Pandas hockey steals win over the Bisons in five minutes

You can dive in hockey.

You can even instigate penalties.

But you can’t make swimming motions into the box and expect to not add a misconduct onto your roughing call.

That pretty much sums up the University of Manitoba Bisons‘ abysmal 4-1 defeat, started by a three goal series, in three minutes, against the University of Alberta Pandas on February 8. Not much better than their slow loss the night prior.

“When that kind of thing is happening, you can see how significant it is when you can’t maintain your composure,” head coach Howie Draper said.

By “significant,” he means giving the Pandas a 3-on-5 power play for two minutes due to an un-natural attachment to game misconducts.

“Sometimes we lose our patience or temper, just like anybody else, we’re all human. But we feel very proud to be one of the most respectful teams out out there.”

Let’s not get crazy — the Pandas are still the fourth most penalized team in Canada West, just two slots above the Bisons. Though it’s easier to keep the gloves down and mouths shut when you’re leading 3-0 with 55 minutes left, erasing the memory of a scoreless 45 minutes the night prior.

“We worked a little bit harder around the puck and won a few more battles and a few more puck races,” Draper said.

“They came out so hard, which is kind of what you want from that crew.”

You want to see your top offensive line, ironically the fourth line, to wrack up the goals and keep up a steady performance over the whole weekend.

That’s exactly what Abby Soyko and Madison Willan’s seven point weekend delivered on.

“They’ve been playing together quite a bit over the second half here. So they both have the the ability to score. They both have the ability to make plays. So they’re a pretty potent unit,” Draper said.

Glover leads Pandas into two week break

Add in goalie Grace Glover, a decent enough defensive structure, and an almost solidified forward line, and the Pandas are playoff ready.

“Glover has demonstrated that she’s our number one over the course of the year. I think she just has that edge. We also wanted to give her the opportunity to start to get into that groove of playing back-to-back games, because that’s likely what we’ll see.”

That’s what we’ll see after two weeks of rest — not exactly how you keep the blood pumping or the momentum up.

“We just got to figure out ways to keep the energy up and the intensity up and keep them engaged. I think that’s the tough part. We’re going to try and put together some non conference games so that that it’s a little bit easier to get yourself in that place when you’re actually playing games,” Draper said.

“It’s not just practice, so we’ll see. It’s not an ideal scenario. One weekend off would be good. Two weekends off is gonna be tough. So we’ll see what we can do.”

Two weekends off is a little rough, but once the vacation has passed the Pandas will be back at Clare Drake, kicking off round two of playoffs in a usual one-sided game.