Bison women off to quick start with 14 rookies in lineup

The transition from high school hockey to the university ranks can be a rocky road but the Manitoba Bisons women's hockey team is showing that inexperienced teams don't have to wait to start winning in the ultracompetitive Canada West Universities Athletic Conference.

Manitoba, with 14 rookies on its 30-player roster, has bolted from the gate with a 5-3-2-0 record and sits second in the conference.

Last weekend, the Bisons split a two-game road series with first-place Mount Royal, handing the the sixth-ranked Cougars a 2-1 overtime loss on Saturday.

Forward Molly Kunnas tied the game with 14 seconds left in the third period and blue-liner Trechelle Bunn scored the game-winner in extra time. Kunnas and Bunn are among the nine second-year players on the squad.

A lost season due to the pandemic has helped to create a surplus of young talent for head coach Jon Rempel to work with.

"It's kind of scary when you haven't played for a whole season and then you come in and you have two larger rookie classes and you never really know what to expect," said Bisons fifth-year defenceman Lauren Warkentin. "But I think we've just worked day in, day out over the last two years and just kind of reinforced our team identity and team values. I think that's really been beneficial for us."

Warkentin, one of only three holdovers from Manitoba's 2017-18 national championship team (defender Brielle Dacquay-Neveux and forward Madison Cole are the others), will have a busy December break.

She's been named to the team representing Canada at the FISU World University Games in Lucerne, Switzerland.

"As a leadership group... I think we've all kind of come together and I think our two rookie classes have proven themselves on the ice and they've shown that they can play at this level," said Warkentin. "And I think, just kind of how we've structured our practices and how we learn as a team has really helped us and helped everyone get to that level."

Getting recognition for their progress via the U Sports national rankings could take some doing. Mount Royal and the No. 9 UBC Thunderbirds are the only Canada West teams in the national top 10.

"It was definitely a lot of pressure on the older girls to kind of get them to buy into what we were doing," said Dacquay-Neveux. "But... everyone is keen on what we're doing here and everyone wants to be here so it was really easy to get them in."

Among the emerging players is a quartet of forwards, led by second-year star Halle Edwards who has been the leading point-getter with eight points, including four goals. Meanwhile, rookies Ashley Keller (five goals, seven points), Kylie Lesuk (three goals, six points) and Julia Bird (one goal, five points) have also filled the net. Manitoba has scored 28 goals in its first 10 games.

Bird said her university debut against the Calgary Dinos Oct. 15 was memorable and nerve-wracking. She scored her first Canada West goal in a 4-2 win over the Regina Cougars on Nov. 5.

"It was the most nervous I'd been for a game in a while," said Bird of the Calgary game. "Even the first period of the first game was huge learning curve, but after that I kind of realized that it's not that big of a deal."

Bird, a left-shot, has found her groove playing the off wing on a line with Edwards and Keller. The trio's goal-scoring punch has been timely.

"Can West is typically a very defensive League and there's a lot of top goaltenders as well, which are super hard to play against," said Warkentin. "So, you play in those one- or two-goal games almost every game. Not to say that there isn't the opportunity to score goals (because) I think we've kind of showed that a little bit this year."

Dacquay-Neveux admitted the boost in offensive production is an improvement on 2019-20 when the Bisons went 10-18-0-0. The post-season appears to be a good bet in 2021-22.

"In moments that we really have to dig down, we do," said Dacquay-Neveux. "Just this past weekend, we won an overtime. We scored 14 seconds left in the game and the people that were out there just had to bear down and get their jobs done and that's what they did."

Next up for Manitoba is a two-game series against the visiting Alberta Pandas on Friday (6 p.m.) and Saturday (2 p.m.) at Wayne Fleming Arena.

Alberta is an old rival from past seasons. The Bisons advanced to the conference final during their championship season by beating the Pandas 1-0 in quadruple overtime in Game 3 of the Canada West semifinals.

"There's a little bit of history between our teams but I think it's also good that we have to rookie classes who don't really know the history too well, so it's gonna be good to get that fresh perspective," said Warkentin.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14