McGill has to come in as the favourite to this year’s national championship. They have been on top of the CIS rankings all season and have only one loss to a CIS opponent, the host Ottawa Gee-Gees back in February.
Laurier and Alberta would have to be 2 and 2A. Both have won a national championship recently, Laurier (2005) and Alberta (2006), as well as sweeping through their conference championships.
Ottawa is the host team and could play spoiler to both Laurier and Alberta’s dreams of another championship. The Gee-Gees finished second to McGill in both the regular season and playoffs.
Manitoba is the second representative from the Canada West conference. They were at nationals in 2004-05 where they picked up a bronze medal. The Bisons were knocked off in the conference championship by Alberta in two straight games.
Moncton is the dark horse of this year’s tournament. They come in as Atlantic champions after finishing second to St. FX in the regular season and then shutting out both Saint Mary’s and St. Thomas (who upset St. FX) in the conference championships. They have several players in the top 10 in scoring but they have no non-conference games that I could find in order to compare them to other teams in the tournament. An Atlantic conference team has never won a medal at nationals but don’t be surprised to see Moncton playing for bronze on Monday afternoon.
The most interesting thing to watch this weekend should be the battle in Pool B with Alberta, Laurier, and Ottawa. It is possible that all 3 teams could finish with 1-1 records and placing would be based on goal differential.
Looking forward to a great four days of hockey.
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