U Sports women's ice hockey championship

The U Sports Women's Ice Hockey Championship, is a Canadian university ice hockey tournament conducted by U Sports, and determines the women's national champion. The tournament involves the champions from each of Canada's four regional sports conferences. The Golden Path Trophy is awarded to the winners.

U Sports women's ice hockey championship

Current season, competition or edition: 2025 U Sports Women's Ice Hockey Championship
Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	1998; 27 years ago (1998)
First season	1998
Organising body	U Sports
No. of teams	8
Country	Canada
Most recent champion(s)	Bishop's Gaiters (1st title)
Most titles	Alberta Pandas (8)
Official website	usports.ca/en/championships/hockey/f

History

The championship has been competed for in U Sports since 1998, when the sport was established in what was then known as the Canadian Interuniversity Athletics Union. Prior to that, only teams from Ontario would compete for a women's ice hockey championship.

The trophy was donated by Katherine Cartwright in 1998, which is when the championship was first contested. Cartwright was the first head coach of the Queen's Gaels women's hockey program in 1971 and led the movement to reinstate women's hockey at the collegiate level in 1960, following a nine-year hiatus.^[1]

With the completion of the 2022 championship, the Alberta Pandas have won the most national championships, with eight wins in 10 appearances, followed by the McGill Martlets, with four wins in nine appearances. The Concordia Stingers and Montreal Carabins are next with three and two titles, respectively, followed by six teams with one win each.

The 2020 championship tournament was cancelled after two semi-final games had been played due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2] On 15 October 2020, it was announced that the 2021 national championship was also cancelled.^[3]

Results

Year	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Host University	Location	Ref.
1998	Concordia Stingers (1)	4–1	Toronto Lady Blues	Concordia University	Montreal, Quebec
1999	Concordia Stingers (2)	2–0	Alberta Pandas	University of Toronto	Toronto, Ontario
2000	Alberta Pandas (1)	2–0	McGill Martlets	Concordia University	Montreal, Quebec
2001	Toronto Lady Blues (1)	4–3	Regina Cougars	University of Calgary	Calgary, Alberta
2002	Alberta Pandas (2)	5–2	Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks	University of Regina	Regina, Saskatchewan
2003	Alberta Pandas (3)	5–4 (OT)	Toronto Lady Blues	University of Regina	Regina, Saskatchewan
2004	Alberta Pandas (4)	2–0	Ottawa Gee-Gees	McGill University	Montreal, Quebec
2005	Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks (1)	4–1	Alberta Pandas	McGill University	Montreal, Quebec
2006	Alberta Pandas (5)	2–1	Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks	St. Francis Xavier University	Antigonish, Nova Scotia
2007	Alberta Pandas (6)	4–0	McGill Martlets	University of Ottawa	Ottawa, Ontario
2008	McGill Martlets (1)	2–0	Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks	University of Ottawa	Ottawa, Ontario
2009	McGill Martlets (2)	3–1[4]	Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks	St. Francis Xavier University	Antigonish, Nova Scotia
2010	Alberta Pandas (7)	2–0[5]	McGill Martlets	St. Francis Xavier University	Antigonish, Nova Scotia
2011	McGill Martlets (3)	5–2	St. Francis Xavier X-Women	Wilfrid Laurier University	Waterloo, Ontario
2012	Calgary Dinos (1)	5–1[6][7]	Montreal Carabins	University of Alberta	Edmonton, Alberta
2013	Montreal Carabins (1)	3–2	Calgary Dinos	University of Toronto	Toronto, Ontario
2014	McGill Martlets 4)	4–3 (2OT)[8][9]	Montreal Carabins	St. Thomas University	Fredericton, New Brunswick
2015	Western Mustangs (1)	5–0 [10][11]	McGill Martlets	University of Calgary	Calgary, Alberta
2016	Montreal Carabins (2)	8–0[12]	UBC Thunderbirds	University of Calgary	Calgary, Alberta
2017	Alberta Pandas (8)	2–1 (2OT)[13]	McGill Martlets	Queen's University	Kingston, Ontario
2018	Manitoba Bisons (1)	2–0	Western Mustangs	University of Western Ontario	London, Ontario
2019	Guelph Gryphons (1)	1–0	McGill Martlets	University of Prince Edward Island	Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
2020	Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic[2]			University of Prince Edward Island	Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
2021	Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic[3]			Université de Montréal	Montreal, Quebec
2022	Concordia Stingers (3)	4–0	Nipissing Lakers	University of Prince Edward Island	Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island	[14]
2023	Mount Royal Cougars (1)	4–3 (OT)	Concordia Stingers	Université de Montréal	Montreal, Quebec	[14]
2024	Concordia Stingers (4)	3–1	Toronto Varsity Blues	University of Saskatchewan	Saskatoon, Saskatchewan	[15]
2025	Bishop's Gaiters (1)	3–0	Waterloo Warriors	University of Waterloo	Waterloo, Ontario	[15]
2026				University of Waterloo	Waterloo, Ontario	[16]
2027				University of New Brunswick	Fredericton, New Brunswick	[17]
2028				St. Francis Xavier University	Antigonish, Nova Scotia	[18]

