CALGARY – With a bye week filled with practice behind them, the No. 4-ranked University of Calgary Dinos are ready to get their playoffs rolling as they host the University of Manitoba Bisons in a best-of-three Canada West semi-final series.

The series gets underway on Friday, Feb. 28 with a 7 p.m. puck drop at the Father David Bauer Arena. Game 2 and Game 3, if necessary will begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Mar. 1 and Sunday, Mar. 2. The series' sights and sounds can be seen online at CanadaWest.tv.

"The bye week was all about pace, tempo, conditioning and working on some stuff defensively," said fifth-year head coach Mark Howell. "We played some competition games as well to keep guys fresh."

As they turn their attention to the post season, Calgary is ready to put their second half behind them. The Dinos finished the year with losses in five of their last six contests. The team will look to get back to what made them the top team in the country for most of the season and led them to a second-place finish.

"Manitoba has some guys that are quick up front, they apply a lot of pressure on you and they make your d-men make some tough decisions, so we have to do a good job countering that speed," explained Howell. "We have talked about getting refocused, we know we slipped, but we are excited about the playoffs."

While the Dinos went 21-4-3 through 2013-14, the Bisons ended the season in fourth with a record of 12-12-4. Manitoba was streaky through most of the year, never winning more than four games in a row. Last weekend, the Bisons dispatched the Mount Royal Cougars, coming from behind to win the final two games of their series.

In four regular season tilts against one another, the Dinos went 4-0 against the Bisons. While the record might suggest Calgary domination, the season-series was one of the tightest the Dinos played in. Manitoba took Calgary the distance in every game, falling by one goal in all but one game where an empty netter was scored by the Dinos. The Bisons also took Calgary to overtime twice, including once at the Father David Bauer Arena.

During their quarterfinal series, Manitoba was led offensively by Taylor Dickin and Ian Duval who each recorded four points. Rookie Jordan DePape played in just two games but also had three points. The Bisons' top two scorers in the regular season, Aaron Lewadniuk and Jesse Paradis, will need to have big weekends as well if the road team wants to have success this weekend. The Dinos' top six forwards have been mixed around in recent weeks but will need to turn things around now at the most important time of the year. First-year Chris Collins led Calgary in goals with 19 and points with 36 while forwards Kevin King and Taylor Stefishen also potted 30-point campaigns.

Likely without team captain Brett Bartman, the Dinos will need the rest of the defensive core to step up in the playoffs. Behind Bartman in the plus-minus department for defencemen this season were Kodie Curran and Dan Gibb who each ended with a +15 rating. Offensive blue liner Giffen Nyren tied for the defenceman scoring title as the third-year Dino ended the season with 30 points in 24 games. The Bisons counter with an active, mobile defence, but not necessary one that scores a lot. Manitoba's highest scoring defenceman was Luke Paulsen who tallied 12 points in 28 games.

In three games against Mount Royal, Joe Caligiuri was a big presence between the pipes. The Manitoba goaltender is in his third season, playing in a career-high 24 games. For the first time all season two weeks ago while both have been healthy, Jacob DeSerres got a Friday start while Kris Lazaruk got the nod in the second game of the weekend. DeSerres could be ready to take over for the post-season or the Dinos could continue to split time with both netminders. In the quarterfinals last week, every team played just one netminder.

The winner of this weekend's series will advance to play the winner of the other conference semi-final. After upsetting the Saskatchewan Huskies, the UBC Thunderbirds will take on the No. 1 Alberta Golden Bears in Edmonton. With the Huskies out of the Canada West playoff picture, only the conference champion will earn a trip to the University Cup in Saskatoon.

-UC-