The Bisons women’s hockey team played against the Trinity Western Spartans at the Wayne Fleming Arena on Friday, Jan. 16 at 7 p.m. The game ended 5-4, a loss for the herd in overtime.
The game started off well for the Bisons as they were able to take the lead within three minutes with a goal by Sophia Anderson in the power play. Before the Spartans could find their footing, Dana Goertzen scored another goal for the herd. By the end of the first period the herd were up 0-2.
The second set dawned with aggression from the Spartans, leading to a power play allowing Louise Fergusson to score a goal for the herd, bringing them to 0-3. But the Spartans soon found wind in their sails. Chayce Kullman and Presleigh Giesbrecht both scored goals for the Spartans. The second period ended with 2-3.
In the third period, Kailey Ledoux scored a goal for the Spartans, tying the score to 3-3. A few minutes later, Kasey Ditner scored an impressive goal to give the Spartans a 4-3 lead, putting the herd on the backfoot. But the herd did not give up, and with less than a minute left in the period, Aimee Patrick scored a goal for the herd. With scores tied 4-4, the game went into overtime.
In overtime, despite attempts by the herd, Kyra McDonald scored the goal to seize the win for the Spartans. The final score of the game was 5-4.
This season, the Bisons have a new head coach, Jordan Colliton. Colliton was the associate head coach for the Mount Royal Cougars women’s hockey team for the 2021-2022 season.
After building an early lead, Colliton acknowledged the Bisons lost their edge. “We stopped doing things that allowed us to go up three nothing and gave them some life [and] hope through the rest of the game.” She credited the opening power play with setting an early tone and added that the first unit helped create momentum. Colliton added, “I think too many special teams ruins the rhythm of the game, so that was kind of unfortunate on both sides.” She complimented her team’s power play yet emphasized on execution. When looking ahead to the next matchup that occurred the next day, the coach described the opponent. “They’re fast, they’re gritty. They’re similar to us, they have skill. I think they brought a will to win today.” She also reflected on her own group’s progress, noting, “We haven’t had a lead and had that pushback, and so it was a good lesson for our team today”
Explaining the late timeout before third period ended, the coach said, “We had an offensive zone face off and so we want to get our better players a little bit of rest before we had that final push.”
Addressing the decision to manage the game late rather than push aggressively, Colliton said, “The more time that we can spend in the offensive zone, the less time we’re spending in the [defensive] zone and the less opportunity for them to score.”
On the Spartans, Colliton said, “I think they are a great team, and they had a great push. We just didn’t respond to it quick enough.”
On Saturday, Jan. 17 the Bisons played the Spartans again. The herd won the game 4-1. Patrick and Goertzen scored again in this match, alongside Sophia Heidinger and Norah Collins.
The herd will face the MacEwan Griffins on Friday, Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. CT and Saturday, Jan. 24 at 2 p.m. CT at the Wayne Fleming Arena. In the last faceoff, the Griffins defeated the herd 2-0, on
Jan. 25, 2025.
