Tournament week for the 2019 Cavendish Farms U SPORTS University Cup Men’s Hockey National Championship is here. The field is set, the tournament bracket has been finalized and single game tickets are now on sale at all Enmax Centre ticket locations.
“There’s been a lot of preparation for this week, and it’s something we’ve been excited about for a long time,” says University of Lethbridge President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Mike Mahon. “We feel very fortunate to have been trusted with this national championship event and we can’t wait to show off U SPORTS men’s hockey and the city of Lethbridge to the rest of the country. It’s going to be a great week.”
Over the weekend, the final qualifier for the eight-team tournament was declared and on Sunday evening the field was seeded and first-round, quarter-final matchups were determined.
The University of Alberta Golden Bears, one of three teams representing the Canada West Conference, were selected as the top seed and will face off against the host University of Lethbridge Pronghorns on Thursday, March 14 at 7 p.m. Meanwhile, the tourney kicks off at 1 p.m. Thursday with University of Guelph Gryphons, the Ontario University Athletics runner-up, against the Canada West runner-up University of Saskatchewan Huskies.
Following are the first-round matchups:
(All games at Enmax Centre)
Thursday, March 14
(4) University of Guelph Gryphons vs. (5) University of Saskatchewan Huskies, 1 p.m.
(1) University of Alberta Golden Bears vs. (8) University of Lethbridge Pronghorns, 7 p.m.
Friday, March 15
(2) University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds vs. (7) Carleton University Ravens, 1 p.m.
(3) Queen’s University Gaels vs. (6) St. Francis Xavier X-Men, 7 p.m.
Tournament semifinals will be played on Saturday, March 16 at 1 and 6 p.m., followed by Sunday’s Bronze Medal Game at 1 p.m. and the Gold Medal Game at 6 p.m.
Tickets for each game are now available at enmaxcentre.ca.
In addition to the games, there are a number of activities associated with the University Cup event. On Wednesday evening, U SPORTS will honour the top performers from across the country at the annual Awards Banquet, and on Thursday afternoon, the Light It Up in Lethbridge Tailgate Party (go.uleth.ca/lightitup2019), 5 p.m. outside the Enmax Centre, invites all southern Alberta hockey fans to come and get fired up for the Pronghorns opening game later in the evening. As well, all Pronghorns alumni are invited to the 2019 Horns Alumni Reunion (go.uleth.ca/hornsreunion2019) on Thursday at 5 p.m. in the Canadian Western Bank Lounge. Rogers Hometown Hockey (hometownhockey.com) then gets in on the festivities with two days of activities outside the Enmax Centre, Saturday and Sunday.
“I see this week as a really great opportunity for everyone to come together to show their community spirit and their Pronghorn pride,” says Ken McInnes, executive director for Pronghorn Athletics. “Southern Alberta has a wonderful tradition of supporting big-scale events and I expect this week will serve as another great example.”
