The fifth place Manitoba Bisons (regular season: 13-13-0-3; playoffs: 4-2) continue their playoff women's hockey season after another series clinching road win in overtime as they defeated #10 Alberta in the conference semifinal best-of-three playoff series in three games.
Manitoba now travels for a third consecutive week to play at #8 and second place UBC Thunderbirds (13-9-3-3; playoffs: 2-1) to play in the Canada West Final on the March 4-6 weekend.
The best-of-three playoff series commences on Friday, March 4 with a start time of 9 p.m. CT for game one then game two on Saturday, March 5 at 9 p.m. CT and, if necessary, game three will be play on Sunday, March 6 at 5 p.m. CT. All playoff contests will be played at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre (UBC campus) and shown on live webcast at canadwest.tv website.
During this season, Manitoba went 2-2 against UBC as they split on the road (L 2-1 on Oct. 23/15; W 4-1 on Oct. 24/15) and were split at home (L 4-2 on Feb. 12/16; W 4-3 on Feb. 13/16). Since the beginning of the second half of the 2015-16 season, the Bisons went 4-7-0-1 in reg. season and won three of last four regular season games away plus won four of six on the road in the playoffs so far.
The last time both teams meet in the playoffs was last season when Manitoba won 2-1 in the conference semifinal series at UBC in 2015. This is only the third time that both teams have met up in post-season action since women's hockey started play in Canada West during the 1997-98 season and UBC won the other series 2-0 at home in the 2012-13 season.
Manitoba is looking to advance to a CIS championship series for the first time since 2010-11 season, when they captured the Canada West championship. The Herd has made the CIS Championship in five different seasons so far during the program's history and won the Canada West conference title twice (2008-09, 2010-11) while both conference championships were captured on the road at Alberta.
Earlier this playoff season, the Bisons defeated Saskatchewan 2-1 in games during the conference quarterfinal series on the road on Feb. 19-21/16.
In the 2016 playoffs, Venla Hovi leads the team and the conference with nine points (four goals, five assists) while Lauryn Keen is second on the team and conference with eight points (3g, 5a) followed by Alanna Sharman (2g, 5a) in third in the conference with seven points. In conference defenceman playoff scoring, Alexandra Anderson (2g, 1a) is second in the conference with three points. Goalie Amanda Schubert has four wins for most in conference post-season and third with a with 1.10 GAA and third with a .953 Save Pct.
Bison women's hockey - 2016 Canada West Semi Final series away schedule
Date Game Time Place
Fri., March 4 Game 1: Manitoba at UBC 9 p.m. CT UBC
Sat., March 5 Game 2: Manitoba at UBC 9 p.m. CT UBC
*Sun., March 6 Game 3: Manitoba at UBC 5 p.m. CT UBC
* if necessary
Bison Notes: Last season, the Bison women's hockey team started the conference playoffs at home and went to the 2015 Canada West conference final. Since Jon Rempel became the head coach of the program in the 2004-05 season, the women's hockey team at Manitoba has made the playoffs in 11 of 12 seasons and the last four consecutive seasons.
In addition, the Bisons are looking to make conference history as the first team to win all Canada West playoff games on the road since the post-season format began in the 2000-01 season.
