The now No. 1 ranked Bison women's hockey team completes the 2017-18 Canada West regular season by hosting the Calgary Dinos on Friday, February 9 at 7 p.m. CT and on Saturday, February 10 at 1 p.m. CT at the Wayne Fleming Arena (U of M Fort Garry campus). Tickets available at the Arena door or at the Bison website (gobisons.ca).
The Bisons are in a tight battle for first place in the Canada West conference as the Herd sits in first place with a 17-5-3-1 record for 58 points. The Bisons have already clinched a spot into the 2018 conference playoffs – sixth consecutive season in the post-season.
Heading into the two game weekend series, Manitoba is ahead of second place UBC by five points (three points given out for regulation win) and six points ahead of third place tie held by Alberta and Saskatchewan. Calgary is seventh in the eight team conference with an 7-16-1-2 record for 25 points and battling to move into the Top 6 playoff spots this season.
This is the second weekend series between the two teams this conference season. Earlier in 2017-18, the Herd played on the road on November 24-25, 2017 and swept the Dinos with a 4-2 win (Nov. 24) and won 3-1 (Nov. 25).
Manitoba has two players in the Canada West Top 10 scoring. For the Bisons, third year forward Jordyn Zacharias (11 goals, eight assists) is in third place with 19 points. Fourth year forward Alanna Sharman (3g, 15a) is tied fourth with 18 points. In conference defenceman scoring, fourth year Erica Rieder (7g, 4a) is tied for third while captain and fifth year Caitlin Fyten (2g. 6a), fourth year Alexandra Anderson (1g, 7a) and rookie Lauren Warkentin (1g, 7a) are tied for eighth at eight points.
In the nets, Bison first year netminder Lauren Taraschuk is first in the conference with 0.78 Goals Against Average, second in CW Save Percentage at .960, T-4th with four shutouts and tied for fourth with nine conference wins. Fifth year goaltender Rachel Dyck is tied for second with 11 conference wins and T-4th in CW shutouts with four.
Bison Notes: Graduating players will be recognized prior to Saturday's game. The four Bison women's hockey players are defenceman Caitlin Fyten, forwards Charity Price, Alana Serhan plus goaltender Rachel Dyck. Venla Hovi is at the Olympics.
