U Sports women's ice hockey is the highest level of play of women's ice hockey at the university level under the auspices of U Sports, Canada's governing body for university sports. Women's ice hockey has been played in U Sports since the 1997-98 season, when the governing body was known as the Canadian Interuniversity Athletics Union, following a long stint of teams only competing in the OUA. There are 35 teams, all of which are based in Canada, that are divided into four conferences that are eligible to compete for the year-end championship. As these players compete at the university level, they are obligated to follow the rule of standard eligibility of five years.
History The 1890s marked the beginning of the first women's ice hockey teams in Canadian universities. These universities included the University of Toronto in Toronto, Queen's University in Kingston, and McGill University in Montreal. In 1908, other schools such as the Calgary Collegiate Institute and Mount Royal University began to ice competitive teams as well. In the early years, teams played behind closed doors and men were not authorized to attend the matches. The referee was the only man present during the matches.
Starting in 1900, male spectators were authorized to assist in women's matches in most of the Canadian provinces and some university teams. During this time, there was no university women's league and some university women's teams competed against rivals representing cities. Sometimes, they were forced to cross big geographical distances by train in order to participate in tournaments
The first provincial women's championship took place in 1914 in Picton, Ontario. Six teams participated in the event, including the University of Toronto. In 1921, the University of Toronto bested McGill University during the first Canadian women's university championship. The Toronto Lady Blues would gain 11 championship titles, compared with two titles for the Queen's Golden Gaels before the women's university league dissolved in 1933 During this time period, Elizabeth Graham, a Queen's University goaltender, carried a fencing mask during matches in 1927. She would be the first goaltender in ice hockey, before the famous Jacques Plante, to carry a protective face mask.
On December 16, 1922, the Ladies Ontario Hockey Association (LOHA) was formed, and included several Ontario university teams In 1923, the Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Union (WIAU) is created with the aim of offering sporting events to students in Ontario. The WIAU coordinated the programs of the students, SIC, Histoire and several university women's teams were members there. In the autumn of 1923, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association held its annual meeting in Port Arthur, Ontario. It was here that the association decided not to give to the women official recognition as hockey players. From 1931 until 1941, the non-university team Preston Rivulettes were unbeaten in the LOHA and won ten consecutive championships. Numerous university women's teams are reluctant to join the LOHA because they estimated that they would be unable to compete against the Rivulettes. Due to the Great Depression, several university women's teams were dissolved. Consequently, ice hockey teams became rarer for numerous women's teams.
In 1941, the LOHA was dissolved and, in the aftermath, several teams begin to disappear. The Second World War also affected the level of participation in women's ice hockey in Canada. From 1936 to 1948, and from 1951 to 1960, there was no WIAU official women's competition. Women’s ice hockey would not return until the 1960s at the Canadian university level.
The revival in the 1960s resulted in the creation of new women's teams in several Canadian universities. In 1969, the Canada West Universities Athletic Association, with a mission to organize championships in multiple sports for women university students in Western Canada, presented a proposal which eventually led to the creation of the Canadian Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Union (CWIAU). The first recognized national women's championship was in volleyball, presented in March, 1970 at the University of Waterloo.CIS History While the CWIAU had been created, university women's ice hockey was still not prevalent outside Ontario, where the Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Union (WIAU) merged with the Ontario-Quebec University Athletic Association (OQUAA) to form the Ontario Women's Interuniversity Athletic Association (OWIAA) in 1971. This resulted in university women's teams multiplying and several American university tournaments inviting Canadian teams. Regional women's university ice hockey championships began to grow elsewhere in Canada, and in March 1998, the first Canadian national university championship in women’s ice hockey took place. The Concordia Stingers, in Montreal, hosted the event and won the first U Sports championship.
Schedule structure
In the U Sports regular season, 36 teams play between 24 and 28 matches in their respective regional conferences. At the end of the season, qualifying rounds (in each regional conference) determine the champion team in each of the four Canadian regions. Afterwards, a national tournament takes place consisting of eight teams: the winning team in each of the four regional championship conferences; (Atlantic University Sport, Quebec Student Sports Federation (in French, Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec), Ontario University Athletics and Canada West Universities Athletic Association). In addition, the organizing team of the national tournament (the university which hosts the annual event) and the defending champion, as well as the finalist from all four conferences qualify.
Participating universities As of the 2023–24 season, the Canadian university women's ice hockey competition consisted of four conferences and 35 teams. In recent history, the Lethbridge Pronghorns dropped their program following the 2019-20 season. The Bishop's Gaiters program joined the RSEQ conference in 2020–21 while the Trinity Western Spartans and MacEwan Griffins programs became members of the Canada West conference that same year. However, following the cancellation of the 2020–21 season, the Laurentian Voyageurs discontinued their women's ice hockey program in 2021.
