The Rundown - Nationals Preview
Before we even get into this, I'm not going to half-ass this National Championship preview like some other publications do. You'll be given reasons why each team could win and why they may not. There may be some disagreement with my assessments, but how many people predicted a Bishop's win last season? There are many variables that could come into play, but we'll look at this as objectively as possible.
I'll break this down by the U SPORTS rankings for each team.
Team Offence: 83GF; 2.59 gpg
Team Defence: 26GA; 0.81 gapg
WHY THEY'LL WIN: The UBC Thunderbirds come in with, arguably, its best roster in any of the five consecutive years that they have been to Nationals. Grace Elliott's outstanding play was highlighted by good secondary scoring in the playoffs as newly-joined Russian star Ilona Markova seemed to find her groove in the Canada West playoffs. Goaltender Elise Hugens was outstanding throughout the entire season, UBC does a great job in limiting shots by its opposition, they score on the power-play, and they have a physical edge to their game when needed. UBC will arrive in Elmira as the favorite based on how complete their game is as proven with their Canada West dominance.
WHY THEY WON'T: UBC lost to a lower-seeded team in each of 2022, 2023, and 2024 and were bumped to the consolation side by Bishop's, playing in their first-ever Nationals, last season. In each of those games, the "underdog" got an outstanding goaltending performance while playing a smothering defensive system that slowed UBC down. UBC has to find a way to get leads early and dictate the pace of play as there is no tomorrow at Nationals. They also need to find a way past the RSEQ teams who have eliminated the Thunderbirds in three consecutive seasons. They're not invincible despite their swagger.
APPERANCES (MOST RECENT): Seven (2025).
BEST FINISH: Silver medal in 2016.
TOTAL MEDALS: One silver, two bronze.
Team Offence: 101GF; 3.61 gpg
Team Defence: 38GA; 1.36 gapg
WHY THEY'LL WIN: The Concordia Stingers are easily the most successful team at Nationals in the last four years with a pair of gold medals and a silver medal to show for their efforts, so they'll be leaning on their "been there before" experiences. They were dominant through the entire RSEQ season, and they were led by Jessymaude Drapeau and Emilie Lussier who have skated at Nationals in their careers. Jordyn Verbeek's efforts between the pipes hasn't gone unnoticed, but she plays behind a very skilled and mobile defence that makes things easier. Concordia's special teams are good, and the Stingers won't be pushed around nor intimidated by anyone.
WHY THEY WON'T: Concordia hasn't been pushed in any real manner all season long, so they'll need to find an extra gear if they want to win three more games. Removing Drapeau's and Lussier's combined 40 goals this season, no other Stingers player had more than six. Secondary scoring becomes that much more important at this tournament, so Concordia will need players like Courtney Rice, Zoé Thibault, and Emilie Lavoie to dent twine. Concordia was held to two goals in their final two games last season, so a good defensive effort from the Stingers' opposition could be a problem for Concordia.
APPERANCES (MOST RECENT): Twelve (2025).
BEST FINISH: Gold medals in 2024, 2022, 1999, and 1998.
TOTAL MEDALS: Four gold, one silver, one bronze.
Team Offence: 90GF; 2.81 gpg
Team Defence: 42GA; 1.31 gapg
WHY THEY'LL WIN: The Guelph Gryphons play a very structured defensive system that is highlighted by by their outstanding goaltending tandem of Olympian Martina Fedel and Sophie Helfenstein. With Fedel returning from Italy, she's looked extremely sharp in resuming her role in the crease. Guelph will score if given the chance, but they aren't loaded with offensive weapons. Katherine Heard was sixth in OUA scoring at 24 points while Maeve Sutherland-Case was fourth in goals with 13. Deija Houston had nine goals, but the goal-scoring falls off quickly. Guelph will use that solid defensive game to cause turnovers and force mistakes, and that's been a winning formula for them this season. They'll need it to continue!
