ELMIRA, Ont. – It's a familiar scene at a familiar time of year against a familiar opponent for the UBC Thunderbirds who open up play at the 2026 U SPORTS Women's Hockey National Championship against the Université de Montréal Carabins Friday at 12:00 p.m. PT at Elmira's Woolwich Memorial Centre.
It's the fifth straight national championship appearance for the T-Birds who enter this year's tournament as the number one seed as they take a run at that elusive first U SPORTS banner for the program which has been among the country's best over the last decade-plus. This week is also a chance at redemption after last year's disappointing fifth place finish at the very same venue.
Their opponent is also no stranger to the biggest stage in Canadian University women's hockey, the Carabins adding to UBC's frustrations over the years having managed a 4-2 quarter-final win over the T-Birds two years ago in Saskatoon.
But there's certainly a different feel among the blue and gold heading into this year's championship – a calm confidence permeating throughout one of the most veteran laden groups of any of the eight teams vying for the title. A full 18 players on UBC's roster have returned to the scene of last year's tournament, most of which have competed in multiple previous national championships.
"We've always been a tight group, a close family, good culture in the room so it's not that, we've always had that, but I think it's just the experience that we have and the trust that you look around the room and everybody wants to do it for everybody," said UBC head coach Graham Thomas who was named U SPORTS Coach of the Year Wednesday evening. "It's not on one or two people, everyone's confident and excited to get the job done. We want to finish what our goal was at the start of the year and what we've come here to accomplish, we're ready to go."
The 'Birds arrived in southern Ontario on Tuesday and have already had a couple days to acclimatize while getting a practice in at the Dan Snyder Memorial Arena, the rink in which all tournament games will be played.
"It's just about trusting in our process and trusting our group," said Thomas. "It's been good to get on the ice which is always fun. Just get out there, get back to hockey and having fun together. It's nice we play Friday so we got a few days to settle in here but getting on the ice has been really good for the group."
Friday's quarter-final battle with the Carabins marks the fifth all-time meeting between the two powerhouse programs at the national championship with Montreal taking three of the previous four. The T-Birds lone victory came in the 2023 bronze medal game where UBC defeated the then-hosts for the program's most recent podium finish.
"They're strong, they compete. They're a program that's very well coached and (head coach Isabelle LeClaire), honestly, she's been coaching here as long as I have and she's been to probably the same number of national championships so she knows what it's all about. They can make adjustments and throw different things at us and I think to counter that, we just need to be ready to play our game. We can adapt to things in the game, but just be ready to execute our systems and our game plan, that's the biggest thing. It'll be a good challenge for us."
Puck drop for UBC's quarter-final with Montreal is set for 3:00 p.m. ET/12:00 p.m. PT Friday, March 20, the winner advancing to play either New Brunswick or Ottawa in a semifinal Saturday.
The game will be available live on CBC Gem, cbcsports.ca and CBC Sports' YouTube channel.
