The Manitoba Bisons women’s hockey team lost to the Regina Cougars 4–3 in double overtime in the second game of the Canada West Quarter Finals at Wayne Fleming Arena Saturday night.
The Cougars now tie the three game series 1–1.
“This is part of the learning curve for this group that is still very young,” said Bisons head coach Jon Rempel.
The Bisons displayed their penalty killing abilities early in the game. Less than a minute in, Nicole Carswell took a tripping penalty. In the second half of the period the Cougars were the ones in penalty trouble when they took back-to-back penalties.
Though Regina killed the first penalty, during the second penalty Manitoba’s leading regular season scorer, Alanna Sharman, scored her first of the playoffs.
Early in the second period the Cougars’ Carleen Meszaros scored five seconds into a Regina power play tying the game 1–1. Later in the period the Cougars’ penalty woes returned when Natasha Kostenko took a goaltender interference penalty. On the resulting power play Bisons’ forward Lauryn Keen tipped Alexandra Anderson’s shot past Cougars’ goalie Toni Ross giving Manitoba a 2¬–1¬ lead.
With eight minutes left in the third period, Bisons’ forward Alana Serhan added to the lead on the power play. Not even two minutes later, the Cougars responded with a goal scored by Kylie Gavelin, her second of the playoffs. With 27 seconds remaining, Gavelin scored her second of the night to tie up the game and send it to overtime.
In the first overtime Bisons' goalie Rachel Dyck wowed fans with some overtime heroics stopping a Cougars breakaway with the minutes left in the extra period.
One minute into the second overtime, Gavelin scored her third of the night from behind the net ending the game.
“We had our opportunities,” said Rempel. “We played a pretty hard game and did a lot of things well.”
The Bisons and Cougars will play Sunday at 7:00 p.m. CST to decide the winner of the series at Wayne Fleming Arena.
