2011 CIS University Cup


The 2011 CIS Men's University Cup Hockey Tournament was held March 24–27, 2011. It was the first year of a two-year CIS Championship bid won by University of New Brunswick and hosted at their on-campus hockey rink – Aitken University Centre. The defending champions were St. Mary's Huskies, who won their 1st title in team history the previous year in Saskatoon. There would be a new champion this season as SMU was unsuccessful in advancing to the event.
Similar to previous years, going back to the introduction of the expanded format in 1998, the six invited teams were split into two Pools of three where each team plays the other. The best team in each Pool advances to the final. All pool games must be decided by a win, there are no ties. If a pool has a three-way tie for 1st than GF/GA differential among the tied teams is the first tie-breaker.

Road to the Cup

[AUS [men's ice hockey tournament#2011|AUS playoffs]]

Note: * denotes overtime period

[OUA men's [ice hockey tournament#2011|OUA playoffs]]

Note: * denotes overtime period

[Canada [West men's ice hockey tournament#2011|Canada West playoffs]]

Note: * denotes overtime period

University Cup

The six teams to advance to the tournament are listed below. The wild-card team was selected from the CW Conference as the OUA was provided the wild-card in 2010 and AUS teams are ineligible as they are the host conference. To avoid having St.FX in the same pool as UNB and Western in the same pool as McGill, the two teams were swapped.
RankSeedTeamQualificationRecordAppearanceLast
11[UNB Reds men's ice hockey|]Atlantic: AUS Champion29–8–012th[2009 Canadian Interuniversity Sport|CIS University Cup|2009]
22[McGill Redbirds ice hockey|]Quebec: OUA Champion31–3–25th2010
33[Alberta Golden Bears men's ice hockey|]West: Canada West Champion23–6–335th2010
54[Western Mustangs men's ice hockey|]Ontario: OUA Runner-up26–8–310th2009
45[St. Francis Xavier X-Men ice hockey|]Host24–15–111th2007
66[Calgary Dinos men's ice hockey|]Wild-card: Canada West Runner-up19–11–311th2000

Pool A – Evening

DayGameHomeVisitorScore
Thursday2#6 Calgary#1 New Brunswick1–2
Friday4#4 Western Ontario#6 Calgary3–2
Saturday6#1 New Brunswick#4 Western Ontario4–0

Team
New Brunswick22061+54
Western Ontario21136−32
Calgary20235−20

Pool B – Afternoon

DayGameHomeVisitorScore
Thursday1#5 St. Francis Xavier#2 McGill1–2
Friday3#3 Alberta#5 St. Francis Xavier1–3
Saturday5#2 McGill#3 Alberta6–3

Team
McGill22084+44
St. Francis Xavier21143+12
Alberta20249−50

Championship final

Bench assignments, for the championship final, are based on each advancing team's record and stats in their 2 pool games, not their tournament seed. UNB was determined the home team with a record of 2–0 and a GF/GA of 6/1 = 6.0 versus McGill with the same record but a GF/GA of 8/4 = 2.0.

Tournament All-Stars

Luke Gallant, a defenceman from the UNB Varsity Reds, was selected as the Major W.J. 'Danny' McLeod Award for CIS University Cup MVP. He led all players at the tournament with seven points in three games including an assist on Josh Kidd's game-winning goal with 4.1 seconds remaining in a 2–1 victory over Calgary in their first game on Thursday. Plus back-to-back game-winners in a 4–0 shutout of Western on Saturday and a 4–0 victory of second-ranked McGill in Sunday's national final. Gallant earned Game-MVP honours against both Western and McGill following a pair of three-point performances.
Joining Gallant on the tournament all-star team were: