March 25, 2009. THUNDER BAY, Ont. (CIS) The head coaches from the six participating teams met the press Wednesday afternoon at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, officially kicking off the 2009 CIS mens hockey championship, hosted by Lakehead University.
Official website: www.cisport.ca/e/championships/m_hockey/2009
U Cup Coaches Media Conference Video:
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Part 2:
The Cavendish University Cup tournament, presented by TBayTel, gets under way Thursday with the first of three days of round-robin action and culminates Sunday with the national final at 2 p.m.
Gardiner MacDougall, head coach of the fourth-seeded UNB Varsity Reds, described his teams road to the national championship in a colourful way.
To use a golf analogy, we played great on the first 15 holes, our regular season. Then we birdied a very tough 16th hole. On the 17th, another tough hole, we had a bogey. And then on the 18th, we hit a bad drive, straight in the rough, and then it went from bad to worse and we ended up with a quadruple bogey, said MacDougall, referring to the AUS best-of-three final where the V-Reds beat Saint Marys 5-1 in the opening match before dropping Game 2 by 3-2 and Game 3 by 5-1, in front of their home fans. Then one of my players came up to me and said Coach, we got a mulligan!
We know were getting a second chance and now its up to us to make the most of it, continued McDougall, whose team reached the University Cup final the last two years, both times in Moncton, losing 3-2 to Alberta last winter and edging the host Aigles Bleus 3-2 in overtime in 2007 for the second CIS title in program history.
Not only are the Varsity Reds getting a second chance, they get an opportunity to avenge last years heartbreaking loss to Alberta right off the bat. The Varsity Reds and the top-seeded Golden Bears are set the battle in the Pool-A round-robin opener Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Thats the nature of this tournament, every game is a Game 7, said fourth-year Alberta head coach Eric Thurston, the third bench boss in history to lead his team to the CIS title in his first two trips to the University Cup tourney as a head coach, in 2006 and 2008.
Were playing very good hockey right now. Regina pushed us to the limit, which was kind of a wake-up call, and then we really stepped it up against Saskatchewan, added Thurston, whose Bears needed three games to eliminate Regina in the Canada West semi-finals before rolling over archrival Saskatchewan, 5-2 and 7-0, to capture the conference banner and advance to the Nationals for the 12th time in 13 years.
The No.2-Saint Marys Huskies and No.5-McGill Redmen kick off the tourney Thursday at 2 p.m. in Pool B action.
We were fortunate enough to come here in the fall to play two non-conference games against Lakehead, thats a big plus, said Saint Marys Trevor Stienburg, a two-time CIS coach of the year. Moncton played us very tough in our first round of playoffs and then that loss to UNB in the opener of our final might have been the best thing thats happened to us, we played very well the last two games.
Were very gifted offensively but its not about just a couple of guys, we can score by committee when we need to, added Stienburg.
Left-winger Marc Rancourt was named AUS MVP after he won the CIS scoring title with 57 points in 28 conference outings, while Cam Fergus tied for third in the country with 51 points.
McGill recovered from an 0-5 start to the regular season to finish 18-8-2 and reach the OUA Queens Cup final for the third time in four years. The Redmen lost the conference title match 2-1 to the Western Ontario Mustangs.
We started the season with 14 freshmen. It took us a few games to get going but we really started turning things around in November, said McGill coach Martin Raymond, a former all-Canadian with the Redmen.
No.3-Western and the tournament host Lakehead Thunderwolves take the ice Friday against the losers of the Pool-B and Pool-A openers, respectively.
Like McGill, were a very young team, we started the season with 13 rookies, said Clarke Singer, who led the Mustangs to their lone University Cup title in 2001-02. Back in November, when we were something like 6-5, things didnt look that great for us. But our veterans showed great leadership and we had a solid second half.
Western won 13 of its last 16 conference duels before going 7-1 in the post-season.
As a team that didnt win the OUA, we have to make the most of the second chance were getting, said second-year Lakehead head coach Don McKee, whose T-Wolves havent played since March 1 after being eliminated by Laurier in the second round of the playoffs.
We have a blue colour mentality, were very physical and defence oriented. Well have to play great defence in order to be successful, added McKee, a former CIS coach of the year with Waterloo.
Rogers Sportsnet will broadcast Saturdays two round-robin duels (2 p.m. & 7 p.m.) and the gold-medal match, while SSN Canada will webcast all seven games from the tournament.
SCHEDULE & RESULTS (All times Eastern)
Pool A
1. Alberta
4. UNB
6. Lakehead
Pool B
2. Saint Marys
3. Western Ontario
5. McGill
Thursday, March 26
14:00 Pool B #1: No. 2 Saint Marys vs. No. 5 McGill (SSN Canada webcast)
19:30 Pool A #1: No. 1 Alberta vs. No. 4 UNB (SSN Canada webcast)
Friday, March 27
14:00 Pool B #2: No. 3 Western vs. Loser Pool B #1 (SSN Canada webcast)
19:30 Pool A #2: No. 6 Lakehead vs. Loser Pool A #1 (SSN Canada webcast)
Saturday, March 28
14:00 Pool B #3: No. 3 Western vs. Winner Pool B #1 (Rogers Sportsnet / SSN Canada webcast)
19:00 Pool A #3: No. 6 Lakehead vs. Winner Pool A #1 (Rogers Sportsnet / SSN Canada webcast)
Sunday, March 29
14:00 Final (Rogers Sportsnet / SSN Canada webcast)
- CIS -
For more information please contact:
Michel Blanger
Communications manager
Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Ph: (613) 562-5670 ext. 25
Cell: (613) 447-6334
belanger@universitysport.ca
www.universitysport.ca