SASKATOON, Sask. – After winning the Canada West Championship for a third straight season, the UBC Thunderbirds (24-1-1-2, 4-2) are looking to bring home the program's first ever U SPORTS Gold Medal as they enter the eight-team national championship tournament as the No.2-seed. First up, the T-Birds take on the No.7-seed Montreal Carabins in their quarter-final game on Friday at 12:00 p.m. (PT).
Even after entering the conference playoffs with a Canada West-record number of regular season points, the 'Birds knew they had to win it all to earn their spot at the U SPORTS Championships. Despite three of the five highest-ranked teams in U SPORTS competing in Canada West, there was only one spot at the national championships up for grabs in the conference, as the west got only two berths this season and the host Saskatchewan Huskies automatically received one of them.
It did not come easy, but UBC did what it needed to do to get to Saskatoon. After earning a first-round bye, the T-Birds defeated the Calgary Dinos in three games in the best-of-three semi-finals, overcoming superb goaltending from the only opponent who beat them in regulation during the regular season. Next up was the Alberta Pandas, who also pushed the 'Birds to the brink, before UBC took game three of the series on home ice 4-2 to win a third straight conference title.
"It was crucial that we had such difficult series in the Canada West playoffs to prepare us for this weekend," reflected UBC head coach
Graham Thomas. "Looking back on it, if you could have scripted the adversity and things that we had to fight through to get to where we are now, and it's basically how we would have written it up. At the time, going through it, it wasn't fun at certain moments, but being able to pull through showed the strength and depth of our program."
The T-Birds have never won a women's hockey national championship, reaching one U SPORTS final, but ultimately settling for silver in 2016. More recently, the 'Birds have been building their reputation on the national stage, winning the consolation final two years ago before bringing home the U SPORTS bronze last year. After scoring the most goals in the country this season, and sporting the best goals against average of anyone at the tournament, Thomas feels his team is ready to take the next step to the top of the national podium.
"We have represented well at this tournament recently, going 4-2 at nationals over the last two years," noted Thomas. "It's just about being consistent at the right times, playing big in those moments. This is a group where we have that belief and we have the depth to do it. Adding some new coaching voices throughout this year too has led to amazing opportunities for our players to grow and work through some changes. It's all just made us stronger, made us better."
In order to do that, Thomas thinks carrying over the offensive explosiveness the team has shown all season long will be key.
"I think there are so many great goalies in the women's game, also a lot of tough team defence, so knowing we have the ability to score goals when needed, and score in bunches, is going to give us a lot of confidence going forward," commented the 12
th year UBC coach. "We're a puck possession team, we have depth, we can create offence from the back end. We make it tough for teams, because they don't know where the scoring is going to come from. We also play a defensive-minded game, but as you can see with our goals for this year, we know how to put the puck in the net."
The run to the gold medal game begins against the last team the T-Birds saw on this stage, the Montreal Carabins, who UBC defeated 3-2 to win U SPORTS bronze in front of a hostile crowd in Montreal. The No.7-seed Carabins enter the tournament with easily the worst record among qualifying teams, going just 13-10-2 in the regular season, before making a run to the RSEQ finals to earn their berth.
In the conference final, Montreal picked up a shocking game one road win over U SPORTS No.1-ranked Concordia. The Stingers, who are also the No.1-seed at the U SPORTS Championships, went 25-0-0 in the regular season. Montreal could not finish off their cross-town rivals on home ice in game two however, and Concordia obliterated the Carabins in the deciding game three, taking the RSEQ Championship with a 10-4 win.
"They're older, mature, strong, well-coached, well-prepared," praised Thomas. "They're also very structured and deep. We seem to always find them whenever the two of us are at nationals. We've had some exciting games with them and it was great to get that confidence from beating them last year. Our team knows that we can beat them and beat any team here."
UBC's quarter-final game at 12:00 p.m. (PT) Friday, and can be streamed on
CBC Gem,
cbcsports.ca or
CBC's Youtube channel. The T-Birds' potential semi-final would be at 12:00 p.m. (PT) on Saturday, with an eye on qualifying for the Canada West Championship Game at 5:00 p.m. (PT) on Sunday.
Find the complete tournament schedule
here.
