VANCOUVER – In a bid to secure a fourth straight conference title and a sixth straight trip to the national championship, the UBC Thunderbirds face the host Mount Royal Cougars in a Canada West semifinal on Saturday, November 6th in Calgary.
It's a strong test at a critical moment for the T-Birds as the No. 8 Cougars enter Saturday on a seven game win streak, including a 2-0 win over the Thompson Rivers WolfPack in last weekend's quarterfinal. In fact, no team in the Canada West has accumulated more wins in the last two regular seasons than MRU, and no team scored more than the Cougars in 2021 as they amassed a total of 27 in just ten games.
But none of that matters now as it's do-or-die for both teams with the winner advancing to Sunday's conference final while also earning a U SPORTS championship berth, whereas the loser will see their season come to an end.
"You just have to deal with the task at hand and try to accomplish that and then evaluate what the next step is and the next way forward," said UBC Head Coach Mike Mosher who is in search of a program record 21st conference title. "As I said to the group last week, whatever happened in the regular season is now in the past. Hopefully we've learned from it and hopefully we're slowly getting healthier. The past is the past and let's focus on the next task and that task is to go in and find a way to get a result against Mount Royal on their home field."
Thanks to their 6-1-3 finish to the shortened regular season, the Cougars earned the right to host this weekend's final four. In addition to MRU's league leading 27 goals, they boast a +17 goal differential having conceded just 10.
It's a matchup of the two most potent offences in the Canada West with the T-Birds managing 20 goals through 12 regular season games. UBC also has the advantage of some strong leadership and an experienced roster with the likes of team captain Riley Pang, 2018 U SPORTS Rookie of the Year Thomas Gardner, and veteran forward Mackenzie Cole all having competed at multiple national championships.
"Experience does count for something at this time of the year," added Mosher. "Having been there and played in these types of games where there's pressure to go and get a result. I hope that is something that can benefit us."
The Cougars, meanwhile, are in search of their first trip to a U SPORTS tournament since joining the Canada west for the 2012 season.
"Year by year they've been getting better and better. Obviously we didn't have the season last year but they were a very strong team in 2019. They won their division in that particular year, they've won their division again this year, they've got a good collection of players and the results show that."
In the end it just comes down to who will perform better through 90 minutes. If the 'Birds can play the way they did in the second half of last Sunday's 2-1 quarter-final win over Calgary for the entirety of the game against Mount Royal, they'll put themselves in a strong position to compete for yet another conference banner on Sunday.
This weekend marks the third all-time post-season meeting between UBC and MRU with the T-Birds earning wins in each of the previous two.
The winner of Saturday's semifinal will meet either Fraser Valley or Victoria in Sunday's gold medal match.
Kickoff between the T-Birds and Cougars is set for 1:00 p.m. PT in Calgary. The game will be streamed live on Canada West TV.
