The Airdrie CFR Bisons held their home opener on Oct. 6 in the Ron Ebbeson Arena but came away with bittersweet feelings.

Instead of the win they wanted, the Bisons came away with a point and a draw against a strong Calgary Buffaloes team in Alberta Midget Hockey League play.

"The (Buffaloes) are always a good team every year, so the fact that we came out with one point is a good thing," said head coach Dustin Taylor.

The Bisons were coming off a 6-1 loss to the Calgary Royals the day before and showed improvement.

"Our play away from the puck was better than yesterday. With the puck, we struggled. A lot of panic going on right now. Chalk it up to a little bit of nerves for a home opener."

Taylor said the home opener is an important opportunity to set the mood for the rest of the season and that his team did a good job in doing so.

"We have 18 new faces on this team, so there's not a whole lot of (...) tribal knowledge," said Taylor. "So for them to come in and establish a bit of a home identity, they did a pretty good job."

The Bisons are now preparing to go on the road this weekend against the Leduc Oil Kings and the St. Albert Raiders.

"We have a really solid week of practice, good days of details and making sure we're getting better with every rep," said Taylor. "We're a team that needs to have that detail in our habits and bringing that into the game and looking for the translation from that."

Several Cochrane players are part of the AAA midget team.