The Bison men's hockey team finishes first half of the home games for the 2016-17 Canada West conference season by hosting the #2 Saskatchewan Huskies on November 25-26 weekend at the Wayne Fleming Arena (U of M Fort Garry campus). Puck drop versus the Huskies will be 7 p.m. CT on Friday and 7 p.m. CT on Saturday. Tickets available at the Arena door.

The Bisons seek to win their first home weekend series of 2016-17. Manitoba is 2-4 so far at Wayne Fleming Arena (W 3-2 vs. UBC on Oct. 28/16 and W 6-4 vs. Lethbridge on Nov. 12/16).

Heading into the two game weekend series, Manitoba sits in sixth spot in the Canada West standings entering the weekend with a 5-7-0 record for ten points and only five points out of third spot held by Calgary. The Bisons look to rebound after two losses at Alberta on Nov. 18-19 weekend. Saskatchewan is tied for first with Alberta in the eight team conference as they hold a 8-2-2 record for 18 points.

This is the first weekend series between the two teams this season. In 2015-16, the Herd went 0-4 against the Huskies (L 6-3 on Nov. 20/15 and L 4-3 on Nov. 21/15 at home; L 8-3 on Jan. 29/16 and L 5-2 on Jan. 30/16 on the road). Manitoba last defeat Sask. In conference play in 2014-15 season when they swept the Huskies the four games.

Manitoba and Saskatchewan have eight players in the Canada West Top 20 scoring. For the Bisons, fourth year forward Shaq Merasty (four goals, eight assists) is tied for seventh place with 12 points while third year forward Justin Augert (8g, 3a) and fourth year forward and captain Jordan DePape (6g, 5a) are tied for 14th with 11 points. For the Huskies, they have five players in Top 20 highlighted by Michael Sofilias and Kohl Bauml tied for fifth with 13 points.

Augert is tied for fourth in the Canada West conference with eight goals while Merasty is tied for fourth with eight conference assists.

In the nets, Bison third year netminder Byron Spriggs has played in seven conference regular season games and in sixth place in Goals Against Average with 3.02, fifth in Save Percentage at .907 and tied for fifth with four conference wins. Bison second year goalie Justin Paulic is eighth with 3.69 GAA and is eighth with .878 Save Pct.