CALGARY – Following a thrilling opening round series against the UBC Thunderbirds, the University of Calgary Dinos travel to Winnipeg to take on the University of Manitoba Bisons in their semi-final Canada West match-up.

The series starts on Friday, March 2 with Game 2 the following night. If necessary, Game 3 goes Sunday evening. All games will be played at the Max Bell Arena in Winnipeg, and all with a puck drop of 6 p.m. MT. CanadaWest.tv will have live streaming coverage of the series.

The Thunderbirds opened the quarterfinals by taking Game 1 4-3 largely in part to two shorthanded goals and two more coming in the last minute of periods. With that game behind them, Calgary came out with one of their strongest performances of the season in Game 2, picking up a 4-0 win to force a deciding game. On Sunday the Dinos took hold of the contest with a two-goal lead in the second, but midway through the third, the Thunderbirds tied it up. Not too long after that, however, Calgary's Brock Nixon sent a rocket to the back of the UBC net to book the Dinos' ticket to the semi-finals.

This will be the fifth playoff series that Calgary and Manitoba have faced off in. The last time was in 2005 in a wild card series which Manitoba won in two games at home, earning a spot to the national tournament. Overall the Dinos have won three of the four playoff meetings against the Bisons.

In the regular season, Calgary went 1-4-0-1 against Manitoba. The conference-best Bisons won the first four meetings of the year before the Dinos finally got the monkey off their back in their final games of the season by taking three out of a possible four points against Manitoba at Father David Bauer.

While a trip to the conference final for the second consecutive year is enticing, there will be even more incentives for Nixon this weekend in Winnipeg. Born in Russell, just east of the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border, Nixon will be looking to continue his playoff successes in his home province. Nixon is tied for the team lead in playoff scoring with four points, including three goals in the two Calgary victories to send UBC home. The fourth-year forward also had three points in the regular season versus the Bisons.

One of the biggest challenges the Dinos will have to tackle in this series will be the one between the pipes for the Bisons, Joe Caligiuri. In three games and 190 minutes Calgary has yet to score on the rookie netminder. It started back in the first series of the year as Caligiuri blanked the Dinos in both games to open the season. Things hadn't changed when the final match of the year came for Calgary and Caligiuri got the call for Manitoba. That game went the distance before the Bisons came out on top in a shootout for the 1-0 victory.

The winner of this series will move on to the Canada West championship next weekend. That series will be played against either the Alberta Golden Bears or the Saskatchewan Huskies. Calgary has history with both teams after playing the Huskies in the semi-finals last season before eventually falling to the rival Golden Bears in the final. Unlike 2011, however, only the Canada West champion will gain a birth in the University Cup in Fredericton.

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