Alberta Golden Bears

The Golden Bears are heading into the Final Four as heavy favourites to repeat as Canada West champions for the third straight season. The Bears will face the UBC Thunderbirds, who are fresh off defeating the Manitoba Bisons in what was the first playoff series hosted by UBC since 1971. During the regular season, the Bears went 24-4 and won their season series with the Thunderbirds 3-1, outscoring them 15-8. The Bears are rock solid in all aspects of the game, boasting the league’s top goaltender in Kurtis Mucha, and the league’s top two scorers in T.J. Foster and Jordan Hickmott.

Calgary Dinos

The Dinos are heading into the first ever Battle of Calgary this year with their civic rivals, the Mount Royal Cougars. While the Dinos did finish higher than the Cougars in the standings this season, Mount Royal got the better of their older brother in the season series, winning 3-1. Calgary’s strength comes from their rock solid defence and goaltending, as they tied with Alberta for the fewest goals allowed in the league with 56. If the Dinos make it to the finals, they’ll look to make up for last year’s performance where they were dominated in two games by the Golden Bears by a combined score of 10-2.

Mount Royal Cougars

In just three years, the Cougars have managed to turn themselves into a legitimate threat in Canada West. In 2012, Mount Royal joined the CIS and finished their inaugural season with a 7-19-2 record. The year, they finished with a 17-10-1 record and won their first ever playoff series over the Saskatchewan Huskies and they’ll now take on their Calgary rivals in the Final Four. This series will likely be one of the biggest Calgary university sport history, as the two teams broke the CIS record for largest regular season crowd with 8,882 earlier this season in a game at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

UBC Thunderbirds

The Thunderbirds come into the Final Four as David, with the Golden Bears being Goliath. UBC finished the season in fourth place in Canada West with a 13-10-5 record and edged out the Manitoba Bisons 2-1 in a three game series. The Thunderbirds won just one of their four games against the Golden Bears this season and that came back on Sep. 27 on home ice. In the two games they played at Clare Drake arena, the Bears stomped them 5-1 and 5-0. The Birds will have to rely on strong goal tending from Eric Williams, as they only have two scorers in the league’s top 20 compared to Alberta, who has six.

Prediction

It’s difficult to imagine the Thunderbirds topping the Golden Bears, especially considering how badly Alberta dominated UBC at home in the regular season. The Battle of Calgary is much more unpredictable. While the Dinos technically have home ice advantage, both teams play in the same city, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see David Bauer Arena filled with Cougars fans. On top of that, Mount Royal also won the season series over the Dinos, so them winning wouldn’t be much of an upset. Whether it’s the Dinos or Cougars playing the Golden Bears, we’ll be seeing another Battle of Alberta in the Canada West finals this season.