BISON LOSE BACK-TO-BACK GAMES IN TOLEDO TO END FEBRUARY

IMAGE COURTESY OF BLOOMINGTON BISON MEDIA TEAM

NORMAL, Ill. – The Bloomington Bison played the Toledo Walleye twice over the last weekend of the month and fell in both games, being outscored a total of 2-9.

The first game took place on Friday. The Bison almost gained momentum to start, as they appeared to score the first goal of the match within the first four minutes, but the goal was overturned due to incidental contact.

Despite outshooting the Walleye 10-7 in the first period, the game remained scoreless heading into the second. Toledo set an aggressive tone to start, scoring the match’s first goal just 46 seconds in.

Bloomington bounced back after Mark Kaleinikovas scored their first goal at 5:35. Just five minutes later, Sullivan Mack scored his 12th goal of the season, giving the Bison the lead halfway through the second period.

The next 10 minutes would be dominated by Toledo with them taking 10 shots compared to the Bison’s three. But goalie Dryden McKay prevented any scoring, and the Bison maintained the lead heading into the final period.

The third period is when everything changed for Bloomington. After remaining competitive for the last 40 minutes, their offense fell apart and only shot three times in the entire last 20 minutes.

Toledo’s offense on the other hand accelerated, and shot 15 times, scoring three separate times to give them the 4-2 home win.

The Bison looked to bounce back and get revenge the next day, but instead wound up taking another loss, this one with a final score of 5-0.

Toledo seemed to build off the end of the last game and wasted no time in this one. The Walleye scored their first goal of the match less than three minutes into the game. They extended their lead just five minutes later, as Tanner Kelly scored his first goal of the game.

In the second period, the Bison’s offense came alive, over doubling their shots from the first period. Despite the improvements, they were unable to score, and the defense was still struggling to stop the Walleye as they scored two more goals, extending their lead to 4-0.

In the final period, things slowed down for both teams, and no scoring occurred until 14:49, when Kelly scored for the second time that night, making it his 20th goal of the season.

Even with these two losses, the Bison still remain in playoff contention as the four seed in their division with 54 points. But Cincinnati remains close behind only one point short, and Kalamazoo down by two.

The Bloomington Bison will be back home at the Grossinger Motors Arena on Friday, March 6th as they host the Utah Grizzlies.

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