Brenna Leary was also credited with an assist on the play, giving her two on the night.

The final goal of the game came late in the third when Bison forward Addie Miles took a quick shot from the point after receiving the go-ahead pass from Danielle Fouillard. Rizos had an impressive outing for the Pronghorns stopping the Bisons 33 times on 37 shots.

After losing both of their exhibition games south of the border, fourth year coach Jon Rempel looked to start the Bisons’ division run on the right foot. “I thought we did a lot of things very well,” said Rempel. “I thought we played the way we had to play, and kept our level up the whole game.”

“We have a veteran group and I think you saw a lot of that tonight.” Rempel said. “We have a young defense, but our forwards took control and relieved the pressure on the back end.”

The Bisons will play Lethbridge again on Oct. 6 in the second half of their home-opening weekend.

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