The Bison men's hockey team play an important home weekend series with only six conference games remaining in the 2016-17 Canada West conference season by hosting the Calgary Dinos on January 27-28 weekend at the Wayne Fleming Arena (U of M Fort Garry campus). Puck drop versus the Cougars will be 7 p.m. CT on Friday and 1 p.m. CT on Saturday. Tickets available at the Arena door.
The Bisons seek to win their second home weekend series of 2016-17 and are on a roll with wins in five of the last six conference games. Manitoba is 5-4-1 so far at Wayne Fleming Arena (W 3-2 vs. UBC on Oct. 28/16, W 6-4 vs. Lethbridge on Nov. 12/16, W 5-2 vs. Saskatchewan on Nov. 26, W 3-0 and W5-4 over Regina on Jan. 6-7).
Heading into the two game weekend series, Manitoba sits in fifth spot in the Canada West standings entering the weekend with a 11-10-1 record for 23 points and only four points out of fourth spot held by Calgary. The Top 4 will host a playoff round. Saskatchewan is first with 34 points, Mount Royal is second with 31 and is third with 29 points in the eight team conference. The Dinos hold a 13-8-1 record so far this season.
This is the second weekend series between the two teams this season. Earlier in 2016-17, the Herd went 1-1 against the Dinos (L 4-3 on Nov. 4/16 and W 3-2 on Nov. 5/16 on the road). Manitoba is seeking to duplicate last season's success as the Herd swept Calgary at home during the conference regular season before losing in the conference playoffs at home to the Dinos.
Manitoba has five players in the Canada West Top 20 scoring. Fourth year forward and captain Jordan DePape (ten goals, ten assists) has 20 points in 17 games, good for a tie for 12th place. Rookie forward
Remi Laurencelle (5g, 13a) is T-16th with 18 points. Third year forward
Justin Augert (10g, 7a), fourth year forward
Shaq Merasty (7g, 10a) and second year forward
Brett Stovin (4g, 13a) are tied for 20th spot with 17 points.
DePape is tied for tenth in the Canada West conference with ten goals while Laurencelle and Stovin are tied for fifth with 13 conference assists.
In the nets, Bison third year netminder Byron Spriggs has played in 16 conference regular season games and in sixth place in Goals Against Average with 2.70, fifth in Save Percentage at .917 and third with nine conference wins. Bison second year goalie Justin Paulic has 3.75 GAA and with a .880 Save Pct in six games.
