VANCOUVER – We're now just a couple days away from the
Winter Classic, UBC's biggest hockey night of the year. Doors open at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, January 23, with the women's game starting at 4:00 p.m. and the men's game at 7:30 p.m. (all times PT).
Ranked No. 1 in the country (as they've been the entire season) heading into this weekend, the T-Birds' women's squad will aim to send the crowd home happy on Friday, before then heading to Langley for a rematch against the Spartans the next night.
"With Trinity, this is the fifth and sixth time we're playing them [this season]," said UBC head coach
Graham Thomas. "The rivalry is there for sure, and there's lots on the line for them. They obviously want to play the spoiler role too and come in and beat us…we want to focus on Winter Classic of course, and represent well in front of the fans, but we also want to focus on the whole weekend."
The Thunderbirds have now clinched the top seed in the West Division, which means they'll receive a first-round bye in the playoffs before hosing a Canada West Semifinal series the final weekend of February.
What's still up for grabs is the top overall seed in Canada West, with the T-Birds currently five points ahead of the East Division-leading Mount Royal Cougars. If the 20-2 Thunderbirds can continue their winning ways, then they'll secure home-ice advantage throughout the conference playoffs for the fourth year in a row.
Friday's Winter Classic promises to be a night of fun and fanfare, with plenty of games, music and prizes to be won over the course of the day. Amongst the off-ice activities will be giveaways from the Vancouver Goldeneyes, BC Lions and Vancouver Rise, the last of which will also have their NSL championship trophy with them.
The T-Birds are coming off a pair of home wins over the Dinos, which featured a 5-1 win followed by a 3-2 triumph in overtime.
Ashton Thorpe was the OT hero while
Grace Elliott earned another Canada West Player of the Week nod, her third of the season.
"We're still in a fight here for first overall," said Thomas. "And more importantly, what we've been trying to push to everyone is that we need to just play sharper and better. Last Friday night we did a good job of playing consistent and coming out and playing our game, but Saturday was more up and down.
"We need to continue building consistency on back-to-back nights, and bringing it in back-to-back games."
Elliott's 22 regular season goals this year equals her mark from last campaign, and has pushed her into a tie with Brandy West for fourth-most career goals in Canada West history (73).
Annalise Wong, meanwhile, continues to lead the conference in assists with 21, sitting in second place in points overall, behind Elliott.
The Spartans have some firepower themselves, boasting the two top non-UBC point producers in the conference in Chloe Reid (eight goals, 10 assists) and Kyra McDonald (eight goals, nine assists). Trinity Western have scored the fourth-most goals in Canada West but also allowed the third-most, leaving them with a near-even goal differential (+1) and record (11-10-1).
The T-Birds have won each of their four meetings against the Spartans so far this season, scoring exactly three goals in each of them.
CLICK HERE for tickets to the 2026 Winter Classic. You can also watch the game (and Saturday night's rematch in Langley) on
Canada West TV.
