The three-time defending Canada West Champion UBC Thunderbirds begin their hunt for a program record fourth consecutive conference banner this Friday, February 28, when they host the Manitoba Bisons for game one of a best-of-three semifinal series at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
Having finished first in the conference during the regular season for the third straight year, earning a bye through last weekend's quarter-finals, the 'Birds face the Bisons in the post-season for the first time since 2019, with a berth in next week's Canada West Final and the upcoming U SPORTS National Championship on the line.
While UBC enters the semifinals rested, the Bisons are riding high having defeated the Trinity Western Spartans in three games last weekend, an intensely close series.
"They're big, they're strong, they're skilled and they're hungry," said UBC head coach
Graham Thomas, summing up his team's semifinal opponents. "They look like they're playing with an edge, with some fire. They have great goaltending, they're very well coached and organized. For us, we just got to make sure that we are sharp and we're focussed and we're ready to go and not looking past anything but Friday night. Just continuing to be in the moment and just go out there and play our game."
The T-Birds looked sharp indeed to close out the regular season with a record setting 25 wins while closing out the campaign on a 14 game win streak which began with a weekend sweep over the Bisons in late November. In the only two games the programs met in over the course of the 28-game schedule, the 'Birds dominated by a combined 13-3 margin, including a 10-2 dominant performance at Wayne Fleming Arena.
But as far as UBC is concerned, those results in November are meaningless heading into this weekend's best-of-three.
"I think everyone's calm but focussed," Thomas added. "We've got a level of maturity and discipline with our group and confidence that we've been here before, but we're not taking anything for granted. This is a whole new season. Yeah, we had a great season and accomplished a lot of things, a lot of great individual achievements, but at the end of the day we're all on the same page with one goal in mind. They've got two wins and we haven't done anything yet."
After dropping their first game against the Spartans in last weekend's quarter-final, the Bisons managed to force game three with a 2-1 triple overtime win Saturday, tying the Canada West record for shots in a single game with 73. After finally breaking through past TWU goaltender Kate Fawcett, Manitoba earned a 5-2 game three win to advance to their first semifinal series since 2019 where they defeated UBC.
With the new division format debuting this year, this weekend's playoff battle will mark the first visit to Vancouver for the Bisons since January of 2024.
The winner of the semifinal will advance to next weekend's conference final series against either Mount Royal or Alberta. Should UBC advance, it would be a fourth straight Canada West Final appearance for the T-Birds and an opportunity to secure a fourth straight banner, the first time for any conference program to accomplish such a feat since the Pandas won seven in a row from 2002-2007.
"We're not worried about closing it out or punching our ticket. We're not worried about finals or anything other than game one and getting that first win and playing our best and bringing some inspired hockey on Friday night."
Puck drop for game one of the Canada West Semifinal is 7:00 p.m. Friday at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. Game two is also set for a 7:00 p.m. start on Saturday with game three – if necessary – scheduled for 3:00 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets for the first two games of the series
are on sale now and all will be streamed on
Canada West TV.
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