The Rundown - Week 13

The schedule was all over the map this week as there were games on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so things were a little more spread out than the eight games we normally see over two days. Hockey Day in Canada saw two Alberta-based teams playing in Canmore, Alberta. The BC-based teams participated in UBC's Winter Classic. The other four teams playing were using Pride Tape and celebrating the LGBTQ+ community. In short, it was a busy weekend in western Canada. Let's check out who did what this week on The Rundown!

THURSDAY: We'll start with the Battle of British Columbia as the UBC Thunderbirds headed south to Langley where the Trinity Western Spartans were waiting. With Calgary idle, the Spartans were looking to sink the Dinos into a deep hole in the standings, but the Thunderbirds weren't going to help as they needed to keep their lead intact over the Mount Royal Cougars. Since the Spartans only post highlights of their players, we'll rely on the scoring summary.

Spartans goals: Chloe Reid (2)
Spartans assists: Jordyn Matthews (4), Kyra McDonald (5)
Spartans netminder: Olivia Davidson (37/39)

Thunderbirds goals: Mia Bierd (4), Grace Elliott (16), Chanreet Bassi (8), Mya Healey (2)
Thunderbirds assists: Mya Healey (1), Meadow Carman (6), Sierra LaPlante (6), Annalise Wong (10), Jacquelyn Fleming (7), Vanessa Schaefer (1), Jaylyn Morris (8)
Thunderbirds netminder: Mya Lucifora (24/25)

Result: 4-1 victory for UBC over Trinity Western.

FRIDAY: The series shifted back to the UBC campus, and UBC was looking to add more points to their total after their win the night before guaranteed them a home playoff series. Trinity Western was looking to derail UBC's plans a little with a victory of their own, but any points would help them inch closer to a playoff spot. There were rumours that the T-Birds sold this game out, but UBC doesn't bother doing highlight reels so we're back to the scoring summary.

Thunderbirds goals: Mackenzie Kordic (9), Jacquelyn Fleming (5), Grace Elliott (17), Jacquelyn Fleming (6)
Thunderbirds assists: Ashton Thorpe (7), Makenzie McCallum (9), Annalise Wong (11), Chanreet Bassi (14), Annalise Wong (12), Ashton Thorpe (8)
Thunderbirds netminder: Elise Hugen (20/23)

Spartans goals: Brooke Dorash (2), Jordyn Matthews (6), Ella Boon (1)
Spartans assists: Kyra McDonald (6), Chloe Reid (4), Chayce Kullman (2)
Spartans netminder: Kate Fawcett (33/37)

Result: 4-3 overtime victory for UBC over Trinity Western.

THURSDAY: The Mount Royal Cougars rolled into Edmonton on a Thursday night as they prepared to play the MacEwan Griffins. The Griffins needed wins of any kind if they hoped to play spoiler in this series while the Cougars were looking to track down the UBC Thunderbirds. Mount Royal was still missing three of their players to a tournament in Italy (more on that below), so we'd have to see if the depth of the Cougars could hold off the Griffins. No highlights as usual from MacEwan, so let's roll with the summary.

Griffins goals: Joie Simon (1), Jennifer Andrash (2)
Griffins assists: Jennifer Andrash (5), Sydney Olsen (3), Tess Collier (3)
Griffins netminders: Lindsey Johnson (13/18) in 31:52; Brianna Sank (9/10) in 28:08

Cougars goals: Jordyn Hutt (5), Allee Gerrard (4), Summer Fomradas (2), Abigail Borbandy (2), Jordynne Hojnocki (1), Jerzey Watteyne (6)
Cougars assists: Lyndsey Janes (3), Lyvia Butz (3), Athena Hauck (11), Julia Duke (4), Lyndsey Janes (4), Sydney Benko (7), Jerzey Watteyne (4), Athena Hauck (12), Sydney Benko (8)
Cougars netminder: Katherine Holan (17/19)

Result: 6-2 victory for Mount Royal over MacEwan.

SATURDAY: Both teams had Friday off before heading to Canmore, Alberta for a battle on Hockey Day in Canada inside Alex Kaleta Rink at the Canmore Recreation Centre. While it wasn't one of the usual rinks these teams normally play in, they both were looking for wins on a big day in the town of Canmore. With the game being shown for free on Canada West TV, there was a good crowd on-hand in the rink to watch these two teams battle! With neither side doing highlights, though, here's the summary because why show off a special game?