WHY THEY WON'T: Did I mention they don't score a lot of goals? Guelph was tied for fourth-most goals in the OUA during the regular season, and they posted a goal differential of just +2 in the playoffs despite going 5-1 in those games. If Guelph needs a goal late, they don't push the pace very well, and they only have a few players who might dent twine with any shot. Guelph's power-play was a pedestrian eighth in the OUA at 14.5% with that lack of scoring punch, and the Gryphons' dependence on their goaltending and defence may cost them if they need to a score a goal or two quickly.
APPERANCES (MOST RECENT): Six (2019).
BEST FINISH: Gold medal in 2019.
TOTAL MEDALS: One gold.
Team Offence: 89GF; 2.54 gpg
Team Defence: 53GA; 1.51 gapg
WHY THEY'LL WIN: The UNB Reds have no problems filling nets on the east coast. They had the top-three scorers in the AUS this season in Katelyn Scott, Olivia Eustace, and Payton Hargreaves with Scott leading the AUS in helpers and Hargreaves finishing second in goal-scoring. Cassie McCallum was solid between the pipes as she finished with a 1.65 GAA and a .930 save percentage. UNB had the top AUS power-play at a 21.7% success rate, and they killed off penalties with an 88.9% efficiency. UNB used all of these impressive statistics in combination through the playoffs to win the AUS championship.
WHY THEY WON'T: Playing at Nationals seems to be UNB's kryptonite as they enter this year's tournament with a 1-8 record all-time at the tournament. Their only win came in 2022 against McGill, and they haven't played a third game at Nationals in three-straight years, going 0-8 since that win against McGill. Making matters worse is that they've scored just eight goals all-time at National Championships, so the odds are certainly stacked against them going into this year's tournament. Forget winning the tournament; how about just a game?
APPERANCES (MOST RECENT): Four (2025).
BEST FINISH: Fourth-place in 2022.
TOTAL MEDALS: No medals won yet.
Team Offence: 86GF; 2.61 gpg
Team Defence: 64GA; 1.94 gapg
WHY THEY'LL WIN: The Ottawa Gee-Gees come in as the unknown team. They haven't played at Nationals since 2009 despite having a pile of talent go through their program, so this year's squad is virtually unknown to non-OUA teams. Scouting will be vital for their opponents, and that's where Ottawa can capitalize by working in some new plays and modifying their current systems. Gillian Warren finished second in OUA scoring, and goaltender Clara Genier has proven she can win big games. Ottawa was the most penalized teams in the OUA playoffs, but they had the second-best penalty-killing efficiency at 88.9%. Combine that with their second-best power-play rate, and Ottawa has the tools to be successful this year.
WHY THEY WON'T: There's a fine line between being the unknown and being naive. One can make a team dangerous while the other usually has disastrous results. Ottawa needs to find scondary scoring as the drop-off after Warren's 16 goals is noticeable. Rebecca Morissette had nine tallies while Alex Ferguson had eight, but Ottawa's top-three scorers behind Warren combined for 12 goals. Defender Reece Mepham has to remained disciplined as opposition power-plays will feast if she's in the sin bin, but, overall, secondary scoring has to be a priority for the Gee-Gees if they want to medal.
APPERANCES (MOST RECENT): Four (2009).
BEST FINISH: Silver medal in 2004.
TOTAL MEDALS: One silver medal.
Team Offence: 89GF; 3.07 gpg
Team Defence: 60GA; 2.07 gapg
WHY THEY'LL WIN: The Waterloo Warriors come in as the defending silver medallists, so they know what it takes to make the final. Waterloo ran into a solid Guelph team in the OUA playoffs, resulting in an early exit, but the Warriors had three players hit double-digits in goals as Carly Orth had 10, Tatum James had 13, and Keiara Raitt notched 11 goals. They have a good supporting cast, and Kara Mark provides solid goaltending. They need to work hard against solid defensive teams, but the Warriors have the firepower to carry them to victory if their defence can hold the fort long enough.
