For the third time in the last two post-seasons, the UBC Thunderbirds are preparing to face the Mount Royal Cougars, this time with the 2024 Canada West Championship title on the line Friday night at Thunderbird Stadium.
In a rematch of last year's conference final where the Cougars earned a 1-0 victory on home soil, the blue and gold will be looking to return the favour nearly one year to the date.
Friday night's showdown will also be the first time the two sides have met since the 2023 U SPORTS bronze match in Nova Scotia where the 'Birds claimed their second straight national medal.
"2024 is a new year, they were the winners in 2023 and this is not about revenge or whatever, I don't think there's any bad blood between the two teams, it's just two good teams who are going to come in Friday night and get after it," said UBC head coach,
Mike Mosher, who has guided his team to a ninth consecutive conference final. "(MRU) has done a really good job growing the program over the last many years. Obviously with getting the Canada West Championship at home last year against us, it's a solid team. This year, they took out Victoria, they took out Alberta, two very good teams. They've been very well organized and there's some very strong players there, there's a good nucleus from the group from last year and the year previous to that."
UBC and MRU have produced one of the strongest intra-conference rivalries anywhere in the country over the last few seasons having now met in three of the last four playoffs.
Similar to 2023, both the T-Birds and Cougars have already punched their tickets to the upcoming U SPORTS National Championship in Oshawa, Ontario, but that doesn't at all lessen the drive to come away as Canada West Champions Friday night which also ensures a higher seed at the national tournament.
"We say it all the time, the program is about trying to win and lift trophies, both conference and national," said Mosher. "I like the tweaks that have been made just in our playoff format and with national seeding. I think it puts an emphasis upon winning a conference championship which I think a few years back was maybe not necessarily the case. Winning your conference is an accomplishment and certainly we always put an importance on that."
The T-Birds enter Friday night's contest with a whopping 22 Canada West titles under their belt. The team's streak of five straight conference championships was snapped with last year's loss to MRU. Looking to start yet another new streak, the 'Birds feel they've weathered a number of storms both this regular season and in last week's pair of playoff battles which will serve them well against a Cougars team which has proven its mettle once again.
Earning home field advantage throughout the Canada West post-season, UBC defeated the Lethbridge Pronghorns 3-0 in quarter-final action last Friday before getting past the Cascades 4-2 on the strength of a couple extra time
Eric Lajeunesse goals.
MRU's route to Friday night's final saw the Cougars defeat the Victoria Vikes – the only team to earn a win over UBC this season – in extra time in last weekend's quarter-finals before taking down the Golden Bears which, like UBC, had lost just once all year.
"We've had different challenges along the way, right from game one when we were losing to UBCO and we scored late goals to get that win," Mosher added. "We've been fortunate to have pretty solid depth for many years but it's only depth if you use it. I think we use our depth and we rotate our squad through the year and give guys opportunities to get in games and show themselves and do well. We make use of those guys and I think it helps come this time of the year. We can be hopefully a little bit fresher, you've gotten guys opportunities in different scenarios and thus when you got to go to a plan 'B' or plan 'C' even, you know what they can do and where you can tweak things."
Kickoff for the 2024 Canada West Final is set for 7:00 p.m. at Thunderbird Stadium.
Tickets are available now and the game will be streamed live on
Canada West TV.
Â
