The No. 1 ranked Bison women's hockey team are at home in their first conference games of the New Year as they host the Saskatchewan Huskies on January 12-13 weekend at the Wayne Fleming Arena (U of M Fort Garry campus). Puck drop versus the Huskies will be 7 p.m. CT on Friday and 4 p.m. CT on Saturday. Tickets available at the Arena door or at the Bison website (gobisons.ca).
The Bisons look to continue their winning ways as Manitoba holds a 11-4-2-1 record so far plus and won 11 of last 13 regular season games while 4-2-2-0 at Wayne Fleming Arena this season. This is the first of two consecutive weekends at home.
Heading into the two game weekend series, Manitoba sits in first place in the Canada West standings with 38 points (three points given out for regulation win) and one point ahead of second place UBC. Saskatchewan is in third in the eight team conference with an 11-6-0-1 record for 34 points and has gone 4-3-0-1 on the road.
This is the second weekend series between the two teams this conference season. Earlier in 2017-18, the Herd played at Sask. on October 20-21, 2017 and lost 1-0 (Oct. 20) and won 3-2 (Oct. 21).
Manitoba has three players in the Canada West Top 10 scoring. For the Bisons, third year forward Jordyn Zacharias (ten goals, five assists) holds second place with 15 points. Fourth year forward
Alanna Sharman (3g, 10a) is tied for third with 13 points while fourth year forward
Venla Hovi (4g, 8a) is T-5th at 12 points. In conference defenceman scoring, fourth year
Erica Rieder (5g, 3a) and fourth year
Alexandra Anderson (1g, 7a) are tied for fourth at eight points.
In the nets, Bison first year netminder Lauren Taraschuk leads the conference with 0.96 Goals Against Average, fourth in CW Save Percentage at .950, tied for sixth with two shutouts and third with six conference wins.
Fifth year goaltender Rachel Dyck is second with seven conference wins.
Bison Notes: Manitoba has scored the most conference goals so far this season with 43 while allowing the fifth lowest goals at 33 entering the weekend series. In CW stats, the Bisons hold the number one power play at 22.1% (19/86) and at home with a 20% (9/45) power play.