WHY THEY WON'T: The Warriors take a lot of penalties, and their penalty-killing efficiency was dead-last in the OUA. That has to change or the Warriors will be fishing a lot of pucks out of their net. Defensively, they could tighten the screws as well as Mark was good in her crease, but Bishop's showed last season that a strong forecheck will force Waterloo into errors which ended up behind Mark. The Warriors don't get a lot of offence from their blue line, so Waterloo will need to find ways to push the play from the back end.
APPERANCES (MOST RECENT): Three (2025).
BEST FINISH: Silver medal in 2025.
TOTAL MEDALS: One silver medal.
Team Offence: 95GF; 2.64 gpg
Team Defence: 83GA; 2.31 gapg
WHY THEY'LL WIN: The Manitoba Bisons are the team that should scare everyone because they don't know who is showing up. It took Manitoba eight weeks to record their first regulation win before they went on a crazy run that saw them knock off Alberta and Mount Royal before UBC slowed them up. Manitoba has three double-digit goal scorers in Julia Bird, Aimee Patrick, and Norah Collins. They have good secondary scoring from players like Brenna Nicol and Sadie Keller. They had the second-best power-play efficiency in Canada West, and they were the least penalized team in the conferece. No one expected them to be in Elmira, and now they have a chance to prove everyone wrong about their comeback season this year.
WHY THEY WON'T: The other side of the coin is that Manitoba's defence and goaltending has to be elite like it was for the majority of the playoffs. Goaltender Emily Shippam wasn't bad with a 2.29 GAA, but her .891 save percentage was the lowest of all Canada West playoff starters. It got better in the playoffs as Manitoba showed an improved commitment to defence, but this is a one-game elimination from the medal round. Mistakes have to be limited, saves have to be made, and defensive play has to remain high. Manitoba's penalty-killing units also allowed six goals on 20 shorthanded situations, so staying out of the penalty box would be helpful as well.
APPERANCES (MOST RECENT): Eight (2019).
BEST FINISH: Gold medal in 2018.
TOTAL MEDALS: One gold medal, three bronze medals.
Team Offence: 71GF; 2.45 gpg
Team Defence: 65GA; 2.24 gapg
WHY THEY'LL WIN: The Montreal Carabins play like a team of grizzled veterans in that they all come to play. They don't score a lot as leading scorer Catherine Proulx had just 16 points, but they have players who can find the back of the net all over their lineup. The addition of Audrey-Anne Veillette saw her score seven goals in 11 games, and Lea Salem had seven goals this season as well. They don't mind a little physicality in the corners or in front of the net, and goaltender Maude Desroches can steal Montreal a game if she's on.
WHY THEY WON'T: Montreal is going to need everything to come together for three-straight games against arguably better opponents they faced this season. Montreal defeated UBC 4-2 as the seventh-seeded team in 2023 so it's possible that we could see an upset, but Montreal will need outstanding goaltending, a commitment to defence, and timely scoring - key pieces that were missing at times in their RSEQ series against Concordia. It's an uphill climb that we saw Mount Royal make in 2023, but Montreal's going to need every facet to be better than what was seen all season. That's a tough ask.
APPERANCES (MOST RECENT): Eleven (2024).
BEST FINISH: Gold medals in 2016 and 2013.
TOTAL MEDALS: Two golds, two silvers, and three bronze medals.
The schedule for the games in Elmira are as follows:
- Thursday, March 19 @ 3pm: Manitoba at Concordia
- Thursday, March 19 @ 7pm: Guelph at Waterloo
- Friday, March 20 @ 3pm: Montreal at UBC
- Friday, March 20 @ 7pm: Ottawa at UNB
I have some concerns over the rankings above, so read on for my analysis of why U SPORTS once again has no clue what it's doing when ranking teams. If you're a fan of two teams in particular, you should be furious while two others deserve more respect from U SPORTS.
