Ruilin FuThe Golden Bears hockey team stumbled out of the gate in their first series of 2016, losing both of their games last weekend to the Manitoba Bisons.
The Bears dropped a high-scoring affair on Friday night, surrendering a season high in goals in a 7-4 loss. The game was tied 4-4 heading into the third period, but at that point the Bisons took over the game, scoring three goals in a six-minute span en-route to the win. Winnipeg native Jordan DePape was the driving force behind the Bisons offence, scoring a goal and adding three assists.
Head coach Serge Lajoie said that the Bears’ compete level wasn’t up to their usual standard in Friday’s loss.
“We weren’t ready to compete at a level that would allow us to win,” Lajoie said.
“We had chances to take hold of the game, but we just didn’t show the determination level required to come out on top.”
The second game was closer, but ultimately the Bears fell short again, surrendering the winning goal to the Bisons’ Shaq Merasty with just over a minute left in the third period. DePape had another good game for the Bisons, registering two assists in the victory, while the Bears got goals from Kruise Reddick and Riley Keiser in the loss.
The Bears heavily outshot the Bisons over the course of the weekend, registering 39 shots on Friday, and 48 on Saturday, but the Bisons goaltending held strong, especially on Saturday, when Justin Paulic made 46 saves in the victory.
Despite heavily outshooting the Bisons, Lajoie emphasized that the Bears need to bring a more consistent effort to the rink each week.
“We’re not winning games on talent alone, and we didn’t show up this weekend ready to compete at a level for us to be successful,” he said.
“We’ve been talking about whether we want to call it relentless effort, or championship effort, and we fell very short of that this weekend. Frankly, I was very disappointed.”
The two losses drop the Bears to five points behind the Saskatchewan Huskies for first place in Canada West, and they now only sit one point clear of the Mount Royal Cougars, who currently reside in third.
Some coaches would be tempted to start watching the scoreboard more as the season progresses, but Lajoie said that the standings weren’t his concern.
“We have a longer distance to make up, not in terms of catching Saskatchewan, but more in terms of getting ourselves ready for playoffs,” Lajoie said.
“It’s not even game to game, it’s day to day, and we missed an opportunity last week to fully prepare ourselves.”
The Bears will now return home to host the UBC Thunderbirds this coming weekend, and Lajoie once again stressed the higher level of effort required for the Bears to be successful.
“It gets down to a willingness to compete with a higher level of grit and to find ways to win games,” Lajoie said.
“We’re going to elevate our level of compete in every aspect of the game… the mental preparation is what we’re lacking the most right now.”
The Bears will host the Thunderbirds on Friday, Jan. 15, and Saturday, Jan. 16 at Clare Drake Arena.
