The University of Manitoba Bisons and University of Calgary Dinos opened the Canada West Hockey playoffs with series sweeps in the best-of-three Canada West Hockey Division Semi-Finals played on Friday-Saturday, February 25th-26th.
The fourth ranked Manitoba Bisons began their playoff run with 5-1 and 9-6 victories over the University of Regina Cougars in the Great Plains Division semi-final at the Max Bell Centre in Winnipeg and in the Mountain Division semi-final, the Calgary Dinos opened the post-season with 6-0 and 3-2 wins against the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.
Both Manitoba and Calgary earned home-ice advantage in the opening round of the playoffs based on their second place finishes in their respective divisions and the Bisons and Dinos capitalized on that advantage. Manitoba outscored Regina two to one as the Bisons scored 14 goals and allowed only seven as they improved their home ice record to 12-1-3. Calgary's defence was rock solid as the Dinos limited UBC to only two goals on 47 shots in the two wins at Father David Bauer Arena.
With their victories, Manitoba and Calgary advance to the Canada West Hockey division finals, which will be hosted by the University of Alberta Golden Bears and the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. The two best-of-three series will be played on Friday-Sunday, March 4th-6th.
MANITOBA VERSUS REGINA: First-team Canada West Hockey all-star Paul Deniset was the offensive catalyst for Manitoba as the third-year center accounted for almost half of the Bisons 14 goals in the two wins over Regina. Deniset, who tied for second in the conference scoring race with 23-16-39, continued his offensive excellence by scoring six goals against the Cougars. He opened the post-season by scoring twice in the series opener on Friday and then registered his Canada West Hockey leading fifth hat trick of the season by scoring a conference single game-high four goals in Saturday's 9-6 win.
Three of Deniset's goals came on special teams as the Manitoba assistant captain scored two powerplay goals on Saturday and tallied his eighth shorthanded goal on Friday. Deniset has scored a conference high 10 points in his role on the Bisons penalty killing unit with eight goals and two assists.
Denist was joined on the scoresheet by linemates Chris Falloon and Kevin Saurette as the trio combined to score a total of 18 points in the series, including 13 in the deciding game on Saturday. The trio is tied for the post-season scoring lead after the first week of the playoffs with six points each. Denist has scored 6-0-6, while Falloon and Saurette each have 1-5-6.
Friday's game saw Manitoba take a 1-0 first period lead on Grant Jacobsen's first period powerplay goal. Regina would tie the game with its only goal 9:38 into the second period as Lee Schaefer scored unassisted. Defenceman Rob Smith would net the game-winner with his first of two goals on the weekend at 19:59 of the second period and Manitoba would seal the win with three goals in the final stanza. Everett Bear netted his first career playoff goal at 1:33 of the third period before Deniset rounded out the scoring with his first two goals of the series.
Game two of the series produced a total of 15 goals, including seven in the first period and six in the third, but neither team held more than a two-goal lead until the later half of the game's final period. Manitoba scored four times in both the first and third periods as the teams combined for a total of 78 shots on goal.
After Jeff Lucky opened the scoring for Regina only 49 seconds into the game, Deniset began his scoring spree by tying the score at the 2:30 mark. The Bisons would take leads of 2-1, 3-2 and 4-2 on goals by Rob Smith, Reagan Leslie and Deniset (PPG), but the Cougars would respond each time as Chad Anderson and Cory Stephen scored with the man advantage. Stephen's goal brought Regina to within one at 4-3 as the Cougars defencem