Olympic heroes to duke it out when McGill confronts Calgary, Thursday
OTTAWA (CIS) - A pair of Canadian Olympic heroes will go head-to-head at the CIS women's hockey championship, Thursday, at Clare Drake Arena on the campus of the University of Alberta.
Goaltender Charline Labonté will be protecting the McGill net while scoring legend Hayley Wickenheiser will lead the Dino attack.
The seeding and pools were announced Sunday night for the six-team tourney. Second-seeded McGill will cross paths with No.3 Calgary on Day 1 and will meet host Alberta in their second game. The gold medal final is set for 6 p.m. Mountain next Sunday.
SSN Canada will have live webcasts of all nine games from the tournament at ssncanada.ca and fans can follow all the action at the CIS championship website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/wice/index
For the second time in program history, the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks head into the CIS tourney as the pre-tournament favourites.
Joining the OUA champion Hawks in Edmonton will be the reigning national champ McGill Martlets (RSEQ champions), who have been seeded No. 2, as well as the No. 3 Calgary Dinos (Canada West champions), No. 4 UPEI Panthers (AUS champions), No. 5 Alberta Pandas (Canada West finalists & Hosts) and No. 6 Montreal Carabins (RSEQ finalists).
Top-ranked Laurier will compete in Pool A with UPEI and Montreal in the round-robin portion of the championship. Pool B is comprised of McGill, Calgary and Alberta.
The competition kicks off Thursday at 3:30 p.m. Mountain Time with Laurier taking on Montreal. The Pool B opener follows at 7 p.m. with McGill facing Calgary.
UPEI and Alberta take the ice Friday against the losers of the opening-day matchups.
The Golden Hawks, who took over from McGill as the top-ranked team in the country in mid-January, had been seeded No. 1 only once in the past, in 2006, one year after they claimed their lone CIS banner. They reached the gold-medal final of the 2006 tourney but dropped a 2-1 decision to Alberta.
The Martlets had earned the No. 1 seed each of the past five years. They beat StFX 5-2 in the 2011 final to capture their third CIS title in four seasons.
The CIS major award winners and all-Canadians will be announced at a banquet Wednesday night.
NOTE: A complete championship preview will follow on Tuesday.
SEEDING & POOLS
1. Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks (OUA champions: 25-0-1 regular season / 6-1 playoffs)
2. McGill Martlets (RSEQ champions: 18-1-1 regular season / 4-1 playoffs)
3. Calgary Dinos (CWUAA champions: 20-4-0 regular season / 4-0 playoffs)
4. UPEI Panthers (AUS champions: 13-10-1 regular season / 3-0 playoffs)
5. Alberta Pandas (CWUAA finalists & Hosts: 14-3-7 regular season / 2-2 playoffs)
6. Montreal Carabins (RSEQ finalists: 13-5-2 regular season / 2-2 playoffs)
Pool A
1. Laurier
4. UPEI
6. Montreal
Pool B
2. McGill
3. Calgary
5. Alberta
CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
NOTE: Live webcast of all games on SSN Canada (ssncanada.ca)
Wednesday, March 7
19:00 All-Canadian Banquet (Crowne Plaza Chateau Lacombe)
Thursday, March 8
15:30 Pool A #1: No. 6 Montreal vs. No. 1 Laurier
19:00 Pool B #1: No. 3 Calgary vs. No. 2 McGill
Friday, March 9
15:30 Pool A #2: Loser Pool A #1 vs. No. 4 UPEI
19:00 Pool B #2: Loser Pool B #1 vs. No. 5 Alberta
Saturday, March 10
15:30 Pool A #3: Winner Pool A #1 vs. No. 4 UPEI
19:00 Pool B #3: Winner Pool B #1 vs. No. 5 Alberta
Sunday, March 11
11:00 5th Place
14:00 Bronze
18:00 Final
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For more information contact:
Michel Bélanger
Manager, CIS (613) 447-6334
belanger [at] universitysport.ca
Matt Gutsch, Alberta
(780) 914-7096
mgutsch [at] ualberta.ca