2024 U Sports University Cup

The 2024 U Sports University Cup was the 62nd edition of the U Sports men's ice hockey championship, held between March 14 and 17 in Toronto, Ontario, to determine a national champion for the 2023–24 U Sports men's ice hockey season.

2024 U Sports University Cup

Tournament details
Venue(s)	Mattamy Athletic Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Dates	March 14–17, 2024
Teams	8
TV partner(s)	CBC Sports
Final positions
Champions	New Brunswick Reds (10th title)
Runners-up	Quebec–Trois-Rivières Patriotes
Third place	McGill Redbirds
Fourth place	Toronto Metropolitan Bold
Tournament statistics
Games played	8
Awards
MVP	Brady Gilmour (New Brunswick)
← 2023 2025 →

The UNB Reds defeated the UQTR Patriotes 4–0 to claim their 10th National Championship.^[1][2] This marked UNB's second title defence – they also won back-to-back championships in 2016 and 2017. Similarly, this was UNB's second consecutive shutout posted in the finals (defeated Alberta 3–0 in 2023) and their fourth shutout in a final overall (2011, 2013, 2023 and 2024).

UNB became the first ever U Sports team to concede no goals at the U Cup^[3] and completed the first undefeated season in Canadian collegiate hockey since 1962, going 43–0 (30–0, 5–0, 3–0 plus 5–0 in exhibition play). McMaster Marlins are the only other undefeated championship team, going 12–0–0 on their way to a U Cup title (10–0, 2–0).^[4]

Milestones

• With 9 under his tenure, UNB head coach Gardiner MacDougall tied Tom Watt for the most U Cup Championship titles.
• This was Coach MacDougall's 17th appearance at the tournament, setting a new U Cup record.
• This was Coach MacDougall's 12th appearance at the tournament finals, setting a new U Cup record.
• With three games coached at this year's event, Coach MacDougall's set a new tournament record for games coached at 45, surpassing Clare Drake (Alberta) who had 42 games.
• Coach MacDougall extended his career games won at U Cup with 36. Clare Drake (Alberta) and Tom Watt (Toronto) are tied for second with 30 wins each.
• UNB became the first team in the 8-team/3-game tournament format to win all three games via shutout.

Host

The tournament was played at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in the former Maple Leaf Gardens and was hosted by Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU).^[2] This was the first time that TMU hosted the tournament, but was the 15th time that the championship was played in Toronto.^[5]

The finals were played 27 years to the day of the last University Cup finals played at Maple Leaf Gardens: Guelph Gryphons (OUA Queen's Cup Champions) won 4–3 over the UNB Varsity Reds (AUAA Champions) on March 17, 1997.

Qualification

AUS playoffs

Source:^[6]

Further information: Atlantic University Sport

	Quarterfinals February 14–17							Semifinals February 23–27									Championship March 2–5
								1	New Brunswick	4	5	5	—	—
	3	St. Francis Xavier		3****	—			4	Saint Mary’s	1	2	1	—	—
	6	Acadia	3	2	—												1	New Brunswick	3	3	—
																	2	Moncton	1	0	—
								2	Moncton	5	5	4	—	—
	4	Saint Mary’s	4	2*	—			3	St. Francis Xavier	3	2	1	—	—
	5	Prince Edward Island	3	1	—

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

OUA playoffs

Source:^[7]

Further information: Ontario University Athletics

	Play In February 11					Division Quarterfinals February 14–17							Division Semifinals February 21–25							Division Finals February 28–March 3							Queen's Cup Final March 9
													W1	Brock	6	4	—
						W4	Windsor	3*	7	—			W4	Windsor	1	1	—
						W5	Lakehead	2	2	—										W1	Brock	3	1	1
													West
																				W2	Toronto Metropolitan	1	5	2
													W2	Toronto Metropolitan	4	5	—
						W3	Toronto	4	3	—			W6	Wilfrid Laurier	1	1	—
	W6	Wilfrid Laurier	5*			W6	Wilfrid Laurier	7	5	—																	W2	Toronto Metropolitan	2
	W7	Nipissing	4																								E2	Quebec–Trois-Rivières	3**
													E1	McGill	6	3	—
						E4	Queen's	1	3	—			E5	Concordia	4	1	—										Bronze Medal Game
						E5	Concordia	3	4*	—										E1	McGill	2	5	0
													East
																				E2	Quebec–Trois-Rivières	4	3	4			W1	Brock	2
													E2	Quebec–Trois-Rivières	4	2	1										E1	McGill	5
						E3	Ottawa	5	8	—			E3	Ottawa	1	3*	0
						E6	Ontario Tech	1	0	—

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
Note 1: The Queen's Cup championship game must be held in Ontario (part of the arrangement when the RSEQ hockey league merged with the OUA). 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. This rule was applied this season as UQTR had a better record than TMU – thus, TMU would host the game but UQTR would be the 'home' team.