When Winning Means Nothing
The top-four seeds in the tournament have always been the four conference champions and there may be some debate about who got seeded where, but U SPORTS messing that up would take real skill. Instead, we're going to look at the bottom-four seeds because one team didn't even win a playoff series and has an easier path than two teams who did. What's the point of winning in the playoffs then?The Waterloo Warriors won 17 games in the regular season against OUA competition, and those 17 wins were more than any of the other three teams on the bottom of the rankings. However, when the playoffs started and games counted for more, Waterloo went ahead and won one game - the least of the four teams at the bottom of the rankings. Guelph knocked Waterloo out of the playoffs in the OUA quarterfinals, and somehow they're ranked higher than the Canada West finalist in Manitoba and the RSEQ finalist in Montreal.
How does that make any sense? Nationals has never been about how many wins any team has in the regular season. It's about competing against other teams across the nation, and Waterloo couldn't even reach the final in their own province. Somehow, though, they're ranked ahead of Manitoba and Montreal who defeated teams to make it to Nationals. Can anyone explain how U SPORTS arrived at this?
Waterloo's seeding only doubles-down on how stupid it is for U SPORTS to have three OUA teams in the National Championship, and it reeks of favoritism towards the OUA's teams when it comes to medalling. If I were involved in operations for Manitoba and Montreal, I'd be demanding answers from U SPORTS over this clear lack of respect for winning in the playoffs. This is completely ridiculous.
The regular-season rankings mean nothing as I've gone over time and time again, but it takes real guts to tell teams that winning your conference doesn't matter. Welcome to U SPORTS women's hockey.
Didn't We Just Play Them?
If you're a fan of the Guelph Gryphons or the Waterloo Warriors, there will be a sense of familiarity when those teams meet on Thursday night. That's because they played one another twice during the regular season with each team winning a game. They then met in the OUA quarterfinals where the Gryphons won in three games. And now they meet in a single-elimination game at the National Championship. Again, I ask how U SPORTS thinks this is a good idea.OUA teams have met six times at Nationals, and Wilfred Laurier was involved in every single game. Wilfred Laurier hasn't played at Nationals since 2014, the year before the format changed to eight teams, so it's been a long time since any conference foes met in an opening-round game thanks to the tournament's rules where champions and finalists were on the opposite sides of the bracket.
Imagine being the Guelph Gryphons who eliminated the Waterloo Warriors from OUA playoff contention only to arrive at Nationals knowing that Waterloo could end their quest for a National Championship. What's worse is that all U SPORTS had to do was flip-flop Manitoba and Waterloo, and every single game would feature non-conference opponents in the opening round. What may have been even better is if Montreal and Waterloo were switched so that the finalists were ranked ahead of the opening-round OUA burnout.
Further to this, Guelph should NOT be the visitors in their game against Waterloo under any circumstance. I get that Waterloo is hosting this tournament, but they did not earn the right to be the home team at any point in this tournament. You don't get to flame out in the first round of the OUA playoffs only to have home-ice advantage against the team that eliminated you. That's bonkers!
I have a hard time believing that any of this was unintentional which means that U SPORTS has abandoned what made Nationals so good: teams that never play each other would always meet through the opening two rounds of Nationals. With this year's brackets, it's clear that U SPORTS no longer cares about making this sport better.
Does the "U" in U SPORTS stand for "useless at managing"?
Getting A Shot
The PWHL's Ottawa Charge are the first team to boast two former U SPORTS netminders on their roster after they signed Kaitlyn Ross to a 10-day Standard Player Agreement while Sanni Ahola recovers from an illness back in Ottawa! After adding Kendra Woodland in November, the Charge now feature a former UNB Reds netminder and a former Mount Royal Cougars netminder on their roster!There's no guarantee that Ross will play, but the Redcliff, Alberta native seems to be the insurance policy while Ottawa travels across western Canada and into the American midwest. The Charge are battling for a playoff spot, so their upcoming games against the Frost in Minnesota and against Montreal in Winnipeg called for a third goalie to be available in case there were any goalie injuries.
Ross may only be with Ottawa util they get through Winnipeg, but my hope is that this is opportunity she needs to impress the Charge brass. She's a helluva goalie, and I hope this leads to more!
