Olympic heroes to duke it out when McGill confronts Calgary, Thursday
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OTTAWA (CIS) - A pair of Canadian Olympic heroes will go head-to-head at the CIS women's hockey championship, Thursday, at Clare Drake Arena on the campus of the University of Alberta.
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Goaltender Charline Labont茅 will be protecting the McGill net while scoring听 legend Hayley Wickenheiser will lead the Dino attack.
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The seeding and pools were announced Sunday night for the six-team tourney. Second-seeded McGill will cross paths with No.3 Calgary on Day 1 and will meet host Alberta in their second game. The gold medal final is set for 6 p.m. Mountain next Sunday.
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SSN Canada will have live webcasts of all nine games from the tournament at ssncanada.ca and fans can follow all the action at the CIS championship website:
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For the second time in program history, the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks head into the CIS tourney as the pre-tournament favourites.
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Joining the OUA champion Hawks in Edmonton will be the reigning national champ McGill Martlets (RSEQ champions), who have been seeded No. 2, as well as the No. 3 Calgary Dinos (Canada West champions), No. 4 UPEI Panthers (AUS champions), No. 5 Alberta Pandas (Canada West finalists & Hosts) and No. 6 Montreal Carabins (RSEQ finalists).
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Top-ranked Laurier will compete in Pool A with UPEI and Montreal in the round-robin portion of the championship. Pool B is comprised of McGill, Calgary and Alberta.
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The competition kicks off Thursday at 3:30 p.m. Mountain Time with Laurier taking on Montreal. The Pool B opener follows at 7 p.m. with McGill facing Calgary.
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UPEI and Alberta take the ice Friday against the losers of the opening-day matchups.
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The Golden Hawks, who took over from McGill as the top-ranked team in the country in mid-January, had been seeded No. 1 only once in the past, in 2006, one year after they claimed their lone CIS banner. They reached the gold-medal final of the 2006 tourney but dropped a 2-1 decision to Alberta.
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The Martlets had earned the No. 1 seed each of the past five years. They beat StFX 5-2 in the 2011 final to capture their third CIS title in four seasons.
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The CIS major award winners and all-Canadians will be announced at a banquet Wednesday night.
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NOTE: A complete championship preview will follow on Tuesday.
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SEEDING & POOLS
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1. Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks (OUA champions: 25-0-1 regular season / 6-1 playoffs)
2. McGill Martlets (RSEQ champions: 18-1-1 regular season / 4-1 playoffs)
3. Calgary Dinos (CWUAA champions: 20-4-0 regular season / 4-0 playoffs)
4. UPEI Panthers (AUS champions: 13-10-1 regular season / 3-0 playoffs)
5. Alberta Pandas (CWUAA finalists & Hosts: 14-3-7 regular season / 2-2 playoffs)
6. Montreal Carabins (RSEQ finalists: 13-5-2 regular season / 2-2 playoffs)
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Pool A
1. Laurier
4. UPEI
6. Montreal
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Pool B
2. McGill
3. Calgary
5. Alberta
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CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
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NOTE: Live webcast of all games on SSN Canada (ssncanada.ca)
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Wednesday, March 7
19:00 All-Canadian Banquet (Crowne Plaza Chateau Lacombe)
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Thursday, March 8
15:30 Pool A #1: No. 6 Montreal vs. No. 1 Laurier
19:00 Pool B #1: No. 3 Calgary vs. No. 2 McGill
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Friday, March 9
15:30 Pool A #2: Loser Pool A #1 vs. No. 4 UPEI
19:00 Pool B #2: Loser Pool B #1 vs. No. 5 Alberta
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Saturday, March 10
15:30 Pool A #3: Winner Pool A #1 vs. No. 4 UPEI
19:00 Pool B #3: Winner Pool B #1 vs. No. 5 Alberta
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Sunday, March 11
11:00 5th Place
14:00 Bronze
18:00 Final
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For more information contact:
Michel B茅langer
Manager, CIS (613) 447-6334
belanger [at] universitysport.ca
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Matt Gutsch, Alberta
(780) 914-7096
mgutsch [at] ualberta.ca
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