Cougars goals: Kaia Borbandy (1), Abigail Borbandy (3), Gabby Lindsay (3), Lyndsey Janes (6), Ashley Grice (2), Kaia Borbandy (2), Jerzey Watteyne (7)
Cougars assists: Jordyn Hutt (3), Breanne Comte (5), Ashley Grice (1), Julia Duke (5), Summer Fomradas (9), Sydney Benko (9), Kaia Borbandy (1), Dara Thompson (4), Dara Thompson (5), Sydney Benko (10)
Cougars netminder: Scout Anderson (13/13)

Griffins goals: none
Griffins assists: none
Griffins netminders: Lindsey Johnson (27/34)

Result: 7-0 victory for Mount Royal over MacEwan.

FRIDAY: The Alberta Pandas headed southeast to the Saskatchewan capital where the Regina Cougars were looking to take points off the division leaders. Regina was tied with Manitoba in points coming into this game, but found themselves in third-place due to the tiebreaker, so they needed points. Alberta, meanwhile, was looking for wins in an effort to lock down first-place in the Eastern Division. As usual, no highlights from the Cougars, so we'll go to the summary.

Cougars goals: Paige Hubbard (7)
Cougars assists: Trinity Grove (5), Lauren Focht (5)
Cougars netminder: Natalie Williamson (16/18)

Pandas goals: Natalie Kieser (5), Allison Reich (2)
Pandas assists: Payton Laumbach (7), Izzy Lajoie (7), Annie King (2), Alexandra Black (2)
Pandas netminder: Grace Glover (27/28)

Result: 2-1 victory for Alberta over Regina.

SATURDAY: While Regina did mostly everything right on Friday, the end result wasn't what they wanted. They were looking to right that aspect on Saturday, but the Alberta wasn't about to let Regina spoil 13-straight games with points. Both sides came in wanting for points, but only one would leave with two points. Regina's no-highlight routine continues, so it's off to the scoring summary!

Cougars goals: none
Cougars assists: none
Cougars netminder: Arden Kliewer (22/23)

Pandas goals: Abby Soyko (6)
Pandas assists: Taylor Anker (8), Jadynn Morden (8)
Pandas netminder: Grace Glover (17/17)

Result: 1-0 victory for Alberta over Regina.

FRIDAY: The Manitoba Bisons welcomed the Saskatchewan Huskies to Wayne Fleming Arena on Friday as they were looking for wins to pull away from Regina in the battle for second-place in the East Division. Saskatchewan always seems to play well in Winnipeg, though, so they were looking to beat the Bisons to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. Both sides wanted wins, but Manitoba doesn't provide highlights of this. Instead, we get another scoring summary!

Bisons goals: none
Bisons assists: none
Bisons netminder: Emily Shippam (17/19)

Huskies goals: Julianna Herman (1), Ava Bergman (1)
Huskies assists: Jessica Patterson (1), Jayde Cadieux (6), Ashlee Wolfe (2)
Huskies netminder: Colby Wilson (35/35)

Result: 2-0 victory for Saskatchewan over Manitoba.

SATURDAY: The Huskies were riding high as they came into Saturday's game after shutting out the Bisons on home ice. They were looking for the sweep to take home, but the Bisons weren't about to let them ride off with all the points. They needed to find the back of the net if they hoped to claim second-place in the East Division. Again, there are no highlights because the Bisons don't seem to care, so we'll stick with the eighth scoring summary of the day.

Bisons goals: Camryn Gillis (2), Kylie Lesuk (3), Kylie Lesuk (4)
Bisons assists: Julia Bilous (2), Sophia Anderson (3), Dana Goertzen (5), Rachel Gottfried (3), Aimee Patrick (8)
Bisons netminder: Emily Shippam (9/11) in 64:00

Huskies goals: Avery Gottselig (3), Brownyn Boucher (6)
Huskies assists: Julianna Herman (1), Jaiyana Nurani (4), Brooklyn Stevely (4)
Huskies netminder: Colby Wilson (50/53) in 64:01

Result: 3-2 overtime victory for Manitoba over Saskatchewan.

No, I'm not doing the stupid East and West Divisions on the standings board. One conference, nine teams, let's see who is best.

