2023 U Sports University Cup
The 2023 U Sports Men's Hockey Championship was the 61st edition of the U Sports men's ice hockey championship, a postseason tournament to determine the national champion of the 2023 U Sports men's ice hockey season. The tournament started on March 16 and ended with the bronze-medal and championship games being played on March 19 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.[1]
 | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | March 16–19, 2023 |
| Teams | 8 |
| Venue(s) | Eastlink Centre, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | UNB Reds (9th title) |
| Runner-up | Alberta Golden Bears |
| Third place | UQTR Patriotes |
| Fourth place | UPEI Panthers |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 8 |
| MVP | Samuel Richard |
← 2022 2024 → | |
The third-seeded UNB Reds defeated the fifth-seeded Alberta Golden Bears by a score of 3–0 to win the program's ninth national championship.[2] In the win, UNB Reds's Coach MacDougall ties Tom Watt for the most championship game appearances, with 11, and ties Clare Drake for the most tournament games coached, with 42.[3]
This is the third shutout in the past 12 years. The previous two shutouts were in 2011 (4-0 UNB over McGill) and 2013 (2-0 UNB over St. Mary's). Prior to that, in 2003, UQTR shutout St. FX 3-0 followed by a 30 year gap to 1973 when Toronto shutout St. Mary's 5-0.
Host
The tournament was played at the Eastlink Centre and was hosted by the University of Prince Edward Island.[4] UPEI was originally scheduled to host the 2021 U Sports University Cup, but that tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.[5][6] This was the second time that UPEI hosted the tournament, having first hosted in the school's inaugural year in 1970.[7]
Qualification
AUS playoffs
| Quarter-finals (Best of 3) | Semi-finals (Best of 5) | AUS Championship (Best of 3) | ||||||||||||
| 1 | UNB Reds | 3 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | UPEI Panthers | 1 | 6 | Moncton Aigles Bleus | 1 | |||||||||
| 7 | Moncton Aigles Bleus | 2 | 1 | UNB Reds | 2 | |||||||||
| 2 | Saint Mary's Huskies | 1 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Saint Mary's Huskies | 3 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | St. Francis Xavier X-Men | 0 | 5 | Acadia Axemen | 1 | |||||||||
| 5 | Acadia Axemen | 2 | ||||||||||||
With UPEI eliminated in the first round and not advancing to the AUS Finals, a third place team was not required as a replacement 'host' so there was no third-place series.
OUA playoffs
| Division Quarter-finals (Best of 3) OUA Sweet 16 | Division Semi-finals (Best of 3) OUA Quarter-Finals | Division Finals (Best of 3) OUA Semi-Finals | Queen's Cup (Single Game) OUA Championship | ||||||||||||||||
| 1E | UQTR Patriotes | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4E | Carleton Ravens | 2 | 4E | Carleton Ravens | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| 5E | Ontario Tech Ridgebacks | 0 | 1E | UQTR Patriotes | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| 2E | Concordia Stingers | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2E | Concordia Stingers | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3E | McGill Redbirds | 2 | 3E | McGill Redbirds | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| 6E | Ottawa Gee-Gees | 0 | 1E | UQTR Patriotes | 3 OT3 | ||||||||||||||
| 2W | Windsor Lancers | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1W | Lakehead Thunderwolves | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4W | TMU Bold | 1 | 5W | Toronto Varsity Blues | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| 5W | Toronto Varsity Blues | 2 | 1W | Lakehead Thunderwolves | 0 | Third place - Best of 1 | |||||||||||||
| 2W | Windsor Lancers | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2W | Windsor Lancers | 2 | 2E | Concordia Stingers | 4 | ||||||||||||||
| 3W | Brock Badgers | 2 | 3W | Brock Badgers | 0 | 1W | Lakehead Thunderwolves | 0 | |||||||||||
| 6W | Laurier Golden Hawks | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
Note 1: The Queen's Cup championship game must be held in Ontario (part of the arrangement when the RSEQ hockey league merged with the OUA). When a Quebec-based OUA-East representative is the higher seed and should 'host' the game - the game shall be hosted by the OUA-West team instead, but the OUA-East team shall be the 'home' team and have last change. In this case - Windsor hosted UQTR for the Queen's Cup with UQTR as the 'home' team.
Note 2: The OUA 'Host' rule mentioned in Note 1 now, as of 2019-20, also applies to the bronze medal game. In this case Lakehead was the higher seed and the 'natural' host.
Note 3: OUA Playoffs re-seed teams in each round such that the highest advancing seed plays the lowest advancing seed within their divisional bracket.
