UBC seeking championship double as top-seeded men's, women's teams host Canada West hockey finals

Take a walk past the viewing platforms overlooking University of British Columbia's Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Arena and you'll see Thunderbirds history, with banners of Grenoble 1968 Olympian and former UBC hockey goalie Ken Broderick alongside the school's 1915-16 women's hockey team hanging above the ice.

For an athletics program that began in 1915, sporting legends have passed through the Vancouver campus. Yet few have had the honour of winning conference, let alone national championships on the ice.

UBC's men's hockey team won two Canada West titles in 1963 and 1971, while the women's program has enjoyed more success, capturing five conference titles, with neither program raising a national championship banner.

From March 1-3, however, the two teams will host the Canada West finals, marking the first time the men will play conference championship games on home ice — the culmination of a rebuilt program that went 44 years without a home playoff game between 1971 and 2015.

Meanwhile, the women look to win three straight Canada West banners for the first time.

"When you come to the program, you want to leave a legacy and change the way UBC hockey is thought about," men's hockey captain Chris Douglas said. "Hopefully, we can look back one day and be proud that we were a part of this."

The men will face off against the defending conference champion University of Calgary Dinos in Game 1 of the best-of-three final on Friday night, while the women will take on the University of Alberta Pandas in Game 1 earlier in the day, streaming live on CBCsports.ca, CBC Gem and the CBC Sports app.

Getting back to championship contention in men's hockey has been challenging. Not only did the program go through the four-decade playoff drought, but it rattled through head coaches, going through three in as many years until former NHL player and Olympian Sven Butenschön took over the program in 2016-17.

Since then, Butenschön has rebuilt the program, bringing many from his inaugural recruiting class to the Canada West final in 2019-20 before losing out on a University Cup experience in Halifax due to Covid-19. A year later, his group fell short again in the Canada West final but hit the ice in Wolfville, N.S., at the national championship.

Former Vancouver Canuck Sven Butenschön has remained in the city and has established the Thunderbirds as a U Sports championship contender. (Jacob Mallari/UBC Thunderbirds Athletics)

Matt Revel, one of his initial recruits, who lost out on the U Cup experience in 2020 and was on the team eliminated in the U Cup quarterfinal in 2022, returned to the team as an assistant coach in 2023 — it didn't take long to get him to buy in.

"From our first phone call, [Revel] just said he has unfinished business at UBC and with this program, and I probably could have finished the application process for the role right then," Butenschön said. "We had a lot of veteran guys who were screwed with Covid, and it was a beautiful combination of those guys and some really talented rookies who are now vets."

Having qualified for the Canada West final, UBC's home advantage will come into play as they look for their first banner in 53 years and a chance to secure a top-three seed at U Cup in Toronto from March 14-17, giving them the best possible shot at a national championship banner.

Given a heartbreaking loss to Alberta in last year's conference semifinal and missing out on nationals, hosting the championship on home ice was a critical goal for UBC this season, one they hope will power them to their first title in a generation, having lost to the University of Saskatchewan and Alberta in their last two Canada West final efforts.

"Now that I'm a bit older, I can see how much this means to the program and all the guys on the team, the coaches and the alumni," Douglas said after beating Alberta in the semifinal on Feb. 25 to set up the clash with the Dinos. "[Calgary] has a similar group to last year, and I think they're a little bit bigger and better than Alberta, so it's going to be a tough battle."

Women striving for 3-peat

While the men's team looks to break history, the veteran-laden women's squad tries to extend its dynasty with a third straight conference championship, having secured Canada West gold in 2022 and 2023.

Despite only dropping one regular-season game and finishing atop the standings, it wasn't the most straightforward year for UBC, having lost longtime assistant coach Mike Sommers to PWHL New York, where he joined the staff of former Alberta coach Howie Draper, with their two former teams now set to battle for conference supremacy.

"Losing Mike was a big adjustment, especially for the older players, and I've also coached with him for 10 years or so,"  head coach Graham Thomas said as he prepared to coach in his sixth final. "But I think it's been good for our group to build resilience through it and ensure that we're ready for anything, and we got to go through some of those challenges early on."

Only one Canada West spot at the national tournament is available, with the University of Saskatchewan earning an automatic berth as hosts, meaning UBC must beat Alberta to qualify.

"We can't rely [only] on our experience," Thomas said. "Our players love playing at home, and we love our setup here, and we just have to remember to trust ourselves and the process and not look too far forward."

Around the U Sports World:

• In men's basketball, the No. 36-ranked University of Northern British Columbia Timberwolves pulled off astounding upsets on the No. 4-ranked UBC and seventh-ranked Manitoba Bisons to qualify for the Canada West semifinals, falling to the Victoria Vikes before beating Calgary to win bronze — their first medal as a program.

• The Concordia Stingers lost their first game of the season after 26 consecutive wins in Game 2 of the opening round of the RSEQ women's hockey playoffs to the uOttawa Gee-Gees but responded with a 13-0 performance to win Game 3 and the series.

• The Brock Badgers knocked out the reigning OUA men's basketball champion Ottawa Gee-Gees, 81-58, to advance to the OUA Wilson Cup Playoff semifinals.

• It's upset season in the women's hockey playoffs as well, as the fourth-seed York Lions swept the top-seed Nipissing Lakers in the OUA McCaw Cup quarterfinals; and in the AUS, the fifth-seed St. Thomas Tommies are set to play a decisive Game 5 against the first-place St. Francis Xavier X-Women for a spot at the U Sports national tournament.