OTTAWA (CIS) – The UBC Thunderbirds women's hockey makes its first ever apperance at the CIS National Championships and will be in tough versus the best from across the country.
 
Championship website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/wice/index
 
The CIS tournament, hosted for the first time since 1999 by the University of Toronto, gets underway on Thursday at Varsity Arena and wraps up Sunday with the gold-medal final set for 7 p.m.
 
All nine games from the event will be webcast live at www.CIS-SIC.tv.
 
Calgary enters the tourney as the fifth seed after being upset by UBC in the Canada West championship series. Also competing for CIS supremacy this week will be the top-seeded Montreal Carabins (RSEQ champions), No. 2 St. Francis Xavier X-Women (AUS champs), No. 3 Queen's Gaels (OUA champs), No. 4 Thunderbirds (Canada West champs), as well as the No. 6 and host Varsity Blues.
 
In the round-robin portion of the competition, Montreal, UBC and Toronto will battle in Pool A, while StFX, Queen's and Calgary face off in Pool B.
 
Opening day sees the Dinos kick off their title defence against the X-Women at 1 p.m., and the Carabins take on the Blues at 7:30 p.m. The Gaels and T-Birds take the ice Friday against the losers of Thursday's matchups.
 
It was a tale of two seasons in CIS women's hockey.
 
League play was pretty much business as usual, with perennial powerhouses StFX (AUS), McGill (RSEQ), Wilfrid Laurier (OUA) and Calgary (Canada West) finishing atop the standings.
 
And then, all hell broke loose in the conference playoffs!
 
In Quebec, out are the McGill Martlets, who had won seven straight RSEQ banners and had skated at the last 10 national championships, winning three titles and nine CIS medals along the way. After dominating Montreal 6-1 in Game 1 of the best-of-three league final, McGill saw its crosstown rivals rebound with 3-2 and 2-1 victories to claim their first RSEQ crown in only their fourth-year of existence.
 
The Carabins' progression has been phenomenal since they made their CIS debut in the fall of 2009. After qualifying for nationals in their inaugural campaign (fifth place), they missed the 2011 tournament only to return last season and reach the gold-medal final, where they fell 5-1 to Calgary.
 
“Since the day the program started, we've managed to climb one more step every year. We just climb another important one, one which will forever hold a special place in the history of our team,” said Isabelle Leclaire, the RSEQ coach of the year. “It's the first time we don't head into the CIS championship as underdogs. It'll be crucial not to let our new status as favourites be a distraction and affect our performances. We have to look at this tournament as a whole new season.”
 
In Ontario, out are the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks, winners of eight of the last nine OUA titles, who will miss the CIS tourney for the first time since 2003. After finishing atop the OUA standings, the Hawks were upset in the conference semifinals by the fourth-place Western Mustangs, who in turn were swept by Queen's in the league final.
 
To be fair, the Gaels' triumph wasn't as stunning as Montreal's in the RSEQ. After all, only five points separated the top four teams at the end of the 26-game OUA schedule.
 
“We're extremely proud to represent the OUA at nationals. Along with host Toronto, we intend to show the country that our conference boasts many teams that are more than capable of succeeding at this, the highest stage in women's university hockey,” said Queen's bench boss Matt Holmberg, who in 2011 led the Gaels to their first-ever CIS championship appearance, where they captured the bronze medal. “We look forward to playing in a rink that we are very familiar with, and are excited to know that we will have a lot of family, friends, alumni and fans cheering us on.”
 
Not to be outdone, Canada West had a playoff upset of its own, although the end result wasn't as dramatic for the losers since the conference had two berths for the CIS tournament.
 
Last weekend's best-of-three conference final in Calgary pitted the reigning national champion Dinos against the Thunderbirds, a team that is a year removed from a one-win season and who had never had a sniff at the Canada West banner. As could be expected, the Dinos won Game 1 quite convincingly, 4-1, but then saw UBC roar back with 5-4 (2OT) and 5-2 victories to take the series.
 
“Where do I start, this is absolutely unbelievable. This is the feel good story of the year,” said Canada West coach of the year Graham Thomas, who in his first season behind the bench operated a turnaround for the ages that saw his troops improve from 1-21-2 to 17-7-4 in league play.
 
