WINNIPEG – On a historic night for the Manitoba Bisons women's hockey program, the squad opened a new season at home with a 5-2 victory over the UBC Thunderbirds on Friday, October 30 at the Max Bell Arena (U of M campus).

With the win, the No. 4 Bisons improved their record to 3-2-0 for six points and a tie for third place in the Canada West standings. UBC falls to 1-4-0 mark and two points with a tie for sixth place in the standings.

Not only was this the 2009-10 home opener for the Bisons but also it had a historic significance, as it is the first time in the Bison women's hockey program's 13-year history to raise a championship banner to the rafters of the Max Bell Arena.

"It was a special night for our program," stated Bison women's hockey head coach Jon Rempel. "Our big time players took over the game and we found a way to win tonight but give credit to UBC as they played well tonight and battled throughout the game."

In a back-and-forth affair over two periods, the home side put away the game in the third period with three unanswered goals for the final margin of victory.

Rookie Caitlin McDonald fired a seeing-eye point shot, on the power play, that found the back of the net behind UBC netminder Melinda Choy for the eventual game-winner on the power play at the 2:32 mark of the final frame. Bison goalie Stacey Corfield had to make a couple of close in saves to preserve the lead before assistant captain Addie Miles salted the contest away with two goals in the last seven minutes of play.

"It was a bit of a disappointing result in a pretty big game," said UBC head coach Nancy Wilson. "Overall they are a strong team. We got the message tonight that we need to play more than 20 minutes and stay out of the penalty box.  I am happy with the effort, especially from some of our younger players, but we need to put together 60 minutes as a team."

Manitoba jumped out to a strong first period as the fans barely got back to their seats after the championship banner ceremony and Nellie Minshull potted her third of the season with only 47 seconds gone in the game. Minshull added her second of the night on the power play and after one it was Manitoba leading 2-0.

In the second, UBC pushed back with a very aggressive period as they took over the momentum and were rewarded with their first tally of the match. Defenceman Kelsey Halvorson fired what looked to be an innocent shot from the point than got past Corfield and the visitors were on the scoreboard.

After a sustained pressure for most of the middle frame, the T-Birds scored very late as assistant captain Lisa Bonang notched her first goal of the season on a wrap around with a mere 0.2 second left on the clock.

UBC could not continue the pressure as the constantly found the penalty box all evening and Manitoba rallied for the three goal victory in the third.

Manitoba went six-for-six on the penalty kill while potting two power play goals in eight chances.

Choy had 26 saves while Corfield had 24 saves in the win.

The same two team battle again at the Max Bell Arena on Halloween night on Saturday. Puck drop is 7 p.m. CT.