Canada West playoffs
| Quarter-finals (Best of 3) | Semi-finals (Best of 3) | Championship (Best of 3) | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Calgary Dinos | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Mount Royal Cougars | 1 | 5 | Saskatchewan Huskies | 1 | |||||||||
| 5 | Saskatchewan Huskies | 2 | 1 | Calgary Dinos | 2 | |||||||||
| 2 | Alberta Golden Bears | 1 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Alberta Golden Bears | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | UBC Thunderbirds | 2 | 4 | UBC Thunderbirds | 1 | |||||||||
| 6 | Regina Cougars | 0 | ||||||||||||
This was Calgary's first Canada West title since 1996.
Participating teams
| Seed | Team | Qualified | Record | Last App | Last Win | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Calgary Dinos | CW Champion | 25–3–0 | 2011 | None | 0 |
| 2 | UQTR Patriotes | OUA Champion | 21–4–1 | 2022 | 2022 | 5 |
| 3 | UNB Reds | AUS Champion | 24–4–2 | 2022 | 2019 | 8 |
| 4 | Windsor Lancers | OUA Finalist | 18–6–3 | 2015 | None | 0 |
| 5 | Alberta Golden Bears | CW Finalist | 20–5–3 | 2022 | 2018 | 16 |
| 6 | Concordia Stingers | OUA Bronze | 19–7–0 | 2018 | None | 0 |
| 7 | Saint Mary's Huskies | AUS Finalist | 20–9–1 | 2020 | 2010 | 1 |
| 8 | UPEI Panthers | AUS Quarterfinalist (Host) | 17–10–3 | 1991 | None | 0 |
Bracket
| Quarter-finals (Single Game) | Semi-finals (Single Game) | Championship final (Single Game) | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Calgary Dinos | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 8 | UPEI Panthers | 4 | ||||||||||||
| 8 | UPEI Panthers | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Thursday Mar. 16th | ||||||||||||||
| 5 | Alberta Golden Bears | 4 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Windsor Lancers | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | Alberta Golden Bears | 7 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | Alberta Golden Bears | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | UNB Reds | 3 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | UQTR Patriotes | 4 | ||||||||||||
| 7 | Saint Mary’s Huskies | 1 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | UQTR Patriotes | 3 | Bronze Medal (Single Game) | |||||||||||
| Friday Mar. 17th | ||||||||||||||
| 3 | UNB Reds | 6 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | UNB Reds | 2 | 8 | UPEI Panthers | 2 | |||||||||
| 6 | Concordia Stingers | 1 | 2 | UQTR Patriotes | 3 | |||||||||
Championship final
| March 19, 2023 7:00 (local) CBC Gem | UNB Reds #3 | 3-0 (0-0, 1-0, 2-0) | Alberta Golden Bears #5 | Eastlink Centre, Charlottetown, PEI Attendance: 2712 (72.9%) |
| Game reference | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samuel Richard (3-0) | Goalies | Ethan Kruger (2-1) | Referees: Mike Langin Jesse Gour Linesmen: Matt McConnell Brian Birkhoff | ||||||||
| |||||||||||
| 0 for 0 min | Penalties | 0 for 0 min | |||||||||
| 32 | Shots | 17 | |||||||||
| Game MVPs: Cody Morgan (UNB) & Dawson Davidson (ALB) |
Tournament awards
Samuel Richard, a goaltender from the UNB Reds, was selected as the Major W.J. 'Danny' McLeod Award for U Sports University Cup MVP. Richard played all three games for UNB and finished the tournament with a GAA of 1.33 and Save Percentage of 0.920 as well as a shutout in the championship final.
Tournament all-star team were:[10]
Forward: Matt Fonteyne (Alberta Golden Bears)
Forward: Jason Willms (UNB Reds)
Forward: Michael Petizian (UNB Reds)
Defenseman: Ross MacDougall (UNB Reds)
Defenseman: Justin Bergeron (UQTR Patriotes )
References
- "Atlantic University Sport releases 2022-23 winter sports schedules". Atlantic University Sport. May 19, 2022.
- "Reds capture 2023 U CUP championship". usports.ca. U Sports. March 19, 2023.
- "UNB REDS capture ninth national title with 3-0 win over Alberta in U SPORTS final". www.atlanticuniversitysport.com. AUS. March 19, 2023.
- "U Sports Calendar". usports.ca. U Sports. May 17, 2022. Retrieved May 26, 2022.
- "Panthers, Carabins to host U Sports Hockey Championships in 2020-21". U Sports. August 6, 2019.
- "U Sports unable to offer national championships in winter 2021". usports.ca. U Sports. October 15, 2020.
- "About UPEI - Our History". UPEI. Retrieved May 26, 2022.
- "U Sports Playing Regulations: Men's Ice Hockey" (PDF). U Sports. September 2022.
- "Calgary named top seed going into 2023 Cavendish Farms University Cup". U Sports. March 12, 2023.
- Gold Medal Summary https://usports.ca/en/championships/hockey/m/news/2023/03/4189875360/mens-hky-gold-20230319