“We could tell they were starting to get frustrated in the second period, starting to get away from their game plan and playing more individually,” Thomas commented following UBC's historic Game 3 win last Sunday. “We were able to take advantage, score two huge goals and that in the end was the difference.”
 
The AUS was the only conference where logic was respected following the regular season. After going 23-1 in league action, StFX went 3-for-3 at the AUS championship to claim its second banner in three campaigns and advance to the CIS tournament for the fifth time in six years.
 
“The AUS was closer in parity than it has ever been. We were in eight one-goal games this year, which only helps to prepare us for the CIS championship,” said conference coach of the year David Synishin. “We have a strong nucleus of players from two years ago when we won silver and will be relying heavily on those individuals during the tournament.”
 
Despite their status of fifth seed and Canada West runner-ups, many still consider the Dinos to be the team to beat this week in Toronto.
 
After all, the defending champs are still led by three-time Olympic gold medallist Wickenheiser, who recently earned her second Canada West MVP award after tallying a conference-best 43 points (16-27-43) in only 22 contests. Also back from last year's championship squad are Russian Olympian Iya Gavrilova (13-15-28) on offence, all-Canadian Stephanie Ramsay (11-14-25) on defence, as well as standout goalie Amanda Tapp, the 2012 CIS championship MVP.  
 
“This team hasn't done anything easy this year, but we've always come back,” said head coach Danielle Goyette, whose team is 3-3 so far in the 2013 playoffs following a 7-0 post-season run a year ago. “We won't stay down because we lost to UBC, we have more character in the room than that and we know our season isn't over.
 
“We're disappointed to not win Canada West, but we're still a very good team. We won last year and maybe there's a target on our backs going into Toronto, but we didn't show this weekend that we were better than UBC - so we have a lot to prove. We know we have to get better and play better, and we know that we can do that.”
 
One person who knows better than to count out a Wickenheiser-led team is second-year Varsity Blues head coach Vicki Sunohara, whose squad had a solid 15-8-3 regular season but was dropped in two straight by Western in the first round of the OUA playoffs.
 
“We obviously didn't have the playoff run we were hoping for heading into this week, but we've had two weeks off and that could give us a leg up,” said Sunohara, who skated alongside Wickenheiser on a pair of Olympic gold medal-winning teams. “We may be the clear underdogs, but home ice advantage is important in a tournament like this. It's a great opportunity for our players to see the next level and know what they need to do to return to this event year after year.”
 
In addition to Calgary, the Blues are the only other participating team to have hoisted the CIS trophy in the past (2001).
 
TEAM PROFILES
 
No. 1 Montreal Carabins
 
Head Coach: Isabelle Leclaire (4^th season)
Regular season record: 13-7-0
Regular season standing: 2^nd RSEQ
Playoff record: 4-1
Playoff finish: RSEQ champions
Overall record vs. CIS teams: 22-8
Overall record vs. CIS championship teams: 1-0 vs. Toronto
Top 10 final ranking (Feb. 19): No. 3
Top 10 best ranking: No. 3 (13 polls)
Top 10 number of weeks ranked (16 polls): 16
Conference award winners: Isabelle Leclaire (coach)
Conference 1^st team all-stars: Sophie Brault (D), Josianne Legault (F)
Conference 2^nd team all-stars: Kim Deschênes (F), Ariane Barker (F)
Conference all-rookie team: Sarah Mailloux (G), Laurence Beaulieu (D), Demmie Charlebois (A)
Season leader (points): Josianne Legault (19 GP: 12-16-28)
Season leader (goals): Kim Deschênes, 17 (20 GP)
Season leader (assists): Casandra Dupuis, 17 (20 GP)
Season leader (No. 1 goalie): Élodie Rousseau-Sirois (14 GP, 8-5, 2.65 GAA, .902 SV%)
CIS championship appearances (including 2013): 3  
CIS championship all-time record: 3-3 (.500)
CIS championship all-time medals: 1 (silver)
CIS championship best result: Finalists (2012)
CIS championship last appearance: 2012 (finalists)
CIS championship sequence: 2^nd straight appearance (3^rd in 4 years & in history)
 
