VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds have the opportunity to do something never before achieved by the program – win a third consecutive Canada West championship.
As the T-Birds prepare to host the Alberta Pandas for the conference banner, they're taking on the only other team in Canada West history to have accomplished three straight titles having won seven in a row between 2001 and 2008.
Normally the two conference finalists are also planning their respective trips to the upcoming U SPORTS National Championship. But with the Saskatchewan Huskies playing host this year and taking up one of the two allocated Canada West berths, both the T-Birds and Pandas need a win this weekend to keep their dreams of a Canadian title alive.
"We had three teams in the top five in Canada and only one of those teams is going to nationals. It's tough to come out of the west," said UBC head coach Graham Thomas who is coaching in his sixth conference final series. "We want that cup back and we want to be champions of the west for sure. We want to obviously achieve those things and we can't see past this weekend. It's on the line but there's equal motivation for getting back to nationals with this group. There's going to be no lack of motivation, that's for sure."
The 'Birds advanced to a third straight conference final with a decisive 6-2 win over the Calgary Dinos in game three of last weekend's semifinal series. Despite not playing to their full potential in both the first two games, Thomas sees both the adversity and the end result paying dividends heading into this weekend's battle.
"We got better and better as the weekend went on," Thomas continued. "Losing in playoffs woke us up. We didn't play great on Friday but we pulled off the win and Saturday we were better but didn't score, it still wasn't our best game. Having that loss made it feel more real, and that feeling sucks and we don't want that again. That's something we can take into this weekend. That fight through adversity is going to be good."
The Pandas are competing in their first conference final since 2020 when they defeated the Mount Royal Cougars to clinch their record 14
th Canada West banner.
This weekend marks the fourth all-time playoff meeting between the T-Birds and Pandas, the most recent in 2022 when UBC earned a semifinal victory. The only other championship series matchup was back in 2017 when the T-Birds clinched their second straight conference title.
The 2023-24 season series saw UBC with the 3-0-1 edge, the only loss to Alberta by way of a 2-1 overtime decision in the season opening weekend. Two of the four regular season matchups went beyond 60 minutes to decide while only one was by a margin greater than a single goal.
"It's obviously a great team, they've had a ton of success and (acting head coach Darren Bilawchuk) has done a great job taking over from Howie (Draper). They're fast, they're skilled, they're structured. It's going to be another great weekend of hockey and we're excited for that challenge."
The biggest challenge for both teams just may be finding the back of the net. The Pandas finished the regular season four points back of UBC for second place but led the conference with an impressive 29 goals against, five better than the T-Birds.
Alberta got back to the conference final thanks to a three-game semifinal win over the defending national champion Mount Royal Cougars.
Game one of the best-of-three conference final is set for 3:00 p.m. PT Friday, March 1 at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. Game two goes Saturday at 3:00 with game three – if necessary – scheduled for Sunday at 3. Tickets are available online now and the series will be streamed live on Canada West TV.
