For the first time in over half a century, the UBC Thunderbirds enter the Canada West season as defending champions – a title the blue and gold officially begin defence of this Friday and Saturday, October 4 and 5, when they host the Calgary Dinos for their 2024-25 home opener series.
"The boys have worked extremely hard since Labour Day, it's nice that it's behind us now and we can prepare for the regular season; what better way than having the Calgary Dinos come in for the home opener," said UBC head coach
Sven Butenschon who enters his ninth season at the helm. "We're expecting an extremely intense, close weekend and we just can't wait."
A rematch of last season's Canada West Final that saw the Thunderbirds earn their first title victory since 1971, Friday night's opener at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre will begin with that championship banner being raised to the rafters.
"A bunch of alumni have already been talking about it and I feel like they're maybe more excited than the players," said Butenschon who won his second conference Coach of the Year award last season. "I know (the players') mindset is it's very cool, but they have a job to do. As coaches, we need to make sure our guys stay focussed because on the other side of it, Calgary would like nothing more than to have some pay back. We'll enjoy the moment for a couple minutes but we have to keep our game faces on and be ready for the opening faceoff."
Friday night's season opener not only features a rematch of last season's conference final series, but also the winners of each of the last two Canada West titles – the first of six such battles between the two heavyweights this season. A new schedule format which introduces divisional play for the first time means the T-Birds will face the Dinos, Mount Royal and Trinity Western six times each over the course of the 28-game regular season. It all makes for a pretty consequential weekend right off the bat.
"At the end of the season, you're going to be looking back at weekends like this – who got four points, who got three, who had zero? Last year the standings were so close from one through four, I'm expecting it to be even tighter in our division, so it's a massive, massive weekend to start the season."
As the new campaign begins, the expectations for the Thunderbirds remains the same – win another conference title and take another run at that elusive national championship.
There's little doubt the 'Birds have the horses to get there. Returning the vast majority of a veteran lineup – minus forward
Jake Kryski and defencemen
Ryan Pouliot and
Jonathan Smart who have now all graduated – this is a UBC roster which has been through the proverbial ringer and knows what it takes to get to where they want to go.
Add in this year's rookie class of forward
Carson Latimer, defencemen
Alex Serraglio,
Kayden Sadhra-Kang and
Chris Kobelka along with goaltender
Brett Mirwald, and the 'Birds are going to once again present a formidable challenge for the rest of a deep Canada West conference.
As for the Dinos, they too return the bulk of a veteran lineup which last year saw Calgary finish just two points behind UBC in the regular season standings.
"A lot of the usual suspects minus Riley Stotts," Butenschon said of Calgary's impressive roster. "They've done a nice job recruiting, they always do. They're well organized, they're well coached. (Head coach Mark Howe) will have those guys all on the same page, all ready to run through a wall for him. It's going to be a great way to start the season."
Puck drop for the 2024-25 Canada West season is set for 7:00 p.m. Friday, October 4 at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre with Saturday's rematch scheduled for 3:00 p.m.
Tickets for both games are available online and both will be streamed live on
Canada West TV.