No. 2 St. Francis Xavier X-Women
 
Head Coach: David Synishin (11^th season)
Regular season record: 23-1-0
Regular season standing: 1^st AUS
Playoff record: 3-0
Playoff finish: AUS champions
Overall record vs. CIS teams: 32-3
Overall record vs. CIS championship teams: 0-0
Top 10 final ranking (Feb. 19): No. 5
Top 10 best ranking: No. 5 (10 polls)
Top 10 number of weeks ranked (16 polls): 16
Conference award winners: Alex Normore (MVP), David Synishin (coach)
Conference 1^st team all-stars: Jenna Downey (D), Alex Normore (F)
Conference 2^nd team all-stars: Kristy Garrow (G), Jenna Pitts (D), Taylor Dale (F)
Conference all-rookie team: Taylor Dale (F), Schyler Campbell (F)
Season leader (points): Alex Normore (21 GP: 13-16-29)
Season leader (goals): Alex Normore, 13 (21 GP)
Season leader (assists): Alex Normore, 16 (21 GP)
Season leader (goalie): Kristy Garrow (11 GP, 11-0, 0.80 GAA, .950 SV%)
Season leader (goalie): Katie Greenway (10 GP, 8-1, 1.40 GAA, .926 SV%)
CIS championship appearances (including 2013): 11
CIS championship all-time record: 5-25 (.167)
CIS championship all-time medals: 1 (silver)
CIS championship best result: Finalists (2011)
CIS championship last appearance: 2011 (finalists)
CIS championship sequence: Return after 1-year absence (5^th appearance in 6 years)
 
No. 3 Queen's Gaels
 
Head Coach: Matthew Holmberg (4^th season)
Regular season record: 20-4-2
Regular season standing: 3^rd OUA
Playoff record: 6-1
Playoff finish: OUA champions
Overall record vs. CIS teams: 33-9
Overall record vs. CIS championship teams: 1-2 vs. Toronto
Top 10 final ranking (Feb. 19): No. 7
Top 10 best ranking: No. 4 (2 polls)
Top 10 number of weeks ranked (16 polls): 16
Conference award winners: None
Conference 1^st team all-stars: Morgan McHaffie (F)
Conference 2^nd team all-stars: Katie Duncan (D)
Conference all-rookie team: Alisha Sealey (D)
Season leader (points): Morgan McHaffie (26 GP: 12-21-33)
Season leader (goals): Courtenay Jacklin, 13 (26 GP)
Season leader (assists): Morgan McHaffie, 21 (26 GP)
Season leader (goalie): Melodie Dodd-Moher (14 GP, 10-3, 1.62 GAA, .931 SV%)
Season leader (goalie): Karissa Savage (13 GP, 10-3, 1.52 GAA, .932 SV%)
CIS championship appearances (including 2013): 2
CIS championship all-time record: 2-1
CIS championship all-time medals: 1 (bronze)
CIS championship best result: Bronze medallists (2011)
CIS championship last appearance: 2011 (bronze)
CIS championship sequence: 2^nd appearance in 3 years (and in history)
 
No. 4 UBC Thunderbirds
 
Head Coach: Graham Thomas (1^st season)
Regular season record: 17-7-4
Regular season standing: 3^rd Canada West
Playoff record: 6-2
Playoff finish: Canada West champions
Overall record vs. CIS teams: 24-14
Overall record vs. CIS championship teams: 3-4 vs. Calgary
Top 10 final ranking (Feb. 19): No. 9
Top 10 best ranking: No. 9 (2 polls)
Top 10 number of weeks ranked (16 polls): 2
Conference award winners: Graham Thomas (coach)
Conference 1^st team all-stars: Danielle Dube (G)
Conference 2^nd team all-stars: Christi Capozzi (D), Tatiana Rafter (F)
Conference all-rookie team: No all-rookie team in Canada West
Season leader (points): Tatiana Rafter (28 GP: 13-10-23)
Season leader (goals): Tatiana Rafter, 13 (28 GP)
Season leader (assists): Sarah Casorso, 12 (26 GP)
Season leader (No. 1 goalie): Danielle Dube (16 GP, 11-5, 1.67 GAA, .943 SV%)
CIS championship appearances (including 2013): 1  
CIS championship all-time record: 0-0
CIS championship all-time medals: 0
CIS championship best result: 1^st appearance
CIS championship last appearance: 1^st appearance
CIS championship sequence: 1^st appearance
 
