Manitoba sweeps weekend series Calgary with 5-2 win on Saturday

Written by: Lauren Hollins

WINNIPEG, MB — On Saturday, February 6, the University of Manitoba Bisons men's hockey team took on the University of Calgary Dinos in the second of a two game weekend series at Wayne Fleming Arena.

After their Friday night 6-4 win against the Dinos, the Bisons were eager to match Saturday's game with Friday night's win. Despite some amazing saves by Dinos goalie Steven Stanford, the Bisons swept the away side in their season series and won the game 5-2, outshooting them 35-17.

Excitement was high early on in the game when the Bisons had a wide-open net opportunity to score, but Stanford robbed the Bisons' Jesse Paradis from scoring the game's first goal with a save-of-the-season as he stuck out his paddle in desperation and made the amazing save.

The Dinos' Dylan Walchuk was the first to get the puck past Bison goalie Justin Paulic in the first period, but Bisons' Shaq Merasty was quick to tie up the score with a shot from the corner with an assist by Liam Bilton with13:19 into the first.

The home team built momentum, hungry for another win on home ice by taking the lead in scoring in the first when co-captain Jordan DePape hit the puck past the crease. The assists made by Brett Stovin and Paradis.

Into the second, Dinos Elgin Pearce slapped the puck between Paulic's legs early on in the second (16:38) to tie up the score up at two. Dinos' Adam Kambeitz and Brooks Myers assisted.

Manitoba regained a one-goal advantage when Warren Callis scored a power play goal at 12:45 as he was left alone at the side of the net, with assist by Brett Brooks Joel Schreyer.

To finish the middle frame, the Bisons took two too-many-men penalties, and Dinos' goalie Steven Stanford continued to make save after save, but once he left the net a little too wide, giving the home team an easy scoring opportunity to Bison Liam Bilton. Rene Hunter and Adam Henry assisted on Bilton's goal at 19:13 into the second.

At 9:58 left in the game, Bison Jesse Paradis scored a beautiful top-shelf goal set up by a give-and-go pass from Warren Callis putting the home team at a comfortable 5-2 advantage and salt away the home sweep.

"I think we all felt today that today was arguably our best performance of the season, because we played really well defensively, and our goaltending, we're doing an amazing job with four defensemen and our forwards," says Bison head coach Mike Sirant.

Today's game wraps up the Bisons' 2015-16 regular home season. Next week (Feb. 12-13) Manitoba head west to play UBC while Calgary plays a home-and-home series against Lethbridge.

TOP SCORERS:

MAN: Callis (1G, 1A), Paradis (1G, 1A), Bilton (1G, 1A)

CGY: Myers (2A), Walchuk (1G), Pearce (1G)

SCORING SUMMARY:

MAN: 2-2-1= 5

CGY: 1-1-0= 2