Bison Outlast Wings in Physical 4–3 Shootout Win

IMAGE COURTESY OF BLOOMINGTON BISON MEDIA TEAM

NORMAL, Ill. – The Bloomington Bison outlasted the Kalamazoo Wings 4-3 on Sunday afternoon at Wings Event Center behind a two-point and shootout goal performance from Ayden MacDonald and 36 saves from netminder Hugo Ollas.

Right from the beginning, physical play dominated the contest, with both sides trading huge hits to set the tone right after puck drop.

Brenden Datema and Mikael Robidoux led the physical charge with big hits while the Bison grabbed the upper hand in puck possession, spending almost the entire opening five minutes in the offensive zone.

An ensuing power play for Kalamazoo after a collision in front of Ollas, moments after an impressive post-to-post save, saw the Bison trying to kill off the penalty.

However, Captain Eddie Matsushima was able to generate multiple shorthanded chances for Bloomington to help kill off the disadvantage.

Back in control and on the attack, the Bison finally broke the scoreless deadlock with just over 7 minutes remaining in the opening frame.

Mikhail Abramov connected on a two-on-one breakaway from Shane Ott, with Cullen Ferguson earning the secondary assist to make it 1-0 in favor of the Bison.

The final chance of the period belonged to Bloomington’s Robidoux, who snuck behind the Wings defense but chipped the puck wide of the net to finish out the frame, with the Bison still ahead by 1.

A sense of urgency led to a second-period push for Kalamazoo, but Ollas and the Bison defense remained poised and under control, which translated to another Bison goal shortly after.

MacDonald set up the second score on the secondary assist on Brad Morrison’s rebound score off a Sullivan Mack shot after less than two and a half minutes in frame number 2.

Morrison’s goal marked his first score for the Bison in his second game with the club, and it came against a familiar opponent, having played his previous 69 games for the Kalamazoo Wings.

While in control for most of the frame and generating promising opportunities in front of the Wings net, the next score belonged to Kalamazoo, as they cut the deficit in half with just under 4 minutes remaining in period two.

Unfazed by the Wings’ goal, a late power play opportunity for the Bison was rewarded with a Shane Ott score after Ollas played the puck up ice quickly, leading to a nice give-and-go between Ott and Riku Ishida to make it 3-1 for the Bison to end the period.

The final stanza began with the Bison drawing back-to-back penalties as the contest grew more and more physical, much like the opening minutes of period number one.

Mere 5 minutes into the 3rd, Morrison came to the defense of his teammate, dropping his gloves after the Bison received a tough hit down the ice.

With the contest becoming increasingly physical, the Bison were assessed an extra roughing halfway through, sending Kalamazoo back to the power play.

Shorthanded, Bloomington made things worse by picking up a slashing penalty that led to a Kalamazoo goal on the 5-on-3 advantage to cut the lead to 1, at 3-2.

The ensuing five-on-four advantage was successfully killed off by Hugo Ollas’s work between the pipes, forcing the Wings to pull their goalie with 90 seconds left to try and tie the game up and send it into an extra frame.

The Bison defense did a good job securing their own net, but with just over a minute left to play, the Wings were able to tie the contest up at 3 goals each, following a breakaway save from Ollas on the previous attempt on net.

The extra period saw more chances coming up empty on both sides of the ice, as Ollas continued his great performance by turning away a breakaway chance and negating a two-on-one opportunity with 40 seconds left on the clock, sending the game into a shootout.

Kalamazoo failed to get the puck past Ollas on all three attempts in the shootout, and MacDonald buried the game winner into the bottom of the net in round three to secure Bloomington’s third shootout win of the season.

The Bison were denied on their first two attempts, but MacDonald buried the game-winning tally in the bottom of the third round after Ollas kept Kalamazoo at bay, and Bloomington captured its third shootout win of the season.

The point earned keeps the Bison in a tie for third place in the ECHL’s Central Division with the Indy Fuel at 46 points, good enough for 7th place in the Western Conference.

The Bison will play their next 6 games on the road, starting with back-to-back matchups against a familiar side in the Kalamazoo Wings on Friday, February 6th, and Saturday, February 7th, this weekend.

For all things Bloomington Bison, stay tuned to wznd.com