The University of Regina men's hockey team will head to the Canada West playoffs for the first time since 2013 after defeating the Manitoba Bisons 4-0 on Friday night in a Canada West game in Winnipeg.

The Cougars are locked into the No. 6 seed in the conference postseason and will play whichever team ends up as the No. 3 seed in a best-of-three Canada West quarterfinal series the final weekend of February.

Friday's win saw four Cougars finish the game with at least two points, including a two-goal effort by Ben Duperreault and a three-point night for Brennan Riddle. Riddle and Conner Chaulk scored the other two goals for the Cougars as they took their third conference win over Manitoba in as many games this season.

"It feels great," said Cougars head coach Todd Johnson. "We had expectations at the start of the season and we thought we were a playoff team. It's always nice to accomplish your first goal."

After a quiet first period, Duperreault led the Cougars to two second period goals. The first came from finishing off a Tanner Sidaway shot that squeaked by Manitoba's Jeremy Link. His second goal came off a 3-on-1 opportunity with Turner Ripplinger and Riddle, with his sixth of the season coming off a nice pass from Ripplinger for a one-timer.

Riddle extended Regina's lead to 3-0 after finishing a cross-ice feed from Bryce Platt in the opening seconds of a third-period power play. Chaulk put the icing on the cake with an empty net goal from his own face-off circle in the final minute.

The Cougars will finish their regular season tomorrow against the Bisons at the Wayne Fleming Arena in Winnipeg. Game time is set for 3:00 PM.

NOTES: The Cougars' opponent for the quarterfinal series will be determined over the next two weekends ... through Saturday's games, any of the five teams ahead of the Cougars – Alberta, UBC, Calgary, Saskatchewan, and Mount Royal – could wind up as the No. 3 seed.