The Rundown - Canada West Final

There is no surprise in Canada West about who will represent the conference in PEI at the U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship, so all we needed to do this weekend was crown a champion, hand out a trophy and banner, and celebrate a big season of hockey that was played under some weird circumstances. Two teams met in Vancouver for the opportunity to hoist the Catherwood Cup while posing for photos with the Canada West championship banner. The winner will play in the top-half of the field in PEI while the loser of this series would have to battle upwards in their quest for a National Championship banner. Let's find out who did what on this edition of The Rundown!

With the season series split at 1-1 and with four goals scored apiece, the Saskatchewan Huskies and UBC Thunderbirds looked an intriguing matchup. The only difference was that the season series was played in Saskatoon rather than Vancouver, so this series may be different with the games being played at UBC as the Thunderbirds were 8-3-0 on the season at home while Saskatchewan was 5-4-1 on the road. The other big swing was that Saskatchewan only scored 17 goals on the road this season compared to the 44 goals scored at home by UBC, so home-ice advantage might be a real thing in this series. We'd know shortly as Game One got underway with Camryn Drever standing in the Saksatchewan crease while Elise Hugens was the starter for UBC!

UBC exploded out of the tunnel on this night as they were all over the Huskies from the moment the puck dropped until the horn ended the first period of play. The barrage of shots that UBC unloaded on Drever would pay off early as Grace Elliott got a step on a defender, pulled away as she cut in on the right side, and sent a low shot past Drever just 4:32 into the game as UBC went up 1-0! They'd double the lead eight minutes later when Mia Bierd found a rebound in a scrum in front of Drever after she made a couple of stop, and Bierd swept the puck past the Saskatchewan netminder at 12:55 for the 2-0 lead! UBC would add another just before the period ended as well as Jenna Fletcher's shot was stopped, but Ireland Perrott knocked home the rebound with 33 seconds remaining, and UBC took the 3-0 lead into the intermission while holding a 19-4 advantage in shots!

The assault on the Saskatchewan goal continued in the second period as the Thunderbirds looked to build on their three-goal lead. Saskatchewan, though, wasn't content with just playing this one out, and they found more shots on Hugens as well. However, only one shot would count, and it wouldn't come off the stick of a green-and-white jersey. Shay-Lee McConnell took a Kenzie Robinson feed in alone and made a gorgeous move past Drever while shorthanded at the 7:38 mark for a highlight-reel goal, and UBC held a 4-0 lead. That score would hold into the second break, and the Huskies were in a hole down four goals and being outshot 29-9.

The third period saw UBC continue the chaos they had caused in the first two periods as Drever was asked to stop another pile of shots thrown her way by UBC. She would be successful in holding the Thunderbirds off the scoresheet in this period, but the Huskies mounted little in the way of offence when it came to shots on Hugens. That would be the big story in this game as the final horn sounded on a 4-0 UBC Thunderbirds win over the Saskatchewan Huskies. Elise Hugens stopped all 13 shots she faced in this game for her first Canada West playoff shutout while Camryn Drever was on the wrong side of a 39-save night. UBC leads the Canada West semifinal 1-0.

Highlights of this game, minus the McConnell goal, are below!

Because I said the McConnell goal was a highlight-reel goal and UBC didn't include it in the highlight package, here's that goal too!

For the first time in these playoffs, the Saskatchewan Huskies entered Game Two down 1-0 in the series. They'd need to find a way to neutralize the well-oiled machine known as the UBC Thunderbirds if they hoped to push this series to Sunday. UBC, for their part, had a chance to hoist a trophy and accept a banner for the first time since 2017. The storylines were set as Camryn Drever was back in the Huskies' net while Elise Hugens stood 200-feet away from her in the Thunderbirds' blue paint.

UBC brought the same fire that they did one night earlier. Camryn Drever was under siege once again in the opening frame, but she stood tall as she prevented the Thunderbirds from denting twine. At the other end, Saskatchewan had a few more opportunities, but Hugens was quite content keeping the score tied at 0-0. Despite the teams trading power-plays, neither team would light the lamps at either end in the opening frame with UBC up 13-6 in shots.

