The Bison men's hockey team (2-4-0) continues the 2017-18 Canada West conference season by hosting the Mount Royal Cougars (3-2-0) on October 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 7:30 p.m. CT on Saturday. Tickets available at the Arena door or at Bison website (gobisons.ca).
The Bisons seek to win their first home weekend series of 2017-18. Manitoba is 2-2 so far at Wayne Fleming Arena (W 3-2 vs. UBC on Oct. 8/17; W 4-3 [1st OT] vs. Sask. On Oct. 20/17).
Heading into the two game weekend series, Manitoba sits in sixth spot in the Canada West standings entering the weekend with four points and only four points back of third spot held by Calgary. Mount Royal is fourth in the eight team conference with seven points and won last three in a row.
This is the first weekend series between the two teams this season. In 2016-17, the Herd went 0-4 against Mount Royal (L 3-1 on Oct. 14/16 and L 5-1 on Oct. 15/16 at home; L 4-3 on Dec. 2/16 and L 5-1 on Dec. 3/16 on the road).
The Cougars have two players in the Canada West Top 20 scoring. For the Bisons, second year forward Nick Zajac lead the team with five points (three goals, two assists) along with third year forward Brett Stovin (1g, 4a) and third year defenceman Adam Henry (1g, 4a).
Bison third year forward Zack Franko and Stovin have one game-winning goal each while Henry, Stovin and third year forward
Michael St. Croix are tied for 13th in conference assists with four.
In the nets, Bison fourth year netminder
Byron Spriggs has started in all conference regular season games and in second place for conference minutes played at 342:22, second in CW saves with 177 plus 11th place in Goals Against Average with 4.21 and fourth in Save Percentage at .864.
Bison Notes: On Friday, October 27 game, it is the annual Minor Hockey Night with giveaways and Minor hockey teams that attend the game will be entered for a chance to win a one hour practice with Bison men's hockey team.
