Martlets top seed for CIS women's hockey championship

OTTAWA (CIS) - The two-time defending national champion McGill Martlets are heading into the CIS women's hockey championship as the No. 1 seed for the fourth consecutive year.

Championship website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/wice <http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/wice>  

The six-team CIS tournament, hosted for the second straight season by St. Francis Xavier University, gets under way Thursday and concludes Sunday with the gold-medal final set for 6 p.m. Atlantic Time.

SSN Canada will have live webcasts of all nine games from the tourney.

Joining Quebec conference champion McGill in Antigonish, N.S. are the No. 2-ranked Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks (OUA champions), No. 3 Alberta Pandas (Canada West champions), No. 4 Saint Mary's Huskies (AUS champions), No. 5 St. Francis Xavier X-Women (hosts and AUS finalists), as well as the No. 6 Montreal Carabins (QSSF finalists), who reach the event in their first-year of existence.

The Martlets will compete in Pool A with Saint Mary's and Montreal in the round-robin portion of the championship. Pool B is comprised of Laurier, Alberta and StFX.

The competition opens Thursday at 4 p.m. Atlantic Time with McGill beginning its quest for a three-peat against conference rival Montreal. The Pool B opener follows at 7:30 p.m. with Laurier facing Alberta.

Saint Mary's and StFX take the ice Friday against the losers of the opening-day duels.

The Martlets, who beat Laurier in the CIS final in both 2008 and 2009 to capture the first two national titles in program history, enter the week running a CIS-record 84-game overall winning streak against Canadian university opponents, dating back to a 2-1 shootout loss to Alberta in non-conference action on Dec. 30, 2007.

McGill is 7-0 against Montreal this year including a sweep of the best-of-three QSSF final. They dominated Saint Mary's 11-0 in a non-conference affair back on Nov. 21.

The CIS major award winners and the all-Canadian teams will be unveiled at a banquet Wednesday night.

NOTE: A complete championship preview will follow on Tuesday.

SEEDINGS & POOLS

1. McGill Martlets (QSSF champions: 20-0-0 regular season / 4-0 playoffs)
2. Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks (OUA champions: 26-0-1 regular season / 4-0 playoffs)
3. Alberta Pandas (Canada West champions: 23-1-0 regular season / 4-0 playoffs)
4. Saint Mary's Huskies (AUS champions: 13-10-1 regular season / 3-0 playoffs)
5. St. Francis Xavier X-Women (AUS finalists: 18-2-4 regular season / 1-1 playoffs)
6. Montreal Carabins (QSSF finalists: 13-6-1 regular season / 2-3 playoffs)

Pool A
1. McGill
4. Saint Mary's
6. Montreal

Pool B
2. Wilfrid Laurier
3. Alberta
5. StFX

CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE (All times LOCAL: Atlantic Time)

Wednesday, March 10
18:30 All-Canadian Banquet (Keating Centre)

Thursday, March 11

16:00 Pool A #1: No. 1 McGill vs. No. 6 Montreal (SSN Canada)
19:30 Pool B #1: No. 2 Laurier vs. No. 3 Alberta (SSN Canada)

Friday, March 12

16:00 Pool A #2: No. 4 Saint Mary's vs. Loser Pool A #1 (SSN Canada)
19:30 Pool B #2: No. 5 StFX vs. Loser Pool B #1 (SSN Canada)

Saturday, March 13

16:00 Pool A #3: No. 4 Saint Mary's vs. Winner Pool A #1 (SSN Canada)
19:30 Pool B #3: No. 5 StFX vs. Winner Pool B #1 (SSN Canada)

Sunday, March 14

11:00 5th Place (SSN Canada)
14:00 Bronze (SSN Canada)
18:00 Final (SSN Canada)

- CIS -

For more information please contact:

Michel Bélanger        
Manager, Communications & Media Relations
Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Ph: (613) 562-5670 ext. 25
Cell: (613) 447-6334
belanger [at] universitysport.ca
www.cis-sic.ca

Krista McKenna
Sports Information Director
St. Francis Xavier University
Off: (902) 867-5381
Cell: (902) 870-4207
kmckenna [at] stfx.ca <kmckenna [at] stfx.ca (mailto:)>