Note 2: The OUA 'Host' rule mentioned in Note 1 now, as of 2019–20, also applies to the bronze medal game. This rule was also applied this season as McGill had a better record than Brock – thus, Brock hosted the game but McGill was the 'home' team.

Canada West playoffs

Source:^[8]

Further information: Canada West Universities Athletic Association

	Quarterfinal February 16–18							Semifinal February 22–25							Championship March 1–3
								1	British Columbia	1	4	4
	3	Mount Royal	4	6	—			5	Alberta	4	2	0
	6	MacEwan	1	4	—										1	British Columbia	2	2	5
															2	Calgary	5	1	3
								2	Calgary	4	4*	—
	4	Saskatchewan	4	2	4			3	Mount Royal	2	3	—
	5	Alberta	2	3	5*

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

University Cup Tournament

The eight teams advancing to the tournament are listed below. The three (3) conference champions must be seeded 1–3 followed by the OUA runner-up (seed #4). The remaining four seeds are for the AUS Finalist, Canada West Finalist, OUA Third-place and host respectively. Their seedings are based on the pre-tournament rankings. Since TMU would advance as the OUA Runner-up, the loser from the OUA Bronze Medal game (Brock) would represent the host.

Participating teams and seeding

Seed	Team	Qualified	Record	Last App	Total	Last Win	Total
1	New Brunswick Reds	AUS Champion	30–0–0	2023	22nd	2023	9
2	Quebec–Trois-Rivières Patriotes	OUA Champion	21–7–1	2023	23rd	2022	5
3	British Columbia Thunderbirds	CW Champion	22–4–2	2022	6th	None	0
4	Toronto Metropolitan Bold	OUA Finalist (Host)	19–8–1	2022	2nd	None	0
5	Calgary Dinos	CW Finalist	21–5–2	2023	14th	None	0
6	McGill Redbirds	OUA Bronze	21–5–2	2018	10th	2012	1
7	Moncton Aigles Bleus	AUS Finalist	20–9–1	2012	16th	1995	4
8	Brock Badgers	OUA Semifinalist	21–7–0	2022	4th	None	0

^[9][10]

Bracket

	Quarterfinals March 14–15					Semifinals March 16					Final March 17
	1	New Brunswick	4
	8	Brock	0
						1	New Brunswick	7
	Thursday Mar. 14th
						4	Toronto Metropolitan	0
	4	Toronto Metropolitan	2**
	5	Calgary	1
											1	New Brunswick	4
											2	Quebec–Trois-Rivières	0
	2	Quebec–Trois-Rivières	5
	7	Moncton	1
						2	Quebec–Trois-Rivières	5			Bronze Medal Game
	Friday Mar. 15th
						6	McGill	4
	3	British Columbia	2								4	Toronto Metropolitan	2
	6	McGill	3								6	McGill	3

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

Results

Championship final

March 17, 2024 5:00pm (local) CBC Gem

UNB Reds #1

4–0 (2–0, 0–0, 2–0)

UQTR Patriotes #2

Mattamy Athletic Centre, Toronto, Ont.

Game reference
	Samuel Richard (3–0)	Goalies	Alexis Gravel (2–1)	Referees: Troy Murray Danny Emerson Linesmen: Brian Birkhoff Maxime Ferland
	Brady Gilmour (Austen Keating) – 07:52 1–0 Cody Morgan (Austen Keating & Brady Gilmour) – 15:03 2–0 Austen Keating (Sam McGinley & Cody Morgan) – 44:34 3–0 Isaac Nurse (unassisted) – 59:23 4–0
	3 for 6 min	Penalties	1 for 2 min
	33	Shots	23

Game MVPs: Cody Morgan (UNB) & Félix Lauzon (UQTR)

Awards

The Major W.J. 'Danny' McLeod Award for U Sports University Cup MVP was awarded to UNB forward Brady Gilmour whom finished the tournament tied for first in points with 7 (1G + 6A) along with Simon Lafrance (2G + 5A) of UQTR. His lone goal was the game winner in the Championship Final.

Tournament all-star team were:^[11]
Forward: Brady Gilmour (UNB Reds)
Forward: Simon Lafrance (UQTR Patriotes)
Forward: Austen Keating (UNB Reds)
Defenceman: Kale McCallum (UNB Reds)
Defenceman: Scott Walford (McGill Redbirds)
Goaltender: Samuel Richard (UNB Reds)

Media

Television

All games were broadcast live in English by crews consisting of Damian Smith and Griffin Butler, and Curtis Coleman and Matthew Smith on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app, the CBC Sports YouTube channel and the CBC Gem streaming service.^[12][13] It was broadcast in French by David Brosseau (PxP) and Dylan Baker (Colour) on Radio-Canada and Ici TOU.TV, while the finals also aired on TVA Sports.^[13]

Entertainment

The McGill Fight Band came to support the McGill Redbirds at their three games, providing musical performances in the arena.^[14][15]