The Thunderbirds double-downed on their intensity in the second period as they frustrated the Huskies in the defensive zone while giving Drever another workout in the offensive zone. Again, neither netminder was willing to concede the first goal in this frame, so that 0-0 tie would remain intact through 40 minutes depsite UBC holding a 26-8 advantage in shots.

Knowing the gravity of the final 20 minutes when it came to the future, both teams were more content with playing solid defence rather than pushing the offence. Again, the teams would trade power-plays - including a late power-play for the Huskies - but the penalty-killing units did their jobs admirably. With no goals scored in this period either, it was time for free hockey as the game moved to overtime at 0-0 on the scoreboard and UBC leading 33-13 in shots!

The fun part about overtime? We didn't have to wait long for a goal. Just 1:38 into the extra frame, Chanreet Bassi took off from just inside her own zone, streaked down the ice as she moved to the left, cut into the slot area from the left-wing half-boards, and slid a low shot towards Drever that found room underneath her to end up in the cage for the overtime, game-winning, championship-winning goal! That goal gave UBC the 1-0 victory in Game Two as Elise Hugens stopped 14 shots for her second-straight shutout while Camryn Drever made 34 stops on a night where she likely deserved a better fate. Let the celebration begin, though, as the UBC Thunderbirds are the Canada West champions with that overtime goal!

Highlights of this game are below!

And when the dust settled on Canada West women's hockey this season, there stood only one team who could claim the ultimate victory as champions after a bye and four playoff games!

Congratulations to the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds, your 2021-22 Canada West women's hockey champions!

We now turn our attention to the smallest province in Canada as UPEI gets set to host the U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship where eight of this country's best university women's hockey teams will converge to determine who is best in the land for 2021-22.

Who are the eight teams? Well, we have three spots still to decide, but we'll know which eight teams will be playing in Charlottetown by next weekend as we move towards the March 24-27 tournament. So who's in thus far? Here's your graphic with that info.

The OUA will determine who is going by Wednesday as shown above. The single-game eliminations mean that either Brock or Western will go from the OUA West while Toronto or Nipissing will be the representative from the OUA East. It's literally a win-and-you're-in situation in the OUA when it comes to Nationals, so we'll know exactly who will be coming to PEI from Ontario by the end of Wednesday night.

The AUS will spread their final out over five days starting on Tuesday night as StFX will battle UNB for the final AUS spot. With UPEI hosting, they already hold a spot so the winner of the AUS Final will be the final team to join the party once this best-of-three series wraps up on either Thursday or, if necessary, Saturday. Game One will be played in Fredericton before the Thursday game shifts to Antigonish, so we'll see how these two teams fare, but the winner of this series will play in PEI.

Canada West is the only conference who has finished its season as Concordia and McGill will also play next weekend for RSEQ supremacy, so all we know about rankings thus far is that UBC will be ranked ahead of Saskatchewan and UPEI. Everything else is still up in the air when it comes to who beats whom, so keep an eye on those series - including McGill and Concordia which starts on Thursday - as rankings in PEI will be determined by who wins their respective conferences!

The Last Word

Congratulations once more to the UBC Thunderbirds on capturing their fourth Canada West women's hockey championship! Kudos also need to be heaped upon the Saskatchewan Huskies for an inspired playoff run that will see them compete for a National Championship now, so they can't dwell on the loss to UBC for very long and wonder "what if..." as they get set for new challenges.

What should be noted is that neither team has won a National Championship in the two institutions' illustrious histories, so they'll be looking to join Alberta, Calgary, and Manitoba as U SPORTS National Champions out in Canada West. It won't be easy, but we've seen both teams use speed, skill, tenacity, and determination to thwart their opponents in their playoff runs thus far. I expect that to continue.

Three more victories is all that is standing between these two teams and immortality. The rest of Canada West will be cheering you on as you try to capture the Golden Path Trophy, and it's safe to say that we have two extremely deserving representatives heading to Charlottetown to bring home the hardware to Canada West for the first time since 2018 when Manitoba was crowned as champions.

Chapters in the storybook seasons you're experiencing have already been written as you arrive at this crucial juncture, but the journey is far from over. It's time to write that last chapter in Charlottetown. The only question we need to ask is how your story will end, and we'll know how it play out in two weeks' time!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!