The Bison men's hockey team starts the second half of the 2016-17 Canada West conference season by hosting the Regina Cougars on January 6-7 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 first home weekend series of 2016-17. Manitoba is 3-4-1 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).

Heading into the two game weekend series, Manitoba sits in sixth spot in the Canada West standings entering the weekend with a 6-9-1 record for 13 points and only six points out of fifth spot held by Lethbridge. Saskatchewan is first with 24 points, Mount Royal is second with 22 and Alberta and Calgary tied for third with 21 points in the eight team conference. Regina is eighth as they hold a 3-12-1 record for seven points.

This is the second weekend series between the two teams this season. Earlier in 2016-17, the Herd went 2-0 against the Cougars (W 5-1 on Oct. 21/16 and W 6-3 on Oct. 22/16 on the road). Manitoba last conference loss to Regina was last year at home (Oct. 9/15) and now on a five game conference regular season win streak versus Regina.

Manitoba has one player in the Canada West Top 20 scoring. Fourth year forward and captain Jordan DePape (eight goals, six assists) has 14 points in 11 games, good for a tie for 13th place. Fourth year forward Shaq Merasty (4g, 8a) is second on the Bisons in scoring with 12 points followed by third year forward Justin Augert (8g, 3a) at 11.

DePape and Augert are tied for seventh in the Canada West conference with eight goals while rookie forward Remi Laurencelle is tied for sixth in Canada West assists with nine and Merasty plus second year forward Brett Stovin are tied for 14th with eight conference assists.

In the nets, Bison third year netminder Byron Spriggs has played in 11 conference regular season games and in ninth place in Goals Against Average with 3.10, eighth in Save Percentage at .908 and tied for fifth with five conference wins. Bison second year goalie Justin Paulic has 3.69 GAA and with a .878 Save Pct.