The Bison men's hockey team begin the start of the second half of the 2015-16 conference season by hosting the #3 Alberta Golden Bears on January 8-9 weekend at the Wayne Fleming Arena. Puck drop versus the Bears will be 7 p.m. CT on Friday and 4 p.m. CT on Saturday. 

This is an important series as Manitoba battling for a high playoff spot as they sit in fifth spot in the Canada West standings entering the weekend with a 7-7-2 record for 16 points and only three points out of fourth spot. The Bisons have won two straight games before the holiday break. Alberta is third in the CIS ranking and in second place in Canada West with a 12-3-1 record and have won six consecutive games.

This is the second weekend series between the two teams this season as they played earlier in November at Alberta with Manitoba taking three out four possible points after 3-2 win on Nov. 7/15 and 3-2 (2 OT) loss on Nov. 6/15.

Manitoba and Alberta have five players in the Canada West Top 10 scoring. For the Bisons, captain and third year forward Jordan DePape is tied for first with 24 points (nine goals, 15 assists) while third year forward Shaq Merasty (10g, 8a) is tied for fifth at 18 points. For the Bears, Jordan Hickmott (8g, 14a) is in third spot with 22 points, Levko Koper (9g, 10a) is fourth with 19 points and Kruise Reddick (7g, 11a) is tied with Merasty in fifth with 18 points.

Bison first year forward Brett Stovin (8g, 7a) enters the weekend on a nine game point streak and tied for 14th place in conference scoring with 15 points. 

In the nets, Bison netminder Byron Spriggs has played in nine conference regular season games and in seventh place in Goals Against Average with 3.13 and fifth in Save Percentage at .906. Alberta's Luke Siemens leads Canada West with a 1.90 GAA and tied for first with 11 conference wins in 15 conference games.

Bison Notes: This is the first of back-to-back weekends at home for the Bison men's hockey team as they host the Mount Royal Cougars on January 15-16 weekend.