With files from U of M sports information
WINNIPEG - The no. 6 Manitoba Bisons defeated the University of British Columbia (UBC) Thunderbirds 4-0 in Canada West women's hockey action on Friday night. With the win, the Bisons improve their record on the season to 7-3-1 and the Thunderbirds fall back to 4-6-1. Manitoba now jumps to second in the Canada West standings, half a game back of conference-leading Alberta.
T-Bird head coach Nancy Wilson wasn't happy with her team's performance over the first 40 minutes but thought they got better towards the end of the contest.
"The third period was pretty good for us but I thought we played like a tired team - which we are, in our sixth week and dealing with some injuries. Keeping that in mind, we need to play a lot simpler game than we did tonight. We were way too fancy and we weren't getting the puck deep. That was the game plan but we just didn't execute it."
Key contributions came early, as Bisons leading scorer Nellie Minshull recorded her seventh goal of the year at 8:30 to put Manitoba up 1-0. Tammy Brade extended that lead with just over a minute and a half left in the first as Manitoba out shot UBC 13-5 over the first 20 minutes.
The Bisons added a pair of goals early in the second to make it 4-0, as both Addie Miles and Jorrdyn Hrehirchuk tallied for Manitoba.
In the third period, Manitoba closed out the game with solid defence. UBC came out rejuvenated with more full-ice action as the puck went back and forth. However, lack of good shots for the Thunderbirds meant that they were unable to get back in the game with a four goal deficit going into the last period.
Tara Lacquette recorded her third shutout of the season, making 17 saves.
Melinda Choy took the loss, stopping 24 of the 28 shots she faced.
The Bisons women will play the UBC Thunderbirds in a Saturday rematch, the game starting at 5:00 p.m. PT at the Max Bell Centre.
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