CANADA WEST WOMEN'S HOCKEY

School	Record	Points	GF	GA	Streak	Next
UBC	16-2-3-1	39	80	31	W8	vs REG
Alberta	14-3-4-1	37	57	24	W7	vs SAS
Mount Royal	13-4-2-3	33	62	38	W2	BYE
Manitoba	8-7-3-2	24	44	45	W1	@ MAC
Regina	5-7-4-4	22	33	37	L2	@ UBC
Trinity Western	8-11-2-1	21	43	47	L2	@ CAL
Calgary	5-12-1-2	14	37	54	L8	vs TWU
Saskatchewan	3-11-1-5	13	26	48	L1	@ ALB
MacEwan	0-15-2-3	7	15	73	L6	vs MAN

Honour Roll

Each week on The Rundown, I highlight the best performances from the weekend's games. It won't always be the top scorer or the best goalie, but I'll have a reason for who gets picked each week. This week's Honour Roll candidate is someone whose defensive play often gets heralded, but Annalise Wong is showing why she was such a dynamic player in BC before jumping to the university level!

While she's been a Swiss Army knife-type player for the Thunderbirds over the last few seasons, Wong is showing all sorts of jump offensively this season as she's finding scoring spots and jumping into plays. She's an excellent penalty-killer and is responsible defensively, but three assists this weekend shows she's good all over the ice. She never takes a shift off, she's the embodiment of hustle, and it's paying off this season as she equaled her season-high in goals, assists, and points this weekend with six games to play!

The diminutive winger stands tall among her teammates as she's often doing the dirty work, but it's her relentless pursuit of the puck that makes her so dangerous. She's a key part of the UBC squad as she plays in all situations while contributing all season long. After another solid weekend where she was good on both sides of the puck, that's how Annalise Wong added her name to the list!

My Kingdom For A Stats Package

Back on December 16, I had asked Canada West to fix their media stats as every time one clicked on that link off the HockeyTech site, it redirected to men's hockey's stats. It's very clear these two things do not relate as shown below in my rudimentary illustration.

It's now January 19 and there's been zero change when one clicks the media stats link. It's almost like Canada West doesn't give two hoots about women's hockey based on their void of social media unless it benefits them directly, their complete ignorance of this problem, and their total lack of coordinating their schools for a more team-like approach in promotions and marketing.

I had a plan to present a few trends this week which may explain some numbers we're seeing in Canada West, but this complete whiff on posting correct stats on their partner site makes that virtually impossible. And spare me the garbage about lack of resources or staffing - this is one weblink that needs to be fixed, and it hasn't been touched in over a month. Any excuse at this point is just proof of the completely unprofessional way this conference's overseers operate. If this was a real business, it would already be bankrupt.

Allow Bob and Bob from Office Space to ask the obvious question.

Andiamo, Canada!

Canada ran into a spunky Japan team yesterday at the FISU World University games in Torino, Italy, but a two-point day from Nipissing's Madison Desmarais plus a goal and some inspired play - and possibly a missed assist? - by Mount Royal's Alex Spence helped to pace the Canadians to a 3-0 win over the Japanese squad that earned silver in Lake Placid. Canada will now play for the gold medal on Monday!

In the later game, it was a bttle between two long-time rivals and former countrywomen as Czechia and Slovakia met in the second semi-final. After Slovakia tied the game early in the second period at 1-1, Barbora Bartakova scored the game-winner at 10:22 while Alexandra Halounova added an insurance marker in the third period to give Czechia the 3-1 win over Slovakia. They will move on to play Canada on Monday as gold medals hang in the balance.

If you missed yesterday's game, you can watch the women battle Japan here as FISU.tv has the game available on-demand. The gold medal game's link here is here as FISU.tv has that already available, and that game will be played live at 1pm CT if you're wanting to watch. I'll be watching because I'm proud of what these women have accomplished. Let's cheer them on tomorrow!

Into International Waters

I'm always shocked that more Canada West teams aren't using their international roster spots to find players. We've seen UBC do it well with Mathea Fischer and Vannessa Schaefer in recent memory, Mount Royal had Emma Bergesen on their blue line, Manitoba boasted Venla Hovi, and Calgary has both Iya Gavrilova and Sasha Vafina on their roster with all of these players making differences. Yes, not every player adapts to Canadian school life and Canadian life in general, but Canada West schools have done seemingly well when recruiting international talent. Hint: we should do this more.

In saying that, we may see another international star find her game in a big way at a Canada West school as the Saskatchewan Huskies officially announced on Wednesday that Peppi Virtanen was set to join the women's hockey program in 2025-26! The 20 year-old forward from Jyväskylä, Finland comes to the Huskies after playing this season in the Auroraliiga with HPK where she's currently sitting with six goals and 13 assists in 27 games. She's a former member of Finland's U18 Women's World Championship team as well, so she's had some exposure to Canadian hockey, albeit not Canada West hockey.

