The third place and #5 Manitoba Bisons (16-7-3-2) begins their 2017 playoff season in Canada West conference women's hockey at home as they host the sixth place Mount Royal (10-13-1-4) in the Canada West Quarter Final best-of-three playoff series on the February 17-19 weekend.  

The best-of-three playoff series commences on Friday, February 17 with a start time of 7 p.m. CT for game one then game two starts on Saturday, February 18 at 7 p.m. CT and, if necessary, game three will be play on Sunday, February 19 at 4 p.m. CT. All playoff contests will be played at the Wayne Fleming Arena at the U of Manitoba (Fort Garry) campus and shown on live webcast at canadwest.tv website.

During this season, Manitoba went 3-1 against Mount Royal. Earlier in 2016-17, the Herd swept Mount Royal on the road (W 2-0 on Oct. 14/16 and W 2-1 on Oct. 15/16) at home Manitoba went 1-1 (W 4-0 on Dec. 2/16 and L 5-3 on Dec. 3/16). Since the beginning of the second half of the 2016-17 season, the Bisons went 8-3-0-1 in regular season and won four games at home.

This the first meeting in the playoffs between the two teams since Mount Royal started conference play in the 2012-13 season. This is the fifth consecutive season that the Herd begins the playoffs in the Canada West quarter-final series.

Manitoba had five players in the Canada West Top 15 scoring this season. For the Bisons, third year forward Lauryn Keen ended up in first place with 34 points (nine goals, 25 assists), third year forward Venla Hovi (10g, 15a) tied for third spot with 25 points while third year forward Alanna Sharman (9g, 10a) is in 11th with 19 points. Third year defenceman Alexandra Anderson (4g, 14a) was 12th with 18 points and fourth year forward Karissa Kirkup (7g, 10a) was T-13th with 17 points. Keen also was first in Canada West with 25 assists while second year forward Jordyn Zacharias tied for third with 11 conference goals and first in Canada West with six game-winning goals.

In the nets, Bison fourth year netminder Rachel Dyck played in 22 conference regular season games and fourth place in Goals Against Average with 1.51, second in Save Percentage at .931, tied for first with 15 conference wins and tied for first with five shutouts. Bison fourth year goalie Amanda Schubert has 1.54 GAA with .906 Save Pct. and four conference wins plus two shutouts.

Bison women's hockey - 2017 Canada West Quarter Final series home schedule
Date                            Game                                                    Time            Place
Fri, February 17         Game 1: Manitoba vs. Mount Royal      7 p.m. CT    U of Manitoba
Sat, February 18       Game 2: Manitoba vs. Mount Royal       7 p.m. CT    U of Manitoba
*Sun, February 19     Game 3: Manitoba vs. Mount Royal      7 p.m. CT     U of Manitoba
* if necessary


Bison Notes: Last season, the Bison women's hockey team started the conference playoffs on the road and won two series away from Manitoba before losing in the conference final at UBC. In 2015-16, the Herd started the 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 post-season in 12 of 13 seasons and the last five consecutive seasons.