2019 U Sports University Cup


The 2019 U Sports University Cup hockey tournament was held March 14–17, 2019, in Lethbridge, Alberta, to determine a national champion for the 2018–19 U Sports men's ice hockey season. The event was hosted by the Lethbridge Pronghorns, a member of U Sports Canada West conference, and played at the ENMAX Centre. The ENMAX center is located 15 minutes from campus, in south Lethbridge. This event marks the first appearance of the tournament in Lethbridge and 10th time in Alberta.
The UNB Reds won their eighth title over the defending champion Alberta Golden Bears. UNB last won the University Cup in 2017. This marked only the second victory for an Atlantic program in 10 trips to Alberta.
The tournament format remained unchanged from the previous year: eight teams, single elimination and Bronze medal games, with three conference champions, three conference runner-ups, OUA Bronze winner and host.

Road to the Cup

OUA playoffs

Note 1: The Queen's Cup championship game must be held in Ontario. When a Quebec-based OUA-East representative is the higher seed and should 'host' the game – the game shall be hosted by the OUA-West team instead, but the OUA-East team shall be the 'home' team and have last change.
Note 2: Queen's forfeited a Feb. 9 regular season game against McGill after it was determined they dressed an ineligible player. The subsequent loss and adjusted record would relegate Queen's to the 4th seed, while McGill promoted to #3. However, due to the late determination of this foul - it was determined that the opening round matchups would remain unchanged. Going forward into the second round, the two teams would be reseeded accordingly.

University Cup Tournament

The eight teams to advance to the tournament are listed below. The three conference champions must be seeded 1–3 based on the pre-tournament Top 10 Rankings followed by the OUA Runner-up. The remaining four seeds are for the AUS Finalist, Canada West Finalist, OUA Third-place and host. Their seedings are based on the pre-tournament rankings.
Further Information in the tournament preview:
RankSeedTeamQualified
11Alberta Golden BearsCanada West Champions
22UNB RedsAUS Champions
53Queen's GaelsOUA Champions
64Guelph GryphonsOUA Finalists
35Saskatchewan HuskiesCanada West Finalists
46St. Francis Xavier X-MenAUS Finalists
77Carleton RavensOUA Bronze Medallists
88Lethbridge PronghornsHost

Tournament format

The tournament is a traditional 8 team, single elimination ladder with bronze medal game between the two semi-final losers. Games that are tied after regulation play a 10-minute overtime period following the 3rd period. If there is no score after the first overtime, the ice is cleaned and they would play 20 minute periods until there is a winner.
The higher seed is the 'Home' team for each game.

Tournament All-Stars

Alex Dubeau, from the UNB Reds, was selected as the Major W.J. 'Danny' McLeod Award for USports University Cup MVP. Dubeau played all three games for UNB and finished the tournament with a GAA of 1.33 and Save Percentage of 0.948.
Joining Dubeau on the tournament all-star team were:
Forward: Kris Bennett
Forward: Christopher Clapperton
Forward: Luke Philp
Defenceman: Marcus McIvor
Defenceman: Jason Fram