University Cup 2025

[AUS Fan]

I'm curious to see what order the Friday games will be in. It should be Saskatchewan vs Queen's in the afternoon but as I mentioned before, the Huskies may prefer the night game due to the time difference.

MRU gets the afternoon game Thursday.

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

Predictions:
UNB over Ottawa
Concordia over Mount Royal
Sask over Queens
TMU over Moncton

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

oops
Concordia over Moncton
Mount Royal over TMU

 

[AUS Fan]

Thurs 1 pm MRU vs TMU QF1

Thurs 7 pm UNB vs OTT QF2



Fri 1 pm CON vs UdeM QF3

Fri 7 pm UofS vs QUE QF4



Sat 1pm QF1 vs QF2 SF1

Sat 7 pm QF3 vs QF4 SF2



Sun 11 am SF1 L vs SF2 L Bronze

Sun 5 pm SF1 W vs SF2 W Gold

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

Last year we saw the top two regular season teams in each conference/division make the University Cup. This year we have the top two teams from CW and the AUS + the top 3 teams from OUA East (and entire OUA for that matter) + the top team from OUA West....so another very strong field.

 

[dm8895]

I have a feeling we are going to see a lot of guys with clipboards who happen to be wearing jackets with NCAA logos on them.

 

[FreddyFoyle]

My bold prediction - all the OUA teams will be eliminated after the first two days.

 

[Rob]

My bold prediction - all the OUA teams will be eliminated after the first two days.

While I do have Moncton over Concordia, I think it is almost a coin flip game.
MRU has a much better team than TMU but I do wonder if the early game will have an impact on the players? I remember that happened to the Huskies back in the COVID shortened 2020 tournament.

 

[Drummer]

MRU has a much better team than TMU but I do wonder if the early game will have an impact on the players?

SFX 3-2 over Alberta in Fredericton in 2003 on Thursday afternoon - #1 seed, from out-of-conference, having to play in the 1st game of the tournament - Rob Daum was not pleased on how the #1 seed was treated.

It can happen

 

[MiamiHockeyII]

The ice surface at TD Place has an unusual shape with really sharp corners and end boards that give funny bounces. TD Place ice is 200x85 but it feels smaller. I believe that teams coming from larger ice surfaces (MRU) will struggle, much as we saw Calgary struggle last year (both Calgary and MRU play on Olympic ice at home).

TMU is not an elite program ... the OUA West is just weak. Now, TMU may sneak past MRU owing to the game time and ice surface, just TMU did versus Calgary in 2024, but they will then get demolished in the Semis if they advance. I give MRU the edge, but neither MRU or TMU will advance to the Finals.

Ottawa does not belong and will get pasted by UNB, sadly.

I believe the Sask-Queens and Conc-Moncton games are toss-ups. Sask is better than Queens but Queens is close to home and their OHLers will be familiar with TD Place.

I think Concordia-Moncton will be the best game of the QF.

Barring a miracle I don't see anyone other than UNB hoisting the Championship.

 

[Drummer]

Predictions:
UNB over Ottawa & TMU over Mount Royal
Concordia over Moncton & Sask over Queens

I agree, but I'm pulling for Moncton and MRU.

At the end - I think this is going to be a UNB vs USK final.

The USK/CON semi-final on Saturday night could be a really good game.

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

Mount Royal isn’t going to be long for the tournament if Bouchard and Hanus don’t start producing….although maybe I’m not giving the rest of the team enough credit, given they made it to game 3 of the CW Final despite their two stars combining for only one goal and one assist in six playoff games.

 

[hockeyinsiderusports]

TMU is not an elite program ... the OUA West is just weak.

OUA West may be weakest division in Canada but 141-54-15 Last 8 years. 4 OUA West Regular Season Titles. Back to back OUA West Playoff Champs and making ucup past 3 of 4 season makes TMU near elite.

Not sure why you pick on TMU so much. Can you explain ?





With that being said. MRU should beat TMU Thursday

 

[MiamiHockeyII]

My bold prediction - all the OUA teams will be eliminated after the first two days.

Not that bold a prediction with McGill and UQTR missing! Concordia is the one team that could play spoiler!

 

[MiamiHockeyII]

Not sure why you pick on TMU so much. Can you explain ?

With that being said. MRU should beat TMU Thursday

Oh the duality of man ...

Not picking on TMU. Just pointing out the obvious.

The OUA East has won 7 of the last 10 Queen's Cups, 13 of the last 20, and 20 of the last 30 ... despite the fact that the OUA West hosted every single one of the 24 Queen's Cup Finals that included UQTR (14), McGill (9), and Concordia (1).

The OUA East has long been the stronger conference at the top. Only McGill and UQTR can really be considered Elite, other than the wonderful period when Western was a regular UCup contender (where have you gone, Mustang hockey)?

Otherwise, it's been a revolving door of teams from the OUA West ... it's been 13 years since an OUA West team blessed the UCup Championship game.

TMU is the best in the West. But they are not Elite, sorry.

 

[Rob]

Anyone else going to the tournament? I'm going to be arriving Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, I won't get to see much of Moncton v Concordia as my flight will be in the air.

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

Playing devils advocate here….

I know they have the name recognition, but is McGill really “elite”? Since their lone NC in 2012, they have won one Queens Cup and only made the UCup four times (and the first three appearances resulted in an 0-4 record). Last year is their only 20 win season since 2017/18.

 

[Rob]

Playing devils advocate here….

I know they have the name recognition, but is McGill really “elite”? Since their lone NC in 2012, they have won one Queens Cup and only made the UCup four times (and the first three appearances resulted in an 0-4 record). Last year is their only 20 win season since 2017/18.

At the very least they are the elite hockey program of Canada's academic elite schools. Despite having stronger academic standards they do recruit better than most hockey programs in USports.

 

[AUS Fan]

Does it really matter?

For the record, UNB is now the Elite hockey school in the CIS. For several years UofA was the Elite hockey school.
Back in the 70s UofT was the Elite hockey school.

Barring some 'weirdness', UNB will be the Elite hockey school for years to come.

 

[Drummer]

Log5 Percentages of Winning (using Regular Season and Playoff Record)
UNB (90%), CON (3%), MRU (2%), USK (2%), OTT (1%), QU (1%), UdM (.5%) & TMU (.5%)

ELO Percentages of Winning (based on the last published ELO, Feb. 18th)
UNB (50% or 1 in 2), USK (15% or 1 in 7), MRU (8% or 1 in 12),
UdeM (5.75% or 1 in 17), CON (5.54% or 1 in 18),
QU (4.92 or 1 in 20), OTT (4.45 or 1 in 22) &
TMU (2.36 or 1 in 42)

 

[Drummer]

The only stat that doesn't look good for UNB - they are 2-3 when the don't score first in Playoffs/Nationals since COVID.

In 27 games, they scored first 22 times and won each of those games (crazy) - in the 5 games they did not score first, they only came back twice and lost the other 3.

2022 vs TMU - Lost 2-1
2023 vs UdeM- Lost 4-1 (Game 3 in Moncton with a 2-0 series lead, best of 5)
2023 vs SMU - Lost 6-5 (Game 2 in Halifax with a 1-0 series lead, best of 3)
versus
2024 vs UdeM - Won 3-1 (Game 2 of AUS Finals and UNB would win the Title)
2025 vs UdeM - Won 3-2 (Game 2 of AUS Finals and UNB would win the Title)

So, as much as it looks like all you need to do is score 1st, UNB doesn't allow it very often and with a GAA of 1.6 it might be your only goal.