At the end of the 2016-17 Canada West conference men's hockey regular season, the Manitoba Bisons finished fifth in the Canada West standings with a 14-12-2 record and now will travel to play at the fourth place Mount Royal Cougars (15-11-2) in the Canada West Quarter Final best-of-three playoff series on the February 17-19 weekend. The playoff series will be shown on live webcast at canadwest.tv website.
The best-of-three playoff series starts on Friday, February 17 with a start time of 8 p.m. CT for game one then game two on Saturday, February 18 at 8 p.m. CT and, if necessary, game three will be play on Sunday, February 19 at 8 p.m. CT. All playoff contests will be played at Mount Royal in Calgary. This is the second ever time the two teams face-off in the post-season.
During this season, Manitoba went 0-4-0 against Mount Royal as they were swept at home (L 3-1 on Oct. 14/16; L 5-1 on Oct. 15/16) and road swept (L 4-3 on Dec. 2/16; L 5-1 on Dec. 3/16).
Since the start of the second half in January, Manitoba has gone 8-3-1 and went 4-2-0 on the road. Mount Royal has lost the last six conference games heading into the playoffs and was 1-4 at home since the second half started.
Last season in the conference playoffs, the Bisons lost 2-1 in games to Calgary at home in the quarterfinal best-of-three series. Manitoba last won a playoff series was in 2014 at home against Mount Royal with a 2-1 game margin in conference quarter-final series.
Manitoba had three players in the Canada West Top 20 scoring. Fourth year forward and captain Jordan DePape (12 goals, 11 assists) with 23 points in 20 games, good for a tie for 17th place while second year Brett Stovin (5g, 17a) and rookie Remi Laurencelle (7g, 15a) had 22 points for T-19th. Laurencelle was also third in rookie scoring while Stovin was tied for sixth in conference assists with 17 and rookie Quinton Lisoway finished first in Canada West with a +16 plus/minus rating.
In the nets, Bison third year netminder Byron Spriggs played in 22 conference regular season games and sixth place in Goals Against Average with 2.82, fifth in Save Percentage at .913, second with 12 conference wins and third with three conference shutouts. Bison second year Justin Paulic had 3.75 GAA with .880 Save Pct in six games.
Bison men's hockey - 2017 Canada West Quarter Final series road schedule
Date Game Time Place
Fri, February 17 Game 1: Manitoba at Mount Royal 8 p.m. CT Mt. Royal
Sat, February 18 Game 2: Manitoba at Mount Royal 8 p.m. CT Mt. Royal
*Sun, February 19 Game 3: Manitoba at Mount Royal 8 p.m. CT Mt. Royal
* if necessary
