WHKY: Semifinal Preview

Article by Brian Swane, special to CW

Feb. 28, 2025 - They were the top four teams based on points during the 2024-25 Canada West regular season, and now they are the final four teams remaining in the 2025 Canada West postseason.

The three-time defending champion UBC Thunderbirds will face off with the Manitoba Bisons, while the Alberta Pandas line up against the Mount Royal Cougars in playoff semifinal action this week, beginning Friday.

Manitoba and Mount Royal won their quarterfinal series last week, while Alberta and UBC enjoyed byes through the opening round of the playoffs.

Semifinal winners advance to the Canada West championship series, scheduled for March 7-9. Catch all the action on Canada West TV - Presented by BioSteel.

Manitoba Bisons at UBC Thunderbirds

📍 Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre – Vancouver, BC

UBC is the only team to capture the Catherwood Cup in the post-pandemic era, and the T-Birds intend to keep it that way as they begin their quest to become just the second team in Canada West women’s hockey history to win four consecutive championships.

Any questions of complacency at UBC were emphatically erased during the regular season, which saw the T-Birds set program records for wins (25) and points (51) en route to finishing atop the standings.

This has already been a successful campaign for the Bisons, who finished with their most regular seasons wins since 2018-19, and last week won their first playoff series in six years, defeating the Trinity Western Spartans. Manitoba showed great resolve against the Spartans: after losing Game 1, the Bisons went survived triple overtime to prevail in Game 2, then eliminated Trinity Western with a 5-2 victory in Game 3 at Wayne Fleming Arena.

The T-Birds have won 14 straight games, a streak that started with a pair of wins in Winnipeg over the Manitoba at the end of November, including a 10-2 victory which saw UBC set the program record for most goals in a game.

Offence has been in high supply all season for the explosive T-Birds, who averaged 3.82 goals during the season, the most in Canada West by well over one goal per game. UBC had the top four players in the 2024-25 Canada West points race, led by fourth-year forward Grace Elliott with 22 goals and 20 assists.

Suffice to say Manitoba will need another huge weekend from third-year goalie Emily Shippam. The Winnipeg product was tremendous in the Bisons’ series against Trinity Western, recording a 1.35 goals against average and .936 save percentage.

Mount Royal Cougars at Alberta Pandas

📍 Clare Drake Arena – Edmonton, Alta.

For the third straight postseason, the Pandas and Cougars are meeting in the semifinal round at Clarke Drake Arena, and if history is any indication this will be a nail-biting barn-burner of a series.

In 2023, Mount Royal defeated the Pandas two games to one in a series that saw the teams combine for just six goals in three games. Alberta got its revenge last year while eliminating the Cougars in three games, with a combined total of only seven goals scored over the course of the series.

Things were just as tight between the provincial rivals during the 2024-25 regular season, too. On Nov. 29 in Calgary, Mount Royal beat the Pandas 2-1 in a shootout. The next night, back in Edmonton, Alberta defeated the Cougars 3-2 in overtime.

Since losing to Mount Royal nearly three months ago, Alberta has reeled off 13 consecutive wins. The Cougars closed the regular season going just 5-5 over their final 10 contests, but looked dominant against the Regina Cougars in last week’s quarterfinal, sweeping the series with wins of 2-0 and 4-1 at Flames Community Arena.

This is a match-up of strength versus strength, as Alberta is the stingiest team in Canada West, allowing only 29 goals in 28 games during the regular season, while Mount Royal ranked second in Canada West, trailing only UBC, with an average of 2.62 goals per game. Cougars forward Aliya Jomha had 25 points in 24 regular season games, the most of any player in Canada West outside of UBC’s lineup. Alberta’s Grace Glover led all Canada West netminders in goals against average, .073, and save percentage, .962.