The No. 9 Bison men's hockey team complete the 2017-18 regular season, as they are in a battle for third place in the Canada West conference, by traveling to the Calgary Dinos on February 9-10 weekend. Puck drop versus the Dinos will be 7 p.m. CT on Friday and 3 p.m. CT on Saturday.

The Bisons seek to win their third road weekend series of 2017-18 and have gone 5-5-2 record so far away from Wayne Fleming Arena heading into the weekend series. This is the last weekend series during this regular season. The Bisons have already clinched a spot into the 2018 conference playoffs – 11th consecutive season in the post-season.

Heading into the two game weekend series, Manitoba sits in third spot in the Canada West standings entering the weekend with a 16-8-2 record for 34 points and three points ahead of fourth place UBC and eight points clear of fifth place Mount Royal. The Top 4 will host a playoff round. Calgary has a 10-13-3 record and in sixth place at 23 points in the eight team conference.

This is the second weekend series between the two teams this conference season. Earlier in 2017-18, the Herd played at home versus Calgary on November 24-25, 2017 and won 3-2 (Nov. 24) and lost 4-0 (Nov. 25).

Manitoba has three players in the Canada West Top 20 scoring. Third year forward (first year with Bisons) Michael St. Croix (12 goals, 22 assists) has 34 points in 26 games and in second place. Third year defenceman and alternate captain Adam Henry (5g, 19a) is T-12th and tied for first for defenceman scoring with 22 points and third year forward (first year with Bisons) Zach Franco (5g, 19a) is also T-12th spot with 24 points.

In the nets, Bison fourth year netminder Byron Spriggs has played in 24 conference regular season games and is eighth in the CW with 3.05 GAA and sixth in Save Pct. with .910 while second with 14 conference wins and first in CW minutes played at 1394:52.


Bison Notes: The Bisons have clinched hosting the first round of the 2018 playoffs and still have an opportunity to move into second place if they sweep Calgary and Saskatchewan at home are swept by Mount Royal to finish the CW regular season.