The Bison men's hockey team play an important home weekend series in a battle for third place in the Canada West conference by hosting the Calgary Dinos on November 24-25 weekend at the Wayne Fleming Arena (U of M Fort Garry campus). Puck drop versus the Dinos will be 7 p.m. CT on Friday and 1 p.m. CT on Saturday. Tickets available at the Arena door or on the Bison website (gobisons.ca).

The Bisons seek to win their second home weekend series of 2017-18 and have gained at least a point in six consecutive conference games heading into the weekend series. Manitoba is 4-2-0 so far at Wayne Fleming Arena (W 3-2 vs. UBC on Oct. 8/17, OTW 4-3 vs. Saskatchewan on Oct. 20/17, W 4-1 vs. Mount Royal on Oct. 27, W 3-2 over Mount Royal on Oct. 28).

Heading into the two game weekend series, Manitoba sits in fourth spot in the Canada West standings entering the weekend with a 6-4-2 record for 14 points and only one point out of third held by Calgary with a 6-3-2 record. The Top 4 will host a playoff round. Alberta is first with 22 points; Saskatchewan is second with 19 points while Mount Royal in fifth at 13 points in the eight team conference.

This is the first weekend series between the two teams this season. In 2016-17, the Herd went 2-1-1 against the Dinos (W 4-3 on Jan. 27/17 and L 7-6 [2nd OT] on Jan. 28/17 at home; W 3-2 on Nov. 5/16 and L 4-3 on Nov. 4/16 on the road).

Manitoba has three players in the Canada West Top 20 scoring. Third year forward (first year with Bisons) Michael St. Croix (four goals, nine assists) has 13 points in 12 games, good for a tie for sixth place. Third year defenceman and alternate captain Adam Henry (4g, 8a) is T-ninth with 12 points while second year forward Kamerin Nault (6g, 5a), is tied for 16th spot with 11 points.

Nault is tied for fourth in Canada West conference with three power play goals and T-6th in CW goals with six. St. Croix is tied for eighth in CW assists with nine.

In the nets, Bison fourth year netminder Byron Spriggs has played in 11 conference regular season games and in seventh in Save Percentage at .899, eighth place in Goals Against Average with 3.27 and fourth with five conference wins.

Bison Notes: Manitoba is fifth in Canada West in penalty kill (82.1%) and power play (20.8%). At home, the Bisons are first in power play (32.1%) and fifth in PK (80.0%).