^[1]

Appearances

Appearances	Team	Wins	Losses	Win %
10	Alberta Pandas	8	2	.800
9	McGill Martlets	4	6	.400
5	Concordia Stingers	4	1	.800
5	Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks	1	4	.200
4	Montreal Carabins	2	2	.500
4	Toronto Varsity Blues	1	3	.250
2	Calgary Dinos	1	1	0.500
2	Western Mustangs	1	1	0.500
1	Manitoba Bisons	1	0	1.000
1	Guelph Gryphons	1	0	1.000
1	Mount Royal Cougars	1	0	1.000
1	Regina Cougars	0	1	.000
1	Ottawa Gee-Gees	0	1	.000
1	St. Francis Xavier X-Women	0	1	.000
1	UBC Thunderbirds	0	1	.000

Ontario champions pre-1998 national championship

Previously, the only significant Canadian university women's ice hockey championship was the determination of the champions in the large Ontario associations, as the few non-Ontario teams tended to play against local or regional community teams rather than in organized interuniversity associations. In Ontario, the Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Union (WIAU) existed from 1921–22 to 1970–71, then merged with the Ontario-Quebec University Athletic Association to forme the Ontario Women's Interuniversity Athletic Association (OWIAA), competing from 1971–72 to 1996–97. The OWIAA awarded the Dr. Judy McCaw trophy to its annual champion.

WIAU champions (1921–1971)

1921–22 University of Toronto

1922–23 University of Toronto

1923–24 University of Toronto

1924–25 University of Toronto

1925–26 Queen's University

1926–27 University of Toronto

1927–28 University of Toronto

1928–29 University of Toronto

1929–30 University of Toronto

1930–31 Queen's University

1931–32 University of Toronto

1932–33 University of Toronto

1933–34 University of Toronto

1934–35 University of Toronto

1935–36 University of Toronto

1936 at 1948 No official competition

1948–49 University of Toronto

1949–50 University of Toronto

1950–51 University of Toronto

1951 to 1960 No official competition

1960–61 University of Toronto

1961–62 University of Toronto

1962–63 University of Toronto / Queen's University

1963–64 University of Toronto

1964–65 University of Toronto

1965–66 University of Toronto

1966–67 University of Guelph

1967–68 University of Guelph

1968–69 University of Guelph

1969–70 University of Guelph

1970–71 McMaster University

OWIAA champions (1972–1997)

1971–72 University of Guelph

1972–73 Queen's University

1973–74 University of Guelph

1974–75 Queen's University

1975–76 McMaster University

1976–77 Queen's University

1977–78 McMaster University

1978–79 Queen's University

1979–80 University of Toronto

1980–81 University of Toronto

1981–82 University of Toronto

1982–83 York University

1983–84 University of Toronto

1984–85 University of Toronto

1985–86 University of Toronto

1986–87 York University

1987–88 University of Toronto

1988–89 University of Toronto

1989–90 University of Toronto

1990–91 University of Toronto

1991–92 University of Toronto

1992–93 University of Toronto

1993–94 Université de Toronto

1994–95 University of Guelph

1995–96 University of Toronto

1996–97 York University

Reference^[19]