No. 5 Calgary Dinos
 
Head Coach: Danielle Goyette (6^th season)
Regular season record: 23-4-1
Regular season standing: 1^st Canada West
Playoff record: 3-3
Playoff finish: Canada West finalists
Overall record vs. CIS teams: 30-9
Overall record vs. CIS championship teams: 5-3 (4-3 vs. UBC / 1-0 vs. Toronto)  
Top 10 final ranking (Feb. 19): No. 2
Top 10 best ranking: No. 1 (4 polls)
Top 10 number of weeks ranked (16 polls): 16
Conference award winners: Hayley Wickenheiser (MVP), Tanya Morgan (student athlete & community service)
Conference 1^st team all-stars: Stephanie Ramsay (D), Hayley Wickenheiser (F), Iya Gavrilova (F)
Conference 2^nd team all-stars: Amanda Tapp (G)
Conference all-rookie team: No all-rookie team in Canada West
Season leader (points): Hayley Wickenheiser (22 GP: 16-27-43)
Season leader (goals): Hayley Wickenheiser, 16 (22 GP)
Season leader (assists): Hayley Wickenheiser, 27 (22 GP)
Season leader (No. 1 goalie): Amanda Tapp (21 GP, 17-3, 1.53 GAA, .932 SV%)
CIS championship appearances (including 2013): 3  
CIS championship all-time record: 4-2 (.667)
CIS championship all-time medals: 1 (gold)
CIS championship best result: Champions (2012)
CIS championship last appearance: 2012 (champions)
CIS championship sequence: 2^nd straight appearance
 
No. 6 Toronto Varsity Blues
 
Head Coach: Vicky Sunohara (2^nd season)
Regular season record: 15-8-3
Regular season standing: 5^th OUA
Playoff record: 0-2
Playoff finish: Lost in OUA quarter-finals
Overall record vs. CIS teams: 19-16
Overall record vs. CIS championship teams: 2-3 (0-1 vs. Montreal / 2-1 Queen's / 0-1 Calgary)
Top 10 final ranking (Feb. 19): Unranked
Top 10 best ranking: No. 9 (1 poll)
Top 10 number of weeks ranked (16 polls): 1
Conference award winners: None
Conference 1^st team all-stars: None
Conference 2^nd team all-stars: None
Conference all-rookie team: None
Season leader (points): Kelly O'Hanlon (26 GP: 12-15-27)
Season leader (goals): Callie Bazak, 13 (26 GP)
Season leader (assists): Kelly O'Hanlon, 15 (26 GP)
Season leader (No. 1 goalie): Nicole Kesteris (15 GP, 8-6, 2.66 GAA, .918 SV%)
CIS championship appearances (including 2013): 8
CIS championship all-time record: 13-9 (.590)
CIS championship all-time medals: 5 (1 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze)
CIS championship best result: Champions (2001)
CIS championship last appearance: 2006 (5^th place)
CIS championship sequence: Return after 7-year absence
 
CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
 

Wednesday, March 6

19:00 All-Canadian Banquet (Marriott Bloor Yorkville Hotel)
 
Thursday, March 7
13:00 Pool B #1: No. 5 Calgary vs. No. 2 StFX ( www.CIS-SIC.tv) 
19:30 Pool A #1: No. 6 Toronto vs. No. 1 Montreal ( www.CIS-SIC.tv) 
 
Friday, March 8
16:00 Pool B #2: Loser Pool B #1 vs. No. 3 Queen's ( www.CIS-SIC.tv) 
19:30 Pool A #2: Loser Pool A #1 vs. No. 4 UBC ( www.CIS-SIC.tv) 
 
Saturday, March 9
16:00 Pool B #3: Winner Pool B #1 vs. No. 3 Queen's ( www.CIS-SIC.tv) 
19:30 Pool A #3: Winner Pool A #1 vs. No. 4 UBC  ( www.CIS-SIC.tv) 
 
Sunday, March 10
12:00 5^th Place ( www.CIS-SIC.tv) 
15:30 Bronze ( www.CIS-SIC.tv) 
19:00 Final ( www.CIS-SIC.tv) 
 
About Canadian Interuniversity Sport
 
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Every year, 11,000 student-athletes and 700 coaches from 54 universities and four regional associations vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.caor follow us on:
 
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