The Rundown - Elite Eight

There are four conferences of university women's hockey that two teams to the big dance at the end of the season. The math is easy when looking at how the U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship field is built as the winners of each conference and the finalists from each of the non-hosting conference play at the tournament while the hosting conference sends the host and the winner of the conference. Or the finalist if the host wins. That minor detail aside, the field for the 2022 edition of the U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship is set so let's find out who booked tickets to Charlottetown on this week's edition of The Rundown!

Canada West

UBC will go to Charlottetown as the Canada West champions, ensuring they'll be a top-four seed at the tournament. Elise Hugens provided strong goaltending all season long while the attack and trasition game by the Thunderbirds may be one of the best, if not the best, in the nation. I expect UBC to use the same relentless attack seen in Canada West all season to overpower their opponents in PEI as the Canada West champs seek gold.

Saskatchewan will join UBC as the second Canada West representative after they earned a berth in the national tournament by being the Canada West finalist. There's no doubt that the Huskies have one of the best netminders and defensive structures in the nation, so the question will always be whether or not they can score enough goals. Saskatchewan seems to thrive when they have the lead, so that should be the loud-and-clear message to the team in Charlottetown: score first! And often!

AUS Final

The AUS Final kicked off on Tuesday as the third-seeded St. Francis Xavier X-Women traveled to Fredericton to meet the top-seeded UNB Reds with the winner advancing to the U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship. The 15-6 Reds were a spectacular 9-1 at home during the regular season while the 15-6 X-Women were road warriors all season as they went 9-2 on the road. StFX was 1-2-0 this season against the Reds while UNB sported a 2-0-1 record in those three games. UNB sported the best defence this season while StFX boasted the best offence. This looked like series for the ages, so let's see what happened!

UNB grabbed the lead in Game One just before the midway point as Jenna MacLean scored an unassisted power-play goal at 9:31. The Reds made it a two-goal lead when Ashley Stratton found the back of the net at 12:48. The comeback for StFX began in the second period when Abby Lewis scored on the power-play at 8:54, and the X-Women tied the game when Lewis notched her second goal of the period at 13:44 to make it 2-2. There was no scoring in the third period, so we were treated to free hockey in Game One!

At 7:19 of the first overtime period, we'd have our winner.
Tamina Kehler played the heroine on this night as she found room past Jamie Johnson for the 3-2 victory in Game One! Kendra Woodland earned the win in the Reds' net with a 35-save performance while Johnson fell just short on a night where she stopped 21 shots. UNB led the series over StFX 1-0!

Game Two moved to Antigonish, Nova Scotia on Thursday as the StFX X-Women needed a win on home ice to keep their season going. The Reds came into the game fired up thanks to that big overtime win in Game One, so the storylines were clear as a win would give UNB its first-ever AUS Championship and send them to PEI a week later.

The teams were quiet in the first period and for most of the second period until the very last minute of the middle frame. That's when Talli Warren scored for UNB as the Reds took the one-goal lead into the break. Whatever was said in that intermission seemed to get the Reds fired up as they took over in third period. Lillian George scored on the power-play at 3:11, Alyana Wagstaff scored 1:14 later, and Melanie Drost killed any hope of StFX mounting an epic comeback when she made it a 4-0 game at 13:13.

When the final horn sounded, the UNB Reds had made a little history with the 4-0 win as they won their first AUS Championship! Kendra Woodland was on another level on this night as she posted her fifth win of the playoffs via a 46-save shutout while Jamie Johnson stopped 19 shots in the season-ending loss. UNB wins the series over StFX 2-0!

Your 2022 AUS Champions are the UNB Reds!

RSEQ Final

Both Concordia and McGill had already qualified for the U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship based on their berths in the RSEQ Final, but we still needed to settle some business there when it comes to seedings at the national tournament. Concordia was 2-1 against McGill this season despite McGill finishing ahead of the Stingers in the standings. Concordia beat the Martlets in the final two meetings, including once at McConnell Arena, so it appeared the Stingers may have the upper-hand in this series. Let's see how it played out as McGill hosted Concordia on Thursday night!

The Stingers meant business in Game One as they got on the board just 4:36 into the game when Rosalie Bégin-Cyr found room past McGill's Tricia Deguire to make it 1-0. That score would hold until the second period when the Stingers doubled their lead off the stick of Stéphanie Lalancette just 24 seconds into the frame. I don't know if McGill was in shock after that goal, but, ten seconds later, it was 3-0 when Bégin-Cyr scored her second of the game!


That was more than enough offence on this night as the Stingers skated to the 3-0 victory in Game One! Alice Philbert made 20 stops for the shutout while Tricia Deguire stopped 39 shots in the loss. Concordia led the series over McGill 1-0!

The series shifted to Ed Meagher Arena as Concordia played host to McGill in Game Two of the series. The plot was clear in this game as Concordia stood 60 minutes away from another RSEQ championship while McGill needed to win to send this game back to their home turf for Game Three. Who would prevail on Friday night?

Once again, the Stingers were buzzing early in this game, and that pressure would pay off when Rosalie Bégin-Cyr put the Stingers up 1-0 at 13:50. Just 1:30 later while killing a penalty, Audrey-Ann Rodrigue made it 2-0 while shorthanded after she fired home the rebound that Tricia Deguire left in the slot off an Emmy Fecteau shot.


