OTTAWA — The University of Alberta Golden Bears have redemption in mind as they head to the CIS men’s hockey championship this week in Saskatoon.
A disappointing finish at last year’s championship left the top-ranked Golden Bears frustrated, and they now have their sights set on Sunday’s gold medal match.
Alberta heads to the tournament as the number one seed, as well as the most decorated team in University Cup history with 13 titles. However the Golden Bears haven’t won a title since 2008 and are anxious to put an end to the drought.
"Our team feels we have some unfinished business from last season," said Alberta head coach Ian Herbers. "We have worked very hard this season, improving every week in a very competitive Canada West conference, to give ourselves the best possible opportunity to excel at nationals."
At the other end of the spectrum are the Carleton University Ravens, who are making their first appearance at the University Cup.
The Ravens enter the tournament as the sixth seed after earning the wild-card berth with a 7-4 win over Lakehead in the Ontario University Association bronze-medal game.
"We feel that being at nationals is a big step for our program," said head coach Marty Johnston. "This group has worked hard for this opportunity, but I also think of all the graduated student-athletes, staff and alumni that built the foundation of this program. They have all had a huge impact in getting us to the national stage in year seven of our program."
Carleton will face the Golden Bears in the opening game of the tournament, which features two pools of three teams.
Alberta and Carleton will skate in Pool A with McGill (4), while Acadia (2), Windsor (3) and Saskatchewan (5) will battle in Pool B. The top team from each Pool will advance to Sunday’s final.
Statistically the Golden Bears dominated the country this season. During the regular season they led the league in goals (5.21 per-game), fewest goals against (1.93) and had the top ranked power play (31.9 per cent).
The Ravens will counter with plenty of offence of its own, as they are the second-highest scoring team at the championship averaging 4.54 goals-per-game.
While the Ravens are confident in their offensive abilities, they also believe goaltender Francis Dupuis will be up to the task of handling Alberta’s attack.
"Dupuis will have to be solid and our special teams need to be excellent," said Johnston. "Francis won a national championship with Pembroke so he’s been in this scenario before and we believe in him.
"This group has been in some must-win situations this year and year’s previous. We are comfortable and excited about what lies ahead. We are not looking past the first shift of our game against Alberta."
Acadia is making its return to the CIS championship after a seven-year absence.
The Axemen advanced to the tournament after defeating Saint Mary’s in the Atlantic University Sport final. The Axemen will look for big things from leading scorers Liam Heelis (24-18-42) and Mike Cazzola (11-31-42) who finished tied for the conference lead in points.
The Windsor Lancers head into the tournament riding high. The Lancers finished fourth in the OUA West and then went on a 7-1 run in the conference playoffs to advance to the University Cup for just the third time in program history.
The Axemen will face the Lancers in the second game on the opening day of the tournament.
Despite finishing third in the OUA East, McGill had a strong playoff outing due in large part to centre Cedric McNicoll’s 16 points in eight games, and won the OUA East title after defeating the Ravens in the final.
The Redmen won the University Cup in 2012, but missed the tournament last season after a number of players graduated.
"We are still growing as a team and getting better every day," said head coach Kelly Nobes. "We have 23 guys in their first or second year with our program and we’ve put ourselves in a situation where we have an opportunity to win another championship.
"Our leadership group has been outstanding and we have evolved into a mature and resilient group, peaking at the right time. We believe in each other. We faced very tough opponents in the OUA playoffs and feel that we’re battle-hardened and ready for the next step."
The Redmen will face the very well rested Huskies. Saskatchewan’s season came to an end 23 days ago after losing to UBC in the Canada West quarter-final.
"This is our third straight year at the championship so this team knows what to expect," said Dave Adolph, the longest serving head coach at the championship with 25 years of CIS experience, including the last 21 with the Huskies. "We are in a very challenging pool with two conference champions and we will have to be at our very best every shift to be successful."
The Huskies are looking for a much better performance than last year when they went 0-2 in front of the home crowd.