Numerous Bisons approach career games played milestones as Manitoba hosts Mount Royal

Manitoba wraps up their first half home schedule this coming weekend against top-ranked Mount Royal, with numerous players approaching notable career milestones. Forwards Dana Goertzen and Aimee Patrick will play in career games 96 and 97, and 91 and 92, respectively, while defenceman Hanna Bailey will play in career games 92 and 93. This comes one weekend after forward Brenna Nicol played in career game 100 on Friday. Assistant captain Julia Bird tops the list, playing in 117 career games entering play. 

Matchup-wise, expect a riveting weekend of hockey between two teams that went to overtime the last time they faced off in Calgary a month ago. Manitoba held a third period lead over the 13-win Cougars in the team's October 24 contest, earning a point in a 3-2 OT loss. Five different players got on the score sheet for Manitoba in the game, including Patrick, who leads the Bisons with 11 points in 14 games this season. Click here for tickets. 

Five of Patrick's 11 points came last weekend in a sweep of the Regina Cougars, as Manitoba enters play with the momentum of a series win. They're just four points behind Saskatchewan for a playoff spot, with their nine combined goals against the U of R serving as a two-game season best. 

Further on Patrick, she eclipsed 50 career regular season points against Regina, becoming just the 14th player in school history to do so. She now has 54 as a Bison, which is tied for 12th overall for the program, just four shy of 11th. 

It's been a balanced attack this season for Manitoba, who have seen 16 different players record a point, most recently Julia Bilous, who got on the score sheet with an assist in last Saturday's shootout win. It was the Herd's third time in four games going to a shootout against the Cougars, and the second time this year that Alyssa Rasmuson has scored the winner in the shootout for her side. 

Rasmuson -- a veteran of 47 games at the NCAA level with Robert Morris and a two-time All-American Scholar Athlete -- has made an immediate impact in her first year with the Herd. Along with her two shootout winners, she has three assists and 18 shots on goal in 11 games played. 

Overall, Manitoba has been in five games that have gone past regulation this season -- three against Regina, one versus the Cougars and one against Saskatchewan, which also went to a shootout. Veteran goalie Emily Shippam -- fourth in Canada West with 249 saves -- was in net for both of Manitoba's shootout wins, while all three games that rookie Cypress Classen has started have gone past 60 minutes. She has a .914 save percentage in her three starts overall.