Graham Thomas sees a calm confidence and a deep hunger in his team.
Four straight trips to the U Sports women’s hockey championships haven’t yielded a Golden Path Trophy for the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.
But this year’s veteran squad is determined to come home with the program’s first title. Plenty of players on this team have felt the pain of losing at nationals over the past four years, including three first-round exits.
This year’s team broke records on its way to nationals, and might just be the strongest UBC team yet.
“They’ve seen teams win it that we beat or teams win it that we should have beat or could have beat,” said Thomas, who has been this team’s head coach since the 2012-13 season. “It just kind of adds fuel to the fire for those players and coaches who’ve been there.”
UBC heads into the 2026 Miller Waste U Sports Women’s Hockey Championship as the top seed among eight qualifying teams.
The tournament begins Thursday at the Woolwich Memorial Centre in Elmira, Ont., where the University of Waterloo Warriors will play host for the second season in a row.
You can stream all of the tournament’s games on CBC Sports and CBC Gem. The gold-medal game on Sunday at 1 p.m. will also air on CBC TV.
The tournament arrives when women’s hockey is more popular than ever, with the PWHL continuing to break attendance and sales records after the Olympics.
For U Sports, it’s a chance to shine a spotlight on Canadian university hockey. More than 20 former U Sports athletes have either played in the PWHL, been drafted or served as a reserve player in the league.
“It’s impressive to watch the skill level, the trajectory of girls’ hockey, really, and then for our females who arrive at university level, it’s hopefully that pathway to the next step,” said Roly Webster, the director of athletics and recreation at the University of Waterloo.
Here’s a preview of the tournament’s four opening games.
No. 7 University of Manitoba at No. 2 Concordia University (Thursday, 3 p.m. ET)
The Concordia Stingers are looking to capture a fifth Golden Path Trophy, and the team’s third in the last five seasons.
Led by four-time U.S. Olympian and two-time U Sports coach of the year, Julie Chu, the Stingers boast the top two scorers in the country in Jessymaude Drapeau and Émilie Lussier.
Drapeau, who captains the team, put up 40 points in 24 games, including 22 goals. She was named the Quebec conference’s player of the year.
Lussier, meanwhile, scored the goal that secured the conference title over the University of Montreal Carabins.
The Stingers will face a tough out in a University of Manitoba team that knocked off both the University of Alberta and Mount Royal University to get to the Canada West final.
The Bisons fell to UBC in the Canada West championship, but shouldn’t be underestimated, the Thunderbirds’ coach said.
“They play a really structured game,” Thomas said. “They’re very disciplined. They’re strong. They’re big.”
No. 3 University of Guelph at No. 6 University of Waterloo (Thursday, 7 p.m. ET)
A rematch of the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) quarterfinals will see the host Waterloo Warriors take on the Guelph Gryphons in Thursday’s evening game.
These two teams have played each other five times so far in 2026, including a three-game playoff series that Guelph won in triple overtime.
It should be a close and exciting game for the home team’s fans in Elmira, according Waterloo’s head coach, Shaun Reagan.
“We both have an excellent forward group, solid D, goaltending,” Reagan said. “We’re pretty similar teams. They skate well, we skate well. They have some high-skill players, so do we. It’s just going to be one of those games where maybe it’s a luck of a bounce or a timely penalty call.”
Waterloo goes into its third consecutive national championship with veteran experience and depth. Several players are in their sixth year of eligibility, having sat out their first year during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most of this team felt what it was like to come close to a Golden Path Trophy at last year’s championship, where Waterloo lost in the gold-medal game to Bishop’s.
That includes captain Tatum James, a five-foot-10 forward with the skill to make you get up out of your seat. James had 13 goals over 26 games.
Guelph, meanwhile, goes into the tournament as OUA champions and the top-seeded team from Ontario.
Captain Katherine Heard scored the McCaw Cup-clinching goal over the University of Ottawa, while goaltender Martina Fedel kept things solid in the net.
Fedel goes into the tournament having played on the sport’s biggest stage. She was in net for Italy at the Olympics when the team beat France for her country’s first Olympic win in women’s hockey.
No. 8 University of Montreal at No. 1 University of British Columbia (Friday, 3 p.m. ET)
This game is a chance at redemption for UBC, which was knocked out in the first round of nationals by the Montreal Carabins in 2024.
“That’s definitely added motivation going into this game,” Thomas, UBC’s head coach, said. “We’re a different team and we’re ready.”
Since that loss, UBC has amassed a 36-2 record. Over this season, the Thunderbirds led Canada West in wins, points, goals, goals against, power play goals and penalty killing.
That starts with Grace Elliott, the Canada West women’s hockey player of the year. She recorded 37 points over 28 games — third in the country — including 24 goals.
Twelve of those were game-winning goals, which broke the previous record of seven that was held by Hayley Wickenheiser.
Elliott may be the most pro-ready player in the tournament. Standing six-foot-two, she’s strong at both sides of the ice.
“She just has it all,” Thomas said. “She brings the total package.”
Not far behind her was captain Annalise Wong, who racked up 32 points. Off the ice, she leads the team with “infectious energy,” according to Thomas.
They’ll face a tough challenge in the Carabins’ grit. Led by head coach Isabelle Leclaire, the program has graduated several players to the PWHL, including the Montreal Victoire’s Catherine Dubois and Alexandra Labelle.
The next could be Audrey-Anne Veillette, who was a 2023 draft pick for the Ottawa Charge.
Dealing with injury that year, Veillette never played for the Charge, and she didn’t make the Victoire after a training camp invite this past season.
But Veillette gained experience in Sweden’s top professional league last season before returning to the Carabins midway through this season.
She’s paced the team offensively since then, helping the Carabins knock off the defending-champion Bishop’s Gaiters before falling in the final round to Concordia.
No. 5 University of Ottawa at No. 4 University of New Brunswick (Friday, 7 p.m. ET)
The University of New Brunswick Reds will play in their fifth consecutive national championship, after winning the program’s fourth Atlantic University Sport (AUS) title over rival St. Francis Xavier University.
What makes that even more impressive is the Reds’ program was built from scratch less than a decade ago, after the university cut women’s hockey in 2008.
Former player Sylvia Bryson’s human rights complaint led to an order by the New Brunswick Labour and Employment Board to reinstate the team.
The program, which returned to play in 2018, was rebuilt by head coach Sarah Hilworth, who prioritized character in her recruiting. From the beginning, Hilworth and the Reds have wanted to prove what can happen when you properly fund and resource women’s sports.
“From that, we’ve kind of seen a lot of gratitude and not taking things for granted,” Hilworth said.
One thing missing from that story is a national championship. The Reds will look to leading scorer Katelyn Scott, plus fifth-year players like captain Payton Hargreaves, Lauren Carter and Olivia Eustace, to lead the team there.
“UNB has built a really impressive culture around girls that are genuine, down to earth and want to win,” Hargreaves said. “They want to do it for the people sitting next to them in the change room.”
Ottawa, which is led by head coach Ali Domenico, secured the team’s first national championship berth since 2008-09. The team took down Wilfrid Laurier in the semifinals, before losing the McCaw Cup championship game in a close 2-1 contest to Guelph.
Leading the way for the Gee Gees is Gillian Warren, who finished top-10 in U Sports scoring with 30 points over 26 games.
Goaltender Clara Grenier posted a 1.87 goals against average over the regular season, and will be key to shutting down scoring opportunities from the Reds.
