VANCOUVER – For the third straight season, the UBC Thunderbirds and Alberta Golden Bears find themselves in a postseason battle as the two rivals begin a best-of-three Canada West semifinal series Friday, February 24 at Edmonton's Clare Drake Arena.
In a rematch of last year's conference final that saw the Bears sweep the T-Birds to claim another Canada West title, this year's semifinal series pits two of the hottest teams in the country against each other with a berth in next week's final – and a spot at the University Cup National Championship – on the line.
"Anytime you play U of A at the Clare Drake it's intense," said UBC head coach
Sven Butenschon who sits tied for the all-time program playoff wins lead. "Your blood pressure goes up, you're going to face an opponent that comes at you for 60 minutes. And we know if you want to be the best you got to beat the best and historically, that's them."
Indeed, historically nobody in Canada West can touch Alberta's dominance over the decades as the Bears boast 30 conference final wins since the first series was contested in 1967, and 56 total conference championship titles dating back to 1934.
But the far more relevant numbers for this 2023 semifinal battle shows a much more even matchup. Both UBC and Alberta finished the regular season with 20 wins, the Bears edging the 'Birds by just a single point to claim second in the standings by way of an extra overtime win. The two teams met only twice this season with each picking up a win in a series played at Clare Drake back in November.
A particular challenge for both teams this weekend will be shutting down a prolific offence. Both teams boast scoring depth with this series featuring five of the top ten regular season scorers – Alberta led by Josh Prokop's 37 points while rookie sensation
Sasha Mutala paced the 'Birds with 35.
"They still have the depth, they have four lines that will jump over the boards and come at you," Butenschon said of the defending champion Bears. "Their D are solid, maybe they don't have some of the game breakers they've had in the past but we're expecting a team similar to us, four lines that can play, six defencemen that can go. There's no real weakness on that team."
Digging deeper into the statistics just further illustrates how closely matched the 'Birds and Bears really are, most notably when it comes to special teams with UBC closing out the year with a conference best 27 per cent success rate on the power play, just one tenth better than Alberta. The two teams finished first and third, respectively, in goals for per game and third and fourth, respectively, in goals against with the Bears holding the edge in both categories.
But what should concern Alberta about that deadly UBC power play is just how red hot it's been of late. The T-Birds scored six times on the man advantage for a 40 per cent execution in last weekend's quarter-final sweep over Regina while keeping the Cougars' impressive power play completely off the board.
"We got real consistency with our weekly plan and our schedule and chemistry on the lines so we just want to keep that going. We want to get on the ice as quickly as possible, we don't want to sit around, we want to keep this machine moving."
No doubt goaltending will also be a major factor in this series with rookie netminders likely to feature most prominently on both sides. Alberta's Ethan Krueger saw the bulk of regular season action for the Bears while UBC saw a fairly even split of playing time between
Kaeden Lane and
Cole Schwebius, both of whom were spectacular last weekend against Regina allowing just a single goal between the two of them.
"They're seeing the puck really well back there, they're trending in the right direction. Our whole plan was to peak at the right time and when you watch those two back there they look completely different than they did in the first half so that's encouraging to see."
Riding a 14-game win streak and undefeated in 2023, the T-Birds look for a repeat of 2020's conference semifinal win in Alberta that was really a catalyst for the team's impressive run over the last several seasons. Puck drop for game one of the 2023 Canada West semifinal at Clare Drake is set for 6:00 p.m. PT Friday night. Game two goes Saturday at 6:00 p.m. with game three – if necessary – scheduled for 6:00 p.m. on Sunday. The entire series will be available live on
Canada West TV.
