WINNIPEG, MB – The Manitoba Bison men’s hockey team play host to Mount Royal in the Canada West Quarter-final best-of-three playoff series this weekend.
The Canada West Quarter-final best-of-three playoff series will have games on February 16, 17 and if necessary on the 18th at the Wayne Fleming Arena.
This is the third ever time the two teams face-off in the post-season and the second consecutive season meeting in the playoffs.
Last season in the conference playoffs, the Bisons lost 2-1 in games to Mount Royal on the road in the Quarter-final 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.
During this season, Manitoba went 3-1-0 against Mount Royal as they swept the Cougars at home (W 4-1 on Oct. 27/17; W 3-2 on Oct. 28/17) and road split (L 4-3 on Jan. 19/18; W 1-0 on Jan. 20/18).
Since the start of the second half in January, Manitoba has gone 7-5-0 and went a sparkling 11-3-0 at home in 2017-18. Mount Royal has lost the last two conference games heading into the playoffs and was 7-6-1 on the road this season.
Manitoba had three players in the Canada West Top 20 scoring. Third year forward (first year with Bisons) Michael St. Croix (13 goals, 22 assists) has 35 points in 28 games and finished in third place. Third year defenceman and alternate captain Adam Henry (5g, 20a) was T-12th and second for defenceman scoring with 25 points and third year forward (first year with Bisons) Zach Franco (5g, 19a) was T-16th spot with 24 points.
In the nets, Bison fourth year netminder Byron Spriggs played in 25 conference regular season games and is eighth in the CW with 3.14 GAA and tied for sixth in Save Pct. with .908 while second with 14 conference wins and first in CW minutes played at 1434:52.
Manitoba has been ranked as high as No. 9 in U SPORTS Top 10 during the 2017-18 season. The winner of the quarter-final series will advance to the semi-final best-of-three series against either Alberta or Saskatchewan on Feb. 23-25 weekend.
With files from Chris Zuk of the University of Manitoba