The U Sports national championships begin this Thursday at the Woolwich Memorial Centre in Elmira, Ontario. The Alberta Pandas enter as the top ranked team after capturing the Canada West title this year.
Rankings Set For Upsets
Alberta enters as the top seed, followed by the Toronto Varsity Blues (#2), Bishop's Gaiters (#3), and St. FX X-Women (#4). The reigning champion Concordia Stingers are the fifth ranked team heading into the tournament. Unlike years past, any team, including the host Waterloo Warriors, the #6 British Columbia Thunderbirds, and #7 University of New Brunswick can all legitimately upset their opening round opponent.
Plenty Of High Flying Offense
The tournament will feature the top eight scorers in the nation, and 12 of the top 15 scorers. The University of British Columbia and Concordia lead the way with four of the top 15 each. At UBC, Grace Elliott and Chanreet Bassi finished 1-2 in national scoring this season. Elliott led the nation by 10 points finishing with 42 points in 28 games. She was also Canada's top goal scorer with 22 goals. They're followed by power forward Mackenzie Kordic and Annalise Wong as the Thunderbirds' leading four. Concordia's group includes Emilie Lussier, Jessymaude Drapeau, Emilie Lavoie, and defender Leonie Philbert. New Brunswick's Katelyn Scott was the top scoring defender in U Sports hockey this season notching 30 points in 26 games, good for sixth overall in the nation.
Don't Count Out The Hosts
They enter as the #8 seed, but the Waterloo Warriors are a talented team who went 18-2-6 this season. The offensive trio of Leah Herrfort, Carly Orth, and Tatum James will provide opponents with enough to worry about. Netminder Kara Mark had a stellar year posting a 1.65 GAA and .944 save percentage. Herrfort and James are two players likely to declare for the PWHL Draft.
Can Concordia Go Back-To-Back?
There won't be a single team at nationals counting out the Concordia Stingers. They're well coached, they are deep, and they have high end talent like few teams in U Sports hockey can boast. Their goaltending duo of Jordyn Verbeek and Arianne Leblanc is the best tandem in Canada. It doesn't matter who steps into the crease, Concordia will have a chance to win. Bishop's upset of the Stingers in the RSEQ final however, shows they aren't unbeatable. If anything though, Concordia's #5 seed actually paves a better path to the finals than some higher ranked teams have. They'll face the AUS champions, St. FX in round one, which is a winnable game for the Stingers.