MHKY: Puck drops on Championship series

Brian Swane, special to CW

Just as different styles make for great matchups, dissimilar arcs produce compelling stories.

Case in point, the 2022 Canada West men’s hockey championship, which can be appreciated as much for its narrative as its tale of the tape.

On one side of the best-of-three series, taking place this weekend at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton, stands the host Alberta Golden Bears, the winningest program in Canada West hockey history with a remarkable 28 conference championships, including 16 in the past 20 seasons.

On the other side, there’s the UBC Thunderbirds. They’ve never won the Canada West championship. Not once. Ever.

So beyond the Xs and Os, which predict a fantastic weekend of hockey, there is the bonus of a fascinating storyline pitting an upstart program against the perennial powerhouse.

While they’ve never captured the Dr. W.G. Hardy Trophy, the T-Birds are making a second consecutive appearance in the Canada West final, two years after beating swept by Saskatchewan in the 2020 championship series.

That marked UBC’s first time reaching the final in more than four decades. The T-Birds got there by upsetting Alberta 2-1 in the semi-final, which was not only UBC’s first playoff series win against the Golden Bears but ended Alberta’s streak of seven consecutive trips to the championship series.

The teams’ two meetings during the 2021-22 regular season, at Clare Drake Arena in November, were both razor-close contests that ultimately saw the home side prevail. The first game, Nov. 19, saw Matt Foteyne score on the power-play in overtime to lift Alberta to victory, 2-1. The following night, Alberta trailed 2-0 before rallying with four straight goals and holding on for a 4-3 win.

Games 1 and 2 take place Friday (March 18) and Saturday (March 19), while Game 3 (March 20) goes Sunday if necessary. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. MST for all three games. Catch the action streaming live on Canada West TV.

UBC Thunderbirds

(14-5-1 regular season, 2-0 playoffs)

How They Got Here: second in standings; quarter-final bye, defeated Mount Royal 2-1 in semifinal. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 

Key Player: Fourth-year goaltender Rylan Toth was named Canada West Goaltender of the Year after leading or tying for the Canada West lead among goalies in games (17), wins (11), shutouts (4), saves (436) while ranking second in save percentage (.920) and third in goals against average (2.34).

Key Stat: Since the conference’s inaugural season in 1972-73, UBC has won seven playoff series, all by a 2-1 margin after going the maximum three games.

Alberta Golden Bears

(16-3-1 regular season, 2-0 playoffs)

How They Got Here: first in standings; quarter-final bye, defeated Calgary 2-0 in semifinal.

Key Player: Second-year forward Noah Philp, the only Canada West player to average one goal per game in the regular season (8 goals in 8 games), scored three times and added five assists in the Bears’ semifinal sweep of Calgary to take the Canada West playoff lead with eight points.

Key Stat: Not only did the Bears lead Canada West during the regular season with 4.65 goals per game, Alberta boasted the conference-low average of 2.15 goals against.

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