U Sports men's ice hockey championship


The U Sports Men's Ice Hockey Championship, is a Canadian university ice hockey tournament conducted by U Sports, and determines the men's national champion. The tournament involves the champions from each of Canada's four regional sports conferences. The David Johnston University Cup is awarded to the winners.
The Ottawa Gee-Gees are the current champions for the 2024–25 season. The Alberta Golden Bears hold the record of 16 championship wins, as well as the record of 24 championship final appearances. The Toronto Varsity Blues hold the record of 5 consecutive championship trophy wins, from 1969 through 1973, but have not returned to the tournament since 1993, when they suffered the second most lopsided loss in a UCup final, 12–1. Alternatively, during their power years, winning 9 UCups in the 1960s and 1970s, the Blues were the victors in the overall most lopsided final, winning 16–2 in 1967. In the seven years from 2013 through 2019, only the Alberta Golden Bears or the UNB Reds won the championship. The currently dominant UNB Reds have won four of the last seven UCups.

History

The trophy was presented to U Sports, then known as the Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union, for presentation to a national champion starting with the 1962–63 season, by Queen's University and the Royal Military College of Canada. These two schools, located in Kingston, Ontario, had been the participants in the first organized interuniversity hockey game, played in Kingston in 1885. The cup is meant to recognize the overall contribution made to the game of hockey by outstanding university players.
The CIAU changed its name to Canadian Interuniversity Sport in 2001, and again in October 2016 to U Sports.
The original University Cup is located at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto and does not travel publicly. A replica was created with a less ornate cup in 2006. Between 2006 and 2015, the trophy has been modified after several repairs - the metal bowl is now of simpler design, and mounts more flush to the main wooden portion. The two handles that used to be attached to the bowl, and frequently broke off, were removed. An additional black wooden ring was added to the bottom of the trophy in order to incorporate more school shields, as an engraved metal shield, with diagonal stripes in the winning school's colours, is added to the trophy every year.
On March 13, 2018, U Sports renamed the cup the David Johnston University Cup in honour of David Johnston, former Governor General of Canada.
The 2020 championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic after two quarter-final games had already been played. On October 15, 2020, the 2021 inception was also cancelled.
With the completion of the 2023–24 championship, 27 different teams have played in the national championship final. In all, 17 different teams have won the national championship.
The winningest coaches are Tom Watt and former UNB coach Gardiner MacDougall, whom, at the helm of the Toronto Varsity Blues and Reds respectively, won nine University Cup championships between 1966 and 1977 and 2007 and 2024. Clare Drake sits second, coaching the Alberta Golden Bears to six University Cup championships between 1964 and 1986.

Format

1963–1971

When the tournament was inaugurated in 1963, the only teams invited were conference champions. At the time, not every conference held a postseason tournament, nor was every conference champion invited. The only participating teams were the champions of the four leagues thought of to be playing senior college hockey. Not all teams were satisfied with this arrangement. The OIAA applies for its champion to receive an entry into the 1964 tournament but their application was denied. In protest, the conference immediately dissolved and forced the CIAU committee to reconsider over the summer. At the same time, Toronto, declined their invitation in 1964. The very next season, with the OIAA now included in the tournament field, all four teams that qualified for the QOAA tournament announced that they would not accept an invitation to the 1965 University Cup.
While these disagreements could have dealt a debilitating blow to the tournament, all parties were eventually able to come to an agreement by 1966. The champions of the five conferences would now be invited to participate with the conferences that reached the final the previous season automatically being placed in the semifinals. Unfortunately, this new arrangement meant that whichever team lost the quarterfinal round would only play a single game. Previously, thanks to the consolation match, all teams were guaranteed at least two matches. In order to address this minor wrinkle, a consolation bracket was introduced in 1967. For several years afterwards, teams that lost in either the quarterfinal or semifinal rounds would play one another to determine the final three places in the tournament. This format remained largely intact for the next several years until a large conference realignment took place in 1971.

