(TORONTO, ON) The UNB Reds were named tournament favourites on Sunday, as the seeding and quarterfinal matchups were announced for the 2020 U SPORTS Cavendish Farms University Cup.

The Reds, the defending University Cup champs and champions of the Atlantic University Sport conference for the third consecutive year, will face No. 8 UBC Thunderbirds in quarter-final play, on Friday, March 13th, at 2:00pm.

Other teams participating in this year’s tournament are No. 2 Saskatchewan Huskies, No. 3 Guelph Gryphons, No. 4 Ottawa Gee Gees, No. 5 Acadia Axemen, No. 6 Saint Mary’s Huskies, and No. 7 Western Mustangs.

The puck drops on the national university men’s hockey championship, hosted jointly by the Acadia Axemen and Sports & Entertainment Atlantic (S|E|A), on Thursday and concludes Sunday with the gold medal game at 7:00pm.

All games be played at the Scotiabank Centre, home of the Canadian Hockey League’s (CHL) Halifax Mooseheads.

Livestreaming in English is available free on CBCSports.ca, CBC Gem, the CBC Sports App for iOS and Android devices, with French digital coverage carried on USPORTS.LIVE.

No. 1 UNB Reds

AUS Champions

The defending University Cup champions went 26-4-0 during the 2019-20 AUS season, earning their 13th consecutive regular season championship and a first round playoff bye for the 14th straight year.

The Reds opened defence of their eighth national title with a convincing 9-3 road win, at Saint Mary’s, then celebrated their 2019 U Cup victory a week later, in a 4-0 win over Moncton in their home opener. The Reds’ 13-4 first half saw was highlighted by a 10-0 rout of Dalhousie, on Nov. 22 – the 500th victory (including regular season, conference playoff and national championship play) for Reds head coach Gardiner MacDougall. UNB posted a perfect 13-0 record over the second half of the season, before dispatching Moncton in three straight games in the AUS semifinals. The Reds won their third consecutive AUS title, and 17th in program history, with a 2-1 series win over Acadia in the league championship series.

Reds forward Tyler Boland led the AUS and U SPORTS in scoring, while the goaltending tandem of Samuel Harvey and Rylan Parenteau posted the league’s best goals against average.

The Reds will arrive in Halifax not just as the defending national champions, but as winners of three of the last four University Cups.

No. 8 UBC Thunderbirds

Canada West Finalists

Sitting outside of a playoff berth in late January, the UBC Thunderbirds went on a late surge going 3-1 in their final four games to clinch a spot in the Canada West post-season for the ninth consecutive year.

Finishing with a regular season record of 9-14-5, the T-Birds claimed the conference’s fifth seed and headed to Calgary to face the fourth-seeded Mount Royal Cougars in the Canada West quarter-final where UBC won their first playoff round in six years.

The ‘Birds were up against all odds the following weekend in Edmonton where they faced the No. 4 ranked and top Canada West seed Alberta Golden Bears in the semifinal. Rylan Toth was the big story for UBC making a career high 51 saves in a 3-2 Game 1 overtime win. The Bears responded with a win in game two to push the series the distance where Toth was nearly unstoppable once again, making 40 saves as the ‘Birds took the deciding game 2-1 to advance to their first Canada West final since 1978 and their first University Cup appearance since 1977.

BY: U SPORTS

Original link: https://goredsgo.ca/sports/mice/2019-20p/releases/u_cup_seedings

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