Entering a new season as the three-time defending conference champions for the first time in program history, the UBC Thunderbirds begin their quest for a fourth straight Canada West title Friday night in Calgary, facing the Dinos in a rematch of the 2024 semifinal.
Returning the bulk of last year's roster and expected in the annual coach's poll to once again come out on top, the T-Birds will face a big challenge off the bat in an upstart Dinos squad that pushed UBC to a third and deciding game in last year's playoff series.
"They're going to be ready to go and motivated to play us for sure," said UBC head coach
Graham Thomas who enters his 13
th season with the blue and gold. "They have some good returning players, some good young players and a couple transfers. They have great goaltending. It's early and we're going in with some unknowns and we'll see what we get. (Calgary head coach Josh Gosling) does a great job, they're going to work extremely hard. They're going to be very good games with them this year."
Friday night's season opener is the first of six regular season meetings between the two rivals under the new divisional schedule format. UBC will play Calgary, Mount Royal and Trinity Western six times each, making each such matchup even more meaningful.
Looking to become the first team to win four straight conference banners since the Pandas won seven in a row between 2002 and 2008, the 'Birds return their top three scorers from last year's roster, including the 2023-24 conference leader,
Mackenzie Kordic, who burst out for 15 goals and 36 points.
The biggest change for UBC is not having perennial all-star defender and former captain
Rylind MacKinnon in the lineup for the first time since 2018.
"We're in uncharted waters as far as us never having been a three-peat champion going into a season but we're not really focussing on any of that, we're just focussing on getting better and doing the things that we've done that's made us successful in the past," Thomas added. "This group is extremely motivated to accomplish everything this year, so we'll tweak some things. There will definitely be some new things in our back pocket this year, also in how we manage things in getting ourselves prepared."
The end goal is certainly yet another conference banner along with securing the program's first ever national championship, but there's a long season ahead and the first step is securing two points Friday night against the Dinos.
Puck drop for the season opener in Calgary is set for 6:00 p.m. PT Friday night with Saturday's rematch beginning at 2:00 p.m. Both games will be streamed live on
Canada West TV.
