The No. 7 ranked Manitoba Bisons men?s hockey team swept the home weekend series when they defeated the visiting Lethbridge Pronghorns by a 5-2 score on Saturday, November 12 at the Max Bell Arena (University of Manitoba campus). In the weekend series, Manitoba won the first game on Friday by a 5-2 result.
 
Manitoba now has a 6-2-2 record and in third place while Lethbridge is
2-8-1 and in seventh in Canada West standings.
 
In the first period, Lethbridge started the scoring when fifth year winger Dustin Moore potted his fourth of the season when he was all alone in front of Bisons netminder Joe Caligiuri. Taylor Gal had the lone assist on the first goal of the game at almost the halfway point. 
Less than a minute later, the home side responded as third year Ian Duval shoved home a rebound past Pronghorns? goaltender Scott Bowles. 
Bison captain and forward Mike Hellyer and linemate Matt Lowry added assists. The rest of the period had a couple of good chances by both teams but no other scoring. After one period, it was all locked up at one with shots at 14-9 margin for Manitoba.
 
In the second, the Bisons started the period with a bang as they scored after only 36 seconds. Defenceman Dane Crowley pinched in from the point and received a nice pass by Chris Benias in the slot and fired it past Bowles. Rookie Brendan Rowinski had the other assist and the Herd had their first lead. Manitoba came on in the latter half of the period and Bowles made two amazing saves on defenceman Travis Bobbee - one in the slot with a pad save and one with a diving stick save in a gaping open net. But the Bisons would not be denied as Rowinski had his third of the season and second point of the night as he scored on a wraparound to extend the lead to two. The Bisons dominated the rest of the period and were leading in shots 35-16 and
3-1 on the scoreboard after two.
 
In the third, the Pronghorns almost made it 3-2 when forward Nick Hotson rifled a shot off the crossbar with five minutes gone. After that, it was the Blair Macaulay show. The third year forward scored on a nifty power play goal when he deked out Bowles all alone at 6:25 and then followed later on with another nice deke when he was sent in alone for his seventh of the season. Lethbridge tried to get back late in the game as they had a power play with five minutes left and Brent Henke was stoned on the doorstop by Caligiuri. Moore added his second of the game and fifth overall with 45 seconds left and the BIsons prevailed 5-2 and outshot the Pronghorns by a wide margin of 50-26.
 
The three stars were first for Crowley (1g, 1a); second star was Rowninski (GWG, 1a) and Macaulay (2g).
 
?We took advantage of being at home and securing an important four points to keep pace with the conference leaders,? stated Bison men?s hockey head coach Mike Sirant. ?We stressed after the first period to elevate our play and the guys responded and took control of the game. 
I thought we were good in the offence zone and patience tonight.?
 
 
The Bisons will travel and play the UBC Thunderbirds on November 18-19 weekend while Lethbridge host the Regina Cougars on the same weekend.
 
All Canada West hockey games now have livestats, found on http://www.leaguestat.com/canadawest/mens/en/stats/schedule.php