1971–1975

The early 1970s saw three leagues in the middle of the country dissolve with all associated teams resorted into two provincial conferences for Ontario and Quebec. As a result, the tournament entrants were reduced back to four teams and allowed the University Cup to eliminate both the quarterfinal round and the consolation bracket in 1972. However, one year later, the WCIAU was split in two as a way to help the western teams cut down on operating costs. An arrangement was made with the two new conferences to allow the champions of both leagues entry into the University Cup, however, rather than play individual league championships, the two would send their regular season champions to the tournament site to play a quarterfinal match during the same time that the other three conference were holding their respective playoffs. This de facto conference championship was only held between the two western leagues. Additionally, instead of bringing the consolation bracket back, both the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds were converted into best of three series, guaranteeing that all participating teams would play at least two games. This format was used only for three seasons with a slight modification in 1975; that season saw the championship round being a best-of-three for the

1976

In 1976, the University Cup format was radically altered. First, the team that agreed to serve as host was given an automatic qualifier for the first time. Because this could result in one conference having six teams participate for the first time, the CIAU decided to invite two teams from each of the five conference. This resulted in the largest field that tournament had ever seen. The secondary teams were selected based upon their performance in the respective conference tournaments. The two finalists from four of the leagues would automatically qualify four the tournament while, for the host team, if they were to win their tournament the final bid would go to the runner-up otherwise it would go to their conference champion. The qualifying teams were then sorted into three separate groups: East, West and Host. The conference that served as host would have both of their qualifiers advanced to the semifinal round while the remaining eight teams were placed into regional semifinal brackets. Due to the expanded nature of the tournament, the regional rounds were held at the home venue of one of the qualifying teams.
One team from each region would advance to the semifinal round, however, seeding was not determined ahead of time. Instead, the bracket was arranged so that the East and West champion would play one of the two host conference teams in a semifinal first round. The winners of the first round game would then advance to the second round of the semifinals and play the losing team of the opposite first round match. It was only the winners of the semifinal second round that would advance to the championship game. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this convoluted format survived for only one tournament.

1977–1985

While many of the advents of the 1976 tournament were discarded, one was retained; the tournament host would continue to receive an automatic berth until 1987. With the field now set at six teams, the format was changed to a round-robin style. The participants were sorted into two three-team groups. Within each group, the teams would play one another once and the team with the best record would advance to the final. Ties were allowed in pool play, however, in case there was a tie in the standings, the team with the better goal differential would be advanced. This format remained unchanged until 1984, when the round-robin was dropped in favor of a quarterfinal round.
For two tournaments in the mid-80s, the conference that served as host would have both of its qualifying teams advance to the semifinals. However, instead of a regional bracket, the remaining league champions were placed into East and West quarterfinals. The quarterfinal rounds were best-of-three while the semifinals were two-game total goal series.

1986–1987

The collapse of the GPAC in 1985 resulted in a reduction of senior conferences down to four. Because the tournament host was still being offered an automatic bid, this left the field at 5 entrants. Instead of using one of the previous formats, the University Cup was expanded to seven teams. The qualifying schools were selected by one of three ways: The Host was seeded first and received a bye into the semifinal round. The champions of the four leagues were then sorted two through five based upon their overall records and placed in the quarterfinals accordingly. The final two wild-card spots would then go to the runners-up from the AUAA and OUAA and arranged so that there would not be intra-conference matches in the quarterfinal round. The QUAA was the only conference not to receive a second bye due to the fact that the league had been pared down to just five schools at the time.
For the 1987 tournament, the format reverted to a round-robin arrangement. Still with four conference champions, the tournament offered one wild-card spot to the runner-up of the OUAA tournament. This was done primarily due to the fact that the OUAA was by far the largest conference. However, this format lasted just one season before the OUAA absorbed QUAA, leaving just three active senior collegiate leagues.