2013 CIS women’s hockey championship
Montreal seeded No. 1, defending champ Calgary No. 5
OTTAWA (CIS) – In only their fourth season in the league, the University of Montreal Carabins head into the CIS women’s hockey championship as tournament favourites.
Championship website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/wice/index
The seeding and pools were announced Sunday night for the six-team CIS tourney, which kicks off Thursday at Varsity Arena on the campus of the University of Toronto. The gold-medal final is set for next Sunday at 7 p.m.
All nine games from the championship will be webcast live at www.CIS-SIC.tv.
Joining the first-time RSEQ champion Carabins in Toronto will be the No. 2 St. Francis Xavier X-Women (AUS champs), No. 4 Queen’s Gaels (OUA champs), No. 4 UBC Thunderbirds (Canada West champs), No. 5 and reigning national titlist Calgary Dinos (Canada West finalists), as well as the No. 6 Toronto Varsity Blues (hosts).
Top-ranked Montreal will compete in Pool A with UBC and Toronto in the round-robin portion of the competition. Pool B is comprised of StFX, Queen’s and Calgary.
The four-day event gets underway Thursday at 1 p.m. with the Dinos opening their title defence against the X-Women. The Pool A opener follows at 7:30 p.m. with the host Varsity Blues taking on the Carabins.
Queen’s and UBC take the ice Friday against the losers of the opening-day matchups.
The Carabins, who joined the RSEQ in 2009-10, scored the upset of the year on Sunday afternoon when they edged powerhouse McGill 2-1 in the third and decisive match of the conference championship series. Montreal had dropped a lopsided 6-1 decision in Game 1 on Wednesday but tied the series with a 3-2 win on Friday night.
The Carabins have now qualified for the CIS tournament three times in the first four years of the program. They placed fifth in their inaugural season in 2010 and reached the national final a year ago, losing 5-1 to Calgary.
It marked the first-ever CIS title Calgary and all-world forward Hayley Wickenheiser. The Dinos rejoined the university ranks in 2009-10 after seven campaigns in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference.
Like McGill, however, Calgary was upset in its conference final on Sunday. UBC stunned the reigning champs 5-2 in Game 3 of the best-of-three Canada West series to advance to nationals for the first time.
In addition to the Dinos, Toronto is the only other participating team to have hoisted the CIS trophy in the past (2001).
NOTES: A complete championship preview will follow on Tuesday... The CIS major award winners and all-Canadians will be announced at a banquet Wednesday night.
SEEDING & POOLS
1. Montreal Carabins (RSEQ champions: 15-5-0 regular season / 4-1 playoffs)
2. StFX X-Women (AUS champions: 23-1-0 regular season / 3-0 playoffs)
3. Queen’s Gaels (OUA champions: 20-4-2 regular season / 6-1 playoffs)
4. UBC Thunderbirds (CWUAA champions: 17-7-4 regular season / 6-2 playoffs)
5. Calgary Dinos (CWUAA finalists: 23-4-1 regular season / 3-3 playoffs)
6. Toronto Varsity Blues (Hosts: 15-8-3 regular season / 0-2 playoffs)
Pool A
1. Montreal
4. UBC
6. Toronto
Pool B
2. StFX
3. Queen’s
5. Calgary
CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
Wednesday, March 6
19:00 All-Canadian Banquet (Marriott Bloor Yorkville Hotel)
Thursday, March 7
13:00 Pool B #1: No. 5 Calgary vs. No. 2 StFX (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
19:30 Pool A #1: No. 6 Toronto vs. No. 1 Montreal (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
Friday, March 8
16:00 Pool B #2: Loser Pool B #1 vs. No. 3 Queen’s (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
19:30 Pool A #2: Loser Pool A #1 vs. No. 4 UBC (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
Saturday, March 9
16:00 Pool B #3: Winner Pool B #1 vs. No. 3 Queen’s (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
19:30 Pool A #3: Winner Pool A #1 vs. No. 4 UBC (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
Sunday, March 10
12:00 5th Place (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
15:30 Bronze (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
19:00 Final (www.CIS-SIC.tv)