For the third time in the last four years, the Bisons women's hockey team is part on the post-season dance. And for the second time in that span, the Herd, who won 15 games this year in a 28-game schedule, will host a home playoff series, as they welcome the Trinity Western Spartans (14 wins) to town for the quarterfinals.
 
Games are 7 pm Friday and Saturday and 5 pm Sunday (if necessary).
 
Manitoba enters the series not only with playoff experience, but also a gritty, relentless attitude fostered through a variety of challenging wins. They came back to beat Saskatchewan twice on overtime this year, as well as Mount Royal, and they also went to a shootout with TWU.
 
"Last year, our record was 10-18. We made it into the playoffs, but our consistency probably wasn't there. We had a lot of times where we were on the wrong side of those games or didn't quite get the overtime win. Being able to learn from that experience, coming into this year one thing we've really emphasized is that they've been in every scenario of winning overtimes, losing shootouts, coming back from being down by a couple, holding a lead. They've been able to gain that experience in every scenario," said interim head coach Jordy Zacharias, a former captain and national champ with the program.
 
"Now they know how to manage those games and can look back and think, we were able to pull through."
 
Twenty two different players recorded a point this year for Manitoba, led by forwards Aimee Patrick and Norah Collins. The duo both recorded 12 goals, becoming just the ninth and tenth players in school history to do so in a regular season. The last was their coach. Patrick also led the team with 21 points.
 
They accomplished such a feat in different ways. Collins is one of the fastest players in U SPORTS and has a great shot, while Patrick is extremely difficult to get the puck off of due to her strength, and she has a huge net-front presence, among other skills.
 
"That third year can be a big year. Technically for Amy she's fifth-year schooling-wise but she's a third-year player. When you get into that year, you gain that confidence. You try to reinforce it as much as you can. For Norah, also, she has that confidence to take the puck and go, and she's learning to use it in a variety of ways and shoot in different spots," said Zacharias.
 
"What's been cool is that with her and Amy it's been a healthy competition between the two of them. They support each other. Amy has also shown she can score off the rush and in other ways too, but it's really hard to shut someone down when they're that strong in front of the net."
 
Staying calm under pressure has been a theme for Manitoba, including in their three OT games. Their captain, senior Kylie Lesuk has embodied that mentality. She had the game-tying and winning goals in the second OT game against Sask, and had the game-winning assist, in OT to Patrick against MRU, and has 41 career points with the Bisons.
 
"She's so even-keeled, very neutral. It rubs off on everyone else," said Zacharias.
 
"She doesn't let the highs get to high or the lows get too low. She's been what it means to lead by example in a lot of ways. You know consistently every day the work she's going to put in. She's impacting every single shift whether she's scoring goals or not."
 
Manitoba and TWU split a pair of games at the beginning of January against the Spartans, winning 4-1 in the first game and losing 3-2 in the second in a shootout.
 
"We played them the first weekend coming out of the break. Friday they were a very passive team which we were not expecting. Typically they are very aggressive. We were able to capitalize on some opportunities," said Zacharias.
 
"Saturday, we started off really great and they made a good push. It was a good learning experience for us that you can't be comfortable. You have to play the same way no matter what. They have good goaltending so it'll be a good challenge for us.