Atlantic University Sport
UniversityVarsity NameCityProvinceSchoolFoundedArenaArenaCapacity Dalhousie UniversityTigersHalifaxNS1818Halifax Forum5,600 Université de MonctonAigles BleuesMonctonNB1864J. Louis Levesque Arena1,200 Mount Allison UniversityMountiesSackvilleNB1839Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre750 University of Prince Edward IslandPanthersCharlottetownPEI1969MacLauchlan Arena Saint Mary's UniversityHuskiesHalifaxNS1802Alumni Arena1,000 St. Francis Xavier UniversityX-WomenAntigonishNS1853Charles V. Keating Centre1,500 St. Thomas UniversityTommiesFrederictonNB1910Grant • Harvey Centre1,500 University of New BrunswickRedsFrederictonNB1785Aitken University Centre3,374
Canada West Universities Athletic Association
UniversityVarsity NameCityProvinceSchoolFoundedArenaArenaCapacity University of AlbertaPandasEdmontonAB1908Clare Drake Arena3,000 University of British ColumbiaThunderbirdsVancouverBC1906Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre5,054 University of CalgaryDinosCalgaryAB1966Father David Bauer Olympic Arena1,750 MacEwan UniversityGriffinsEdmontonAB1971Downtown Community Arena1,000 University of ManitobaBisonsWinnipegMB1877Max Bell Centre2,121 Mount Royal UniversityCougarsCalgaryAB1931Flames Community Arenas500 University of ReginaCougarsReginaSK1974The Co-Operators Centre1,300 University of SaskatchewanHuskiesSaskatoonSK1907Merlis Belsher Place2,300 Trinity Western UniversitySpartansLangleyBC1962Langley Events Centre5,300
Ontario University Athletics
UniversityVarsity NameCityProvinceSchoolFoundedArenaArenaCapacity West Division Brock UniversityBadgersSt. CatharinesON1964Seymour-Hannah Sports & Entertainment Centre1,400 University of GuelphGryphonsGuelphON1964Gryphon Centre Arena1,400 University of WaterlooWarriorsWaterlooON1957Columbia Ice Field680 University of Western OntarioMustangsLondonON1878Thompson Arena Wilfrid Laurier UniversityGolden HawksWaterlooON1957Waterloo Recreation Complex3,400 University of WindsorLancersWindsorON1857South Windsor Arena1,000 East DivisionNipissing University Lakers North Bay ON 1992 North Bay Memorial Gardens 4,246 Ontario Tech UniversityRidgebacksOshawaON2002Campus Ice Centre800 Queen's UniversityGaelsKingstonON1841Kingston Memorial Centre3,300 Toronto Metropolitan UniversityBoldTorontoON1948Mattamy Athletic Centre at the Gardens2,796 University of TorontoVarsity BluesTorontoON1827Varsity Arena4,100 York UniversityLionsTorontoON1959Canlan Ice Sports – York1,200 University of OttawaGee-GeesOttawaON1894Sport Complex Arena850 Carleton UniversityRavensOttawaON1952Ice House500
Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec
UniversityVarsity NameCityProvinceSchoolFoundedArenaArenaCapacity Bishop's UniversityGaitersSherbrookeQC1843Jane & Eric Molson Arena800 Concordia UniversityStingersMontrealQC1896Ed Meagher Arena McGill UniversityMartletsMontrealQC1821McConnell Arena1,500 Université de MontréalCarabinsMontrealQC1821CEPSUM2,461
National Champions
The U Sports women's ice hockey championship is awarded annually to Canada's women's ice hockey champions at the university level. The championship has been competed for since 1998, when the sport was established in the league. Previously, the most important Canadian university women's ice hockey championship was the one from the Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Union (WIAU) (from 1921 till 1971), along with that of the Ontario Women's Interuniversity Athletic Association (OWIAA) (from 1972 till 1997) which awarded the Dr. Judy McCaw trophy to the team champion.
The governing body was known as the Canadian Interuniversity Athletics Union (CIAU) when women's hockey was added to its championship roster. The body's name changed to Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) in 2001 and the current U Sports in 2016.
Awards and honours
U Sports championship MVP
1997-98 Corinne Swirsky, Concordia Stingers 1998-99 Lori Shupak, Alberta Pandas 1999-00 Kim St-Pierre, McGill Martlets 2000-01 Jen Rawson, Toronto Lady Blues 2001-02 Danielle Bourgeois, Alberta Pandas 2002-03 Lori Shupak, Alberta Pandas 2003-04 Danielle Bourgeois, Alberta Pandas 2004-05 Ashley Stephenson, Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks 2005-06 Tarin Podloski, Alberta Pandas 2006-07 Lindsay McAlpine, Alberta Pandas 2007-08 Cathy Chartrand, McGill Martlets 2008-09 Catherine Ward, McGill Martlets 2009-10 Stephanie Ramsay, Alberta Pandas 2010-11 Jordanna Peroff, McGill Martlets 2011-12 Amanda Tapp, Calgary Dinos 2014-15 Kelly Campbell, Western Mustangs 2015-16 Marie-Pier Chabot, Montreal Carabins 2016-17 Lindsey Post, Alberta Pandas 2017-18 Lauryn Keen, Manitoba Bisons 2018-19 Jade Downie-Landry, McGill Martlets 2019-20 None (Tournament cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic) 2020-21 None (Tournament cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic) 2021-22 Stéphanie Lalancette, Concordia Stingers 2022-23 Kaitlyn Ross, Mount Royal Cougars 2023-24 Jessymaude Drapeau, Concordia Stingers 2024-25 Gabrielle Santerre, Bishop's Gaiters
Player of the year (Brodrick Trophy)
1997-98 Corinne Swirsky, Concordia Stingers 1998-99 Corinne Swirsky, Concordia Stingers 1999-2000 Corinne Swirsky, Concordia Stingers 2000-01 Brandy West, Regina Cougars 2001-02 Lori Shupak, Alberta Pandas 2002-03 Kim St-Pierre, McGill Martlets 2003-04 Danielle Bourgeois, Alberta Pandas 2004-05 Danielle Bourgeois, Alberta Pandas 2005-06 Kate Allgood, Brock Badgers 2006-07 Lindsay McAlpine, Alberta Pandas 2007-08 Brayden Ferguson, St. Francis Xavier X-Women 2008-09 Tarin Podloski, Alberta Pandas 2009-10 Liz Knox, Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks 2010-11 Hayley Wickenheiser, Calgary Dinos 2011-12 Ann-Sophie Bettez, McGill Martlets 2012-13 Melodie Daoust, McGill Martlets