The Bisons women’s hockey team gave the Alberta Pandas a run for their money in their regular season home opener on Oct. 12 at the Wayne Fleming Arena. The match ended in a 1-0 victory for the Pandas, though the victory did not come easy.

The scoreless tie between the two teams was soon broken at exactly 13 minutes and 55 seconds in the first period when Maia Ehmann flicked the puck past goaltender Emily Shippam’s shoulder to give the Alberta Pandas a lead and the lone goal of the game. For the remaining 6 minutes and 5 seconds of the first period, the Bisons struggled to equalize the goal and all their attempts were proven futile by goaltender Grace Glover of Alberta Pandas. However, the first period ended with the Bisons team having more shots on goal by six, compared to their opponent that had four.

The second period of the game started off heated as the Bisons tried to equalize the one goal conceded while the Alberta Pandas also tried to double their lead. Despite the second period starting off with great intensity from both teams, no goal was recorded and the scoreline remained 1-0. The second period had more shots on goal than the rest of the periods. The intensity of the Bisons drove the team to put more pressure on the Alberta Pandas by taking more shots which gave the team 14 shots on target in the second period. The Alberta Pandas showed that they were not comfortable with one goal and mounted more pressure on the Bisons which gave the team 15 shots on goal at the end of the second period.

The third period started equally as intense. The Bisons kept up with the hunger to equalize the late first period strike by the Alberta Pandas, but this was to no avail. Both teams ended the clash for the night with seven more shots on goal, which gave the Bisons a total of 21 shots on net and the Alberta Pandas a total of 22. The game ended with the Alberta Pandas claiming the victory on the home ice of the Bisons.

The Bisons women’s head coach, Jordy Zacharias, commented how she felt at the end of the game. “I honestly thought it was awesome. […] [The Bisons] have worked really hard the last six weeks and it showed up today. [The Pandas] capitalized on one error and for tomorrow we just got a couple of small tweaks and try to be a little hungrier in front of the net.”

Asking Zacharias what she learned about her team, she said, “I learned that they listen well in practices and what we are doing, and they are able to execute what we have been working on which is awesome.”

Finally, when asked what she would do in the next game, she replied, “not much different. Honestly, they played a really good game. Tomorrow is just going to come down to who wants to compete harder when you turn games from Friday to Saturday, so the play just comes to who wants it more.”

The Bisons defeated the Pandas the following day 4-2 in another match in the Wayne Fleming Arena.

The Bisons women’s hockey team will face the Regina Cougars on Friday, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. CT in Regina.