That 2-0 score carried into the second period where McGill finally dented twine as Jade Downie-Landry scored on the power-play at 7:26 to cut the deficit to one goal. However, with seven seconds left in the period and the Stingers on a 5-on-3 advantage, Stéphanie Lalancette danced her way into the McGill zone, put a shot on net that Deguire stopped, but Lalancette buried the rebound to make it a 3-1 game. An Audrey Belzile empty-netter would cap off the scoring in this game as the Concordia Stinger defeated the McGill Martlets 4-1! Alice Philbert stopped 34 shots in the victory while Tricia Deguire was on the wrong end of a 32-save performance. Concordia wins the series over McGill 2-0!

Your 2022 RSEQ Champions are the Concordia Stingers!

OUA Final

Just as they've done all playoffs, the OUA Final would feature just one single-elimination game. Both Brock and Nipissing had punched their tickets to PEI already, so this game was all about who would play as what seed in Charlottetown, but there was some pride on the line as well as both teams were looking to capture their first McCaw Cup. Nipissing last played in the final against Guelph in 2017, but fell short in that attempt. Brock has never played in the OUA Final, so this series had all sorts of history-making moments awaiting the winner. Because of the scheduling, these teams hadn't played each other this season, so stats mean nothing! Let's see how the Ontario conference finished!

The first period saw both teams looking for gaps in the other's defensive systems, but none were found. Nipissing ran into penalty trouble in the second period, though, and that's where Brock pounced. Cassidy Maplethorpe scored on the power-play at 5:28 for the Badgers to put them up 1-0, and that was followed by a second power-play goal in the frame by Paige Cohoon at 9:07 to make it a two-goal lead for Brock. Brianna Gaffney would get one of those goals back for Nipissing just 40 seconds into the third, but the Lakers could find no other breakdowns for goals as the Brock Badgers skated to the 2-1 victory over the Nipissing Lakers! Tiffany Hsu made 19 stops for the Badgers on this night for the win while Chloe Marshall suffered the loss in a 22-save effort! Brock wins their first-ever McCaw Cup in the 22-year history of the program!

While they had no highlights posted anywhere, I'll still give them the tip of the ol' cap as your 2022 OUA Champions are the Brock Badgers!

With all of the conferences finished their playoffs with winners crowned, that means the field is set for Charlottetown. From west to east, the eight teams who will go are UBC (Vancouver), Saskatchewan (Saskatoon), Nipissing (North Bay), Brock (St. Catharines), Concordia (Montreal), McGill (Montreal), UNB (Fredericton), and UPEI (Charlottetown). For Nipissing, Brock, and UNB, this will be the first time they've attended a national championship tournament, so this should be special for them.

Graphically, this is who is going to Charlottetown with conference winners on the left, finalists/host on the right, and the conference these teams represent listed to the right of that.

Undoubtedly, there will be some debate among experts as to who should be ranked where heading into the tournament, but we need to remember that U SPORTS has always maintained that teams who come from the same conference will never play one another in the opening game of the tournament, and they do their best to have the teams avoid one another in the second game as well. As such, it forces some rankings to be a little skewed when it comes to the lower teams, but, as the saying goes, to the victors go the spoils.

Here's my attempt at ranking the teams based on the completely-illogical ranking system used by U SPORTS, my own feelings towards each team's finish, and the guidelines listed above.

If this is how the rankings play out, the opening round would see Concordia play UPEI, UBC would battle Nipissing, UNB and McGill would tangle, and Brock and Saskatchewan would get to know one another. I cannot stress this enough: I have zero insight as to how U SPORTS will rank teams this week, but this is my best guess at the final rankings as we head to Charlottetown.

UPDATE: It seems my rankings above were close based on U SPORTS's tournament bracket below! Here's how things will go.

I'm not saying I know a thing or two about U SPORTS women's hockey, but perhaps it's time to retire those stupid Elo rankings. At the very least, introduce a human element to the scoring like they have in men's hockey. So what do you say, U SPORTS - maybe it's time to let the media vote in women's hockey to keep things honest?

The Last Word

One weekend of U SPORTS women's hockey is all that remains. Eight teams will vie for the ultimate glory as the Golden Path Trophy and the U SPORTS National Championship banner await the team who wins three-straight games in Charlottetown. Having seen it done in the past with Bisons, there is nothing easy about this tournament when one considers the amount of travel some teams undertake, the opposition who awaits each team, and a handful of other variables that come into play when the puck is dropped. Make no mistake that these eight teams have to be at their absolute best if they are to be crowned national champions.

What shouldn't be forgotten is that these eight teams represent some of the most skilled, hard-working, dedicated women attending universities today, and no matter where they finish at this tournament they can claim a major personal victory in helping their teams reach this point of the season. Of the 35 U SPORTS women's hockey teams that participated in the 2021-22 season, 27 will be watching eight teams compete for national glory. For those eight teams, that is an accomplishment that needs to be celebrated.

The U SPORTS Awards Night will happen this week, and HBIC will have a look at each of the winners as we build towards Thursday's games. The Rundown will return next weekend with coverage of all the games with a focused look at the UBC and Saskatchewan games played along with the gold medal game regardless of who is playing in it. If you're making the trek to Charlottetown, let me know via Twitter as I really enjoyed my time there and want to hear about your experience too!

Best of luck to the final eight teams in Charlottetown! May the best team win!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!