November 23 - The University of Saskatchewan Huskies had a great start but couldn’t finish against the University of Manitoba Bisons, who beat them 4-1 at Rutherford Rink Friday night in Saskatoon.

Saskatchewan came out stronger in the first period and the puck spent most of its time in the Bisons end. With one second left in the period, a hard shot came from the Huskies’ blue line nearly opened the scoring but Stacey Corfield made the stop for Manitoba. No scoring came out of the first period, even though the Huskies doubled the Bisons shot total at 10-5 in the frame.

The second period was a different game for both teams as the Bison’s picked up their play.

Three minutes in the second period the first score of the game was made by Manitoba’s Chantal Larocque as she skated through three defenders to put the puck past Huskie goaltender and reigning Canada West Female Athlete of the Week Vanessa Frederick.

Saskatchewan’s Nicole Peppler was sent to the penalty box after taking a bodychecking penalty. Bison Shannon Hoogsteen took advantage of a power play and scored over the left shoulder of Frederick with four and a half minutes remaining in the second period.

“The second period was more like us as we came out hard,” said head coach for the Bisons Jon Rempel. “It can be difficult after having two weeks off.”

The third period was as strong for the Bisons as the last, but riddled with penalties for the team. With less then two minutes into the third, Bison Stephanie Messner landed another shot in net to make the game 3-0. Manitoba’s Larocque scored her second goal of the game during four-on-four play with just under 14 minutes left. The shot went tight into the top left corner of the Huskies net. The score was now 4-0 in favour of the Bisons.

The Huskies finally were able to answer back on a goal by Kelsey Fenton that was a hack battle on a rebound. But that was all the Huskies could do to comeback. Manitoba won 4-1.

With three minutes left in gameplay, the Bison’s gave the Huskies opportunity to score again with a two-man advantage power play, however, the Bisons took the first shots. A series of penalties put three in the Manitoba box and two in the Saskatchewan box. During the third period, Manitoba spent 12 minutes in the box and Saskatchewan eight minutes, six of these penalties were within the last four minutes of play.

“We spent too much time in the penalty box,” said head coach Steve Kook. “But we took it to them in the first period and they took it to us in the second and third. They shouldn’t have surprised us with their speed. I’m surprised after we had a good week of practice.”

The win put Manitoba’s standings at 9-2 and the loss for Saskatchewan at 6-6.

Manitoba and Saskatchewan will play each other again Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Rutherford Arena.