X marks the spot for the UNBC Timberwolves.
For the first time in UNBC’s six-year CIS/U Sports Canada West history the T-wolves have qualified for the postseason and both the men’s and women’s team have made the grade.
The UNBC women clinched Sunday afternoon before their game in Kelowna against the UBC Okanagan Heat was half over. That was guaranteed when the MacEwan Griffins of Edmonton defeated the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack 2-0 earlier Sunday in Kamloops.
The T-wolves and Heat ended in a 0-0 deadlock. Madi Doyle made one save for her second career Canada West shutout. The T-wolves fired two shots on Heat goalie Francesca Balletta.
“Making the playoffs is truly the result of many years of work,” said Timberwolves head coach Neil Sedgwick. “The program is new and had to go through tough years to get to a year where it can make playoffs. It isn’t simply about this group of players who are here now, but it is a credit to the players and coaches who have preceded this group. Like anything, to reach the highs you typically have to experience lows. We have a short history as a program, but making the playoffs is about the history of the program as much as it is the present.”
The men needed help to make their playoff dream a reality and got it on the final weekend of the season. It started Saturday afternoon in Kamloops, where the host WolfPack played the Heat to a 1-1 draw.
That eliminated the Heat from playoff contention and left the Victoria Vikes as the only team that could still overtake UNBC for the fourth and final playoff spot. The Vikes went to Langley Saturday night and lost 4-2 to the second-place Trinity Western Spartans, triggering a celebration among T-wolves supporters in Prince George.
The WolfPack-Heat game Saturday was not streamed live and UNBC players and coaches had only the website updates to find out what was going on in the game. In the Victoria game that followed, the Vikes had 1-0 and 2-1 leads before the Spartans took control, scoring three unanswered goals.
“That was a bit nervy for sure but Trinity Western came through for us and it’s a great feeling, the guys are really happy,” said T-wolves head coach Steve Simonson.
“We said all along the parity from top to bottom is there and particularly the teams that have been at the bottom have pulled up to meet up with the teams that are consistently in the playoffs. To see UVic and Fraser Valley not be in playoffs is not necessarily a shot at them, it’s a credit to the other teams that have done the work like TRU (the WolfPack clinched their first-ever playoff spot) and ourselves and Okanagan, who have been there the last couple years.”
UNBC (5-5-6) will travel to Edmonton to play the top-ranked Alberta Golden Bears on Saturday in a quarterfinal playoff which starts at 1 p.m. PT. The defending national-champion Golden Bears (9-1-4) finished first in the Prairie Division.
“We’re excited to go to playoffs but we’re not just going to say the job’s done, we’re going to face the former national champions and see if we can pull off an upset,” said Simonson.
The UNBC women had a chance to clinch Saturday with a win in Kamloops but finished tied with Thompson Rivers 2-2. Tianna Pius, a fifth-year senior from Prince George, scored both UNBC goals, including the tying goal 81 minutes into the game.
UNBC (3-7-4) finished sixth in the Pacific Division with 13 points, two more than TRU (3-9-2) and four ahead of UBC-Okanagan (2-9-3).
The T-wolves will travel to Victoria to play the Calgary Dinos (7-3-3), who finished third in the Prairie Division. That game will be played Friday at 2 p.m. in Victoria. The winner advances to the quarterfinal round later in weekend against one of the four teams that earned first-round playoff byes for clinching first or second place in the two divisions.
