Day 3 action of the Lakehead Thunderwolves TBayTel Varsity Cup started with the No. 9 Manitoba Bisons defeating the Toronto Varsity Blues 5-1 in the early game. The win puts Manitoba's tourney mark at 2-1 and they await the result of the night game between No. 8 Lakehead and the York Lions. If Lakehead wins, Manitoba is in Sunday's tournament final. If York wins against Lakehead, the Lions would face the Thunderwolves in the tourney championship game.
Manitoba was led by Chris Falloon with 2 goals with the other markers coming from Colin Lafreniere, Travis Kornelsen, and Nick Cowan. Kornelsen added 2 assists as well. Manitoba netminder Krister Toews played a solid game in the Bisons goal.
Toronto's goal came from Darrel Simich. The Blues, the defending Varsity Cup champions, had a tough go this year; ending round robin play with a 0-3 record.
Manitoba outshot Toronto 36-29 on the night. Manitoba was 2-4 on the powerplay and Toronto was 1-5 with the man advantage.
The Blues played Manitoba close for the first two periods but couldn't pull the trigger on their scoring opportunities or were denied by Toews in the Manitoba goal. The Bisons came out a fired up team in the third and scored three goals in the first four and a half minutes to put the game away.
Scoring Summary:
Per. 1:
1) MB: 15:12: PP: Colin Lafreniere from Jared Walker and Stewart Thiessen
Per. 2:
2) MB: 13:21: Travis Kornelsen from Colin Wild
Per. 3
3) MB: :32: Chris Falloon from Wade Davison and Travis Kornelsen
4) MB: 3:06: PP: Chris Falloon from Kornelsen and Mark Olafson
5) MB: 4:18: Nick Cowan from Chris Benias
6) TOR: 18:47: PP: Darrell Simich from Stephen Duffy and Mark Heatley