Your National Championship Chaos Primer

Dr. Ian Malcolm, the character portrayed by Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, was trying to introduce people to the idea of Chaos Theory in the original movie. The entire concept is based on the premise that within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, one can still find patterns, repetition of data, fractals, and a pile of other non-chaotic mathematics. I'm no mathematician by any means, but "The Butterfly Effect" is a recognizable term used in chaos theory where if a butterfly moves its wings, there's a resulting hurricane on the other side of the planet. Without breaking that all down, tomorrow - Sunday, February 25, 2024 - has all the makings of a chaotic day in U SPORTS Women's Hockey, and we're going to take a look at the possibilities of that chaos happening.

First, let's get up to speed surrounding our Top-Ten teams as ranked by U SPORTS and their idiotic, inexplicable ranking system.

As you can see, Sunday is going to be a busy day, so let's look at the potential chaos and where you can watch it happen in real-time if you choose to subject yourself to that kind of day. The hockey should be good, though!

Concordia and Ottawa will play Game Three in Montreal at Ed Meagher Arena. Concordia won Game One at home by a 5-1 score before losing their first game this season in their 27th contest by a 2-1 score to Ottawa in Ottawa. Concordia will have home-ice advantage in this game while Ottawa has only scored one goal in each of the four games they've played at Ed Meagher Arena this season, including in that Game One loss. You can watch the game for free via this link as it begins at 3pm ET.

I'm not sure that UBC was expecting to be playing on Sunday, but they'll take the ice against the Calgary Dinos in the third-and-deciding game of their best-of-three Canada West semifinal series. UBC won 2-1 on Friday afternoon while Calgary responded with a 1-0 win on Saturday afternoon to force Game Three. It should be noted that Calgary hasn't allowed a goal in a Game Two or Game Three situation yet this postseason while UBC has to figure out Gabriella Durante and the Dinos' defence as Calgary has won 2-of-4 games in regulation on UBC ice. Assuming you spent the money, you can watch this game on Canada Waste TV at 3pm PT.

Assuming the schedule doesn't change for the semifinal round, Guelph will begin their OUA semifinal against the Waterloo Warriors on Wednesday, February 28. I'll note that Guelph was 1-1-1-0 against Waterloo this season, scoring just three goals against the Warriors in those games. This series could be very closely-contested with a McCaw Cup berth on the line!

It's never a good look when U SPORTS has one of the top-five teams eliminated from Nationals,

but here we are. The Alberta Pandas won Game One by a 2-1 score on Friday evening, and the Mount Royal Cougars rallied on Saturday with a 2-0 win to force Game Three on Sunday. These two teams know what it takes to win, but, unfortunately, either the most successful team in U SPORTS Women's Hockey history in the Alberta Pandas will go home after Sunday or the defending U SPORTS National Champion Mount Royal Cougars will head back to Calgary dejected. Assuming you spent the money, you can watch this game on Canada Waste TV at 7pm MT.

The St. Francis-Xavier X-Women will look to take a commanding 2-1 series lead over the St. Thomas Tommies on Sunday as they play Game Three in Fredericton, New Brunswick. St. Thomas won Game One by a 3-2 score on Wednesday while StFX prevailed 4-3 in overtime on Thursday. After a couple of days off, I expect these teams to come out with some fire under their skates as both sides look to grab the lead in the series. Assuming you spent the money, you can watch this game on AUS TV at 3pm AT.

The Toronto Varsity Blues will host the Queen's Golden Gaels in Game Three on Sunday. Queen's shocked Toronto on Wednesday as the visitors took a 3-1 win in that game before Toronto rallied on Friday with a 2-1 win in double-overtime to force Game Three. You can watch the game for free via OUA TV as it begins at 4pm ET. The winner will play York in the semifinal.

UNB is looking to punch their ticket to the AUS Final and Nationals with a Game Three victory over Saint

Mary's. UNB won Game One by a 3-2 score before adding a Game Two via a 3-0 score to put them up 2-0 in their series. Again, another U SPORTS Top-Ten team could go home on Sunday if UNB can earn that third victory. UNB was 3-0-1-0 against Saint Mary's this season, including being 1-0-1-0 at the Dauphinee Centre. The Huskies will need a big effort to extend the series on Sunday. Assuming you spent the money, you can watch this game on AUS TV at 7pm AT.

Here's where the chaos comes into the equation. Assuming all of Ottawa, Calgary, and Queen's win their respective games today, we could see as many as six ranked teams eliminated by the end of the day - Concordia, UBC, Toronto, and Saint Mary's along with one of Alberta or Mount Royal. Add in Nipissing who were eliminated on Friday, and that's 60% of the U SPORTS Top Ten who won't set foot in Saskatoon for the National Championship. How many times has that happened? Zero times if history is correct (and it usually is).

If St. Thomas were to defeat StFX next week, Waterloo were to defeat Guelph in the OUA semifinal, and Alberta or Mount Royal were to lose to Calgary in the Canada West Final, nine of the ten teams on the national ranking system would be eliminated before Nationals had even started. In theory, the only team that wouldn't be in danger of being eliminated from Nationals would be the winner of the UNB-Saint Mary's semifinal. How crazy is that scenario?

Clearly, tomorrow has a big role to play in the chaos that could be witnessed at Nationals, so it'll be a day for scoreboard watching for all conferences. Every single team that has made it this far has certainly deserved it, and there will be a number of teams and players who will be forced to wrap up their seasons when the dust settles tomorrow. For others, it will be moments of jubilation before the work starts again next week.

Enjoy the hockey action tomorrow, folks. I know I will. The Rundown will be published late thanks to that Alberta-Mount Royal game starting at 8pm CT, so watch for it late Sunday or early Monday depending on how much gets written!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!