MONTREAL – A red hot power play and staunch defence by the Concordia Stingers handed the UBC Thunderbirds a 3-1 loss to the defending champion Concordia Stingers in their U SPORTS National Championship semifinal Saturday night in Montreal.

All four goals came on the power play with both teams earning four opportunities each, ultimately proving to be the glaring difference as the T-Birds will now face the Université de Montréal Carabins in the bronze medal game Sunday afternoon. The Stingers will now have the opportunity to repeat as national champions when they face the Mount Royal Cougars for gold.

"We knew they had a really, really good power play and we wanted to be disciplined and stay out of the box. At the end of the day the penalty kill has to be a little bit better there," said UBC head coach Graham Thomas following the emotional loss. "You had two conference champions playing in a semifinal, two really good teams. I'm really proud of our players, they played extremely well and battled really hard."



It didn't take long Saturday for Concordia's deadly power play to strike, scoring on their first opportunity just 5:57 into the first. Late on the advantage, Emmy Fecteau let a hard wrist shot go from the slot, getting the puck over Elise Hugens' glove.

The T-Birds answered back on their first power play of the game when captain Rylind MacKinnon poked a rebound through the pads of Stinger goaltender Alice Philbert to tie the game just shy of the midway point of the period.

Concordia scored the eventual game winner late in the second when Rosalie Begin-Cyr grabbed a loose puck behind Hugens and poked it across the line.

Starting the third period with the lead, the Stingers went into lockdown mode, making it incredibly difficult for the 'Birds to enter the offensive zone. After controlling the play for the first half of the final frame, the Stingers earned their fourth power play of the game and converted yet again with Begin-Cyr's second of the game at the 11:46 mark.



"They do a 1-2-2 and lock things down and get layers above us and take away our speed and make it hard to get in," said Thomas. "We had to try to get back and find a weak side or chip it in on the forecheck, but they did a great job. They play a really well-coached, team game and it was hard to generate speed."

The T-Birds put Hugens on the bench for the extra attacker with three minutes left, but Concordia prevented UBC from getting any concrete chances to claw back.

As disappointing as it is for the 'Birds to fail to get back to a U SPORTS championship final, there's still a medal up for grabs on Sunday and a way to end their tremendous season on a high note.

WHKY: Congratulations to Concordia's Rosalie Bégin-Cyr and UBC's Annalise Wong on being named Nike players of the game.

HKYF: Félicitations à Rosalie Bégin-Cyr de @The_Stingers et Annalise Wong de @ubctbirds d'avoir été nommée joueuses du match Nike. pic.twitter.com/VscyEABl9O

— U SPORTS Hockey (@USPORTS_Hockey) March 19, 2023

"This team's had such an incredible year so we have to find a way to put this behind us and get up for tomorrow's game."

Puck drop for the U SPORTS bronze medal game is set for 3:00 p.m. ET/12:00 p.m. PT at CEPSUM Arena. The game will be streamed live on CBC Sports' website and YouTube channel.