Bringing Home Hardware
Saturday saw two former Calgary Dinos players and one former Mount Royal Cougars player earn gold medals in professional hockey play. Annalise Meier and Courtney Kollman were part of the CG Puigcerdà squad that swept through the playoffs en route to winning that club's first national championship in Spain's Liga Iberdrola de Hockey Hielo!Kollman and Meier were key additions to CG Puigcerdà as both players had significant impacts for the team, but CG Puigcerdà saw a number of Spanish-born players elevate their games in preparation for the upcoming IIHF Division-1B Women's World Championship that Puigcerdà will host from April 12-19. CG Puigcerdà joined the LIHH in 2006, so this was a truly historic win for the city and the club!
Congratulations to both Annalise and Courtney on their championship!
Sweden's Canada West Battle
The SDHL is rolling through their playoffs right now, and we got to see one of the relegation series feature a few key Canada West players. Rogle BK met Linköping HC in their best-of-three series with Linköping looking to stay in the SDHL while Rogle was attempting to take Linköping's spot in the SDHL. Linköping won 2-0, but it was who took part in the series that caught my attention as there was a Canada West wrinkle in the games thanks to who played!Linköping HC was supposed to have former UBC Thunderbirds forward Chanreet Bassi on the ice, but I never saw her once if she played. According to what I can find, her last point came on January 16 in a 5-4 shootout win against MoDo. She actually had two assists in that game, but I didn't see any other mention of her in the lineup or on the scoresheet after that game. Did she play? I can't confirm because the SDHL website is hot garbage. Who designs these websites?
What I can confirm is that Rogle BK featured former Alberta Pandas forward Cassidy Maplethorpe and former UBC Thunderbirds defender Kennesha Miswaggon on their roster, and both played in the series! It's always cool to tune into a game and discover two players you watched are now playing at the professional level!
Officially, Rogle BK will return to the Nationella Damhockeyligan (NDHL) next season while Linköping HC will remain in the SDHL. We'll have to see if these three Canada West alumna re-sign this summer!
Backs Against The Wall
Luleå is still alive in the SDHL playoffs as they're in the championship final against Brynäs IF. The only problem is that Brynäs IF won the opening two games of the best-of-five series by 2-1 and 3-2 scores, putting Luleå on the brink of elimination. That means all of former Manitoba Bisons defender Erica Rieder, former Regina Cougars forward Jaycee Magwood, and former StFX X-Women forward Sarah Bujold are on the precipice of being bridesmaids in the SDHL!Mone of those three players have scored in the final yet, but Magwood did have three goals and a helper in the three-game semifinal series win over Djurgarden. Erica Rieder also added an assist while Bujold was held off the scoresheet, but Luleå is going to need all three at their best for the next three games if Luleå wants to win the SDHL! It won't be easy, but it's still very possible!
The Last Word
I had every intention on getting into the history of the teams playing against one another, but this edition of The Rundown is already long enough. Besides, I need something to generate some chatter on the CBC YouTube chat where I'll be spending my time watching the games. Honestly, CBC deserves a ton of credit for covering every game for all of U SPORTS' championships, but it seems like no one wants to give CBC any credit so I will because they earned it.You can watch every second of action from both the men's and women's hockey national championships this weekend on CBC Gem and the CBC Sports website. The gold medal games from both tournaments will be on CBC's network television feed as well, so you can ask for it to be broadcast on any big screen at your favorite sports establishment no matter where in the country you are.
From their work with their Olympic and Paralympic coverage to their commitment to U SPORTS to their dedication in bring amateur athletics to Canadian viewers, CBC is invaluable to this country. I cannot say enough good things about CBC's efforts to make lesser-watched sports more prominent, and I'll give them credit anytime I can. I appreciate their work, and this year's U SPORTS National Hockey Championships should look good on all the CBC options!
Everything starts on Thursday. Settle in for an amazing weekend of hockey and catch every second on CBC's viewing options!
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!
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