You might be saying, "Hold on, Teebz, but didn't HPK Kiekkonaiset play the Regina Cougars in the preseason this year?" and you'd be correct. However, Virtanen didn't dress for that game, so I'm not sure she developed any dislike for the Cougars which would prompt her to join their interprovincial rivals. She will be given every opportunity to grow that dislike for them once she lands in Saskatoon, though.

Congratulations to the Saskatchewan Huskies on their recruiting of a solid international player, and I look forward to see what Peppi Virtanen can do once she's a Huskies player!

Recruiting Season

Let's be very honest: with the calendar firmly into 2025, it's recruiting season. As we know, recruiting is vitally important to both the success of sports programs at Canadian universities, but it seems like all the best talent looks elsewhere before looking in their own backyards. This isn't news by any means, but things could be better if some organizations actually gave a damn.

U SPORTS doesn't do itself any favours by basically sitting on the sidelines silently all year when they could be out promoting the fact that athletes at American schools can return home to play without "punishment" while being flexible with academic standards. There needs to be a better education campaign on what U SPORTS schools do and how the public perception can be significantly wrong. As overseeing bodies, U SPORTS and its conferences should be operating as revenue-generating businesses rather than low-budget charities, but, of course, that would take some "give a damn".

In multiple cases of players to whom I've spoken, U SPORTS is not the first league they mention. In some cases, it's not even the second league. U SPORTS and its member schools have to know this, and they're either wildly ignorant or delusional if they say otherwise. I'm not saying that any school needs to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into their athletic programs, but they can and should be important marketing tools for any school when it comes to attracting and retaining academic and athletic talent. There's a reason why North Carolina basketball or Notre Dame football or Wisconsin women's hockey plays an important role in those schools attracting talent - people want to be associated with winners. That includes sponsors and benefactors as well, and attracting more people to support any program in any way is basic Marketing 101.

Not every player will commit for various reasons, but not even asking is a choice that one has to make and it seems like U SPORTS has a lot of "not even trying" when it comes to attracting the best talent it can find. There are exceptional academic programs at any and all universities in Canada, but perhaps there's another reason why U SPORTS programs don't go after the best players. Read on.

Food For Thought

Kudos go to David Amber and Sportsnet for the following piece on Sophie Jovanovic who is making history in Ontario as a member of the U16 Toronto Marlies club which has produced NHL talent!
It seems pretty clear that Jovanovic is a special player with all sorts of talent, and I'm happy Sportsnet told her story so she can inspire other girls to push limits, break barriers, and play at the highest levels they can. Well done, Sophie!

Now I'm not saying that she's destined for an NCAA program, but Canadian universities need to push hard in working to keep talent like Jovanovic in Canada. Hockey Canada could help, but the problem is that Hockey Canada is certainly aware that the NCAA has the best talent where Jovanovic would develop so they're not going to do much to prevent American schools from recruiting her.

Of course, now would be a good time for Hockey Canada to start working on that promise to help promote U SPORTS programs in some sort of meaningful way, but they really won't. We're likely going to see Jovanovic head south like so many other talented Canadian players have, and I'm certain that Hockey Canada wants that player development to continue so they have no reason to promote U SPORTS beyond their current table scraps. Perhaps if U SPORTS had done more to help itself in the past, things would be different.

The Last Word

I'm proud of the 802 people who came out in Vancouver to fill the stands for the Winter Classic Trinity Western-UBC game. I'm proud of the fans who put as many bums in seats in Canmore, Alberta to watch MacEwan and Mount Royal. It sounds like there will be a packed house in the Saddledome for the Crowchild Classic in a couple of weeks as well, and it makes me proud that more people are coming out to see Canadian university hockey more often.

The problem? These special games shouldn't be the only reason to come out and watch the women of Canada West show off their skills and talents. This happens every week across cities in western Canada, and I'm often baffled at how there's no one in the stands. As an example, Regina had less than 500 people combined at their games this weekend while Manitoba boasted less than 400 fans combined at their games. MacEwan had just 73 people at their game on Thursday night while the Spartans had just 115 fans in the stands.

As Canadians, we like to pound our chests and proclaim that hockey is our sport, but I'm starting to think that we only show up for big events. I'm not here to criticize people being busy - that's part of life. But it seems like this country has zero room in their entertainment budgets for university hockey, and that's just one of many sports struggling at the university level.

I don't know what it takes to convince people to come and watch good university hockey, but everything being done doesn't seem to be enough. Here's hoping crowds grow in all seven western Canadian cities after good showings in Vancouver and Canmore, but I doubt we'll see the needle move in any significant way.

Which is entirely disappointing.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!