{"id":504370,"date":"2026-02-28T02:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T02:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/504370\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T02:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T02:55:11","slug":"cougars-hold-off-bisons-2-1-in-game-one-of-canada-west-semis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/504370\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars hold off Bisons, 2-1 in game one of Canada West semis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                CALGARY, Alta \u2013 Jordynne Hojnocki&#8217;s first career playoff goal gave the Mount Royal University Cougars a 2-1 win over the University of Manitoba Bisons in game one of the Canada West women&#8217;s hockey semifinal.<\/p>\n<p>The Bisons were coming off a quarterfinal win last weekend, knocking off the defending Canada West champion Alberta Pandas. They came hot out of the gates and instilled a physical presence on the Cougars.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the push from Manitoba, Mount Royal didn&#8217;t waver from their gameplan.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I thought we responded well,&#8221; said MRU head coach Scott Rivett. &#8220;They&#8217;re coming off a big series win and were motivated to keep rolling. We matched their play early.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The first goal of the game came midway through the first period, when Jerzey Watteyne whacked home a loose puck after the initial point shot was stopped by Bisons veteran netminder <a href=\"https:\/\/gobisons.ca\/sports\/womens-ice-hockey\/roster\/emily-shippam\/4548\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"4548\" target=\"_blank\">Emily Shippam<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Shippam and the Bisons pleaded with the officials that the puck was covered before\u00a0Watteyne forced it across the line, but the goal was upheld and MRU had a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n<p>Cougars netminder Scout Anderson made her first career playoff start and did not disappoint. Anderson stopped 17 of the 18 shots she faced to secure the victory for<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nMount Royal.<\/p>\n<p>The Bisons lone goal came partway through the second period on a powerplay. Anderson lost her stick and was trying to retrieve it when Bisons captain <a href=\"https:\/\/gobisons.ca\/sports\/womens-ice-hockey\/roster\/dana-goertzen\/6258\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"6258\" target=\"_blank\">Dana Goertzen<\/a><br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nsaw an opportunity to fire a backhand through the five\u00a0hole. The marker was Goertzen&#8217;s first career playoff goal.<\/p>\n<p>Manitoba&#8217;s equalizer was almost immediately wiped out. Just 28 seconds after Goertzen&#8217;s goal, Jordynne Hojnocki scored off a low point shot to restore the Cougars<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nlead.<\/p>\n<p>Mount Royal would hold on the rest of the way, even with added pressure from the Bisons late in the game with the extra attacker, including a shot that went off the post with less than 30 seconds to go.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve been playing playoff style hockey since coming back from the [holiday] break,&#8221; said Manitoba head coach Jordan Colliton. &#8220;Having that mentality means we know we have to earn it. We&#8217;ll try our best to even it out tomorrow and hopefully bring it to game three.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Game two of the series is back at Flames Community Arena on Saturday afternoon.\u00a0Puck drop is set for 2 p.m. MST. Tickets are still available and the game can be<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nstreamed live on Canada West TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALGARY, Alta \u2013 Jordynne Hojnocki&#8217;s first career playoff goal gave the Mount Royal University Cougars a 2-1 win&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-504370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}