2015 CIS University Cup


The 2015 CIS Men's University Cup Hockey Tournament was held March 20–23, 2014. It was the first of two consecutive CIS Championships to be held at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax jointly hosted by the St. Francis Xavier University and Saint Mary's University. Each school was a designated 'host' for one of the events; St. Francis Xavier was the 2015 host while Saint Mary's was the host in the second year.
The defending champions were the Alberta Golden Bears which advanced to the tournament as the Canada West Champions and #1 seed.

New Tournament Format

This two-year bid included a format change that saw eight teams compete and the re-introduction of the bronze medal game. Previous tournaments, going back to 1998, were a 6-team 2-pool format where one team from each pool would advance to the championship final. Instead of a pool format, a tradition single elimination 8-team bracket was chosen and the teams seeded 1–8. The tournament length was the same with two games on each day. The losers of Saturday's semi-finals play in the bronze medal game held prior to the championship final on Sunday.
USPORTS announced they would reevaluated the format after the two-year run in Halifax for subsequent years.

Tournament Seeding

In the previous six-team two-pool format, the conference champions were seeded 1-3 and the remaining three teams were shuffled between the pools based on the CIS balancing criteria to reduce intra-conference match-ups.
In the new format, teams were seeded based on the last Top 10 Poll. The three conference champions were seeded one through three, with the order based on their rank. The OUA Runner-up was seeded 4th, regardless of their rank. The remaining four teams are seeded 5-to-8 based on their rank. Teams in the bottom half could be shuffled by two spots, up or down, to reduce intra-conference match-ups in the first round while maintaining the integrity of the draw. The Tournament Committee does not have to swap teams to avoid intra-conference matchups in the 1st round, but it is expected and they are afforded the opportunity. An example of not swapping – in 2019, tournament host Lethbridge, chose to remain seed #8 and play #1 Alberta in their first game of the tournament rather than be seed #7 and play #2 UNB.

Team Selection

The 8 participating teams and their selection criteria are listed below. Each conference would qualified two teams – champion and runner-up. The OUA Conference had an additional selection and the final spot was the designated host. Where the host has qualified as one of the other 7 spots, the 'host' would be replaced with another team from that conference.
Conf.Criteria
AUSChampion
AUSFinalist
Canada WestChampion
Canada WestFinalist
OUA-EastChampion
OUA-WestChampion
OUA3rd Place
Host

Road to the Cup

AUS playoffs

OUA playoffs

Canada West playoffs

University Cup tournament

Participating Teams

The eight teams to advance to the tournament are listed below.
RankSeedTeamQualification
11Alberta Golden BearsCanada West Champion
22UNB Varsity RedsAUS Champion
33Guelph GryphonsOUA-West and Queen's Cup Champion
44UQTR PatriotesOUA-East Champion
55Acadia AxemenAUS Finalist
66Calgary DinosCanada West Finalist
77Windsor LancersOUA Third Place
88St. Francis Xavier X-MenHost

Tournament format

The tournament was a traditional 8 team - single elimination ladder with a bronze medal game between the two semi-final losers. Games that were tied after regulation played a 10-minute overtime period following the third period. If there was no score after the first overtime, the ice was cleaned and they play 20 minute periods until there was a winner.
The higher seed was the 'home' team for each game.

Overtime

Games that ended in a regulation tie were resolved solely on 5-on-5 overtime until one team scored. The first overtime period was 10 minutes and started after a three-minute rest. Following this period, the ice was resurfaced and subsequent 20 minute periods were played.

Bronze game

Championship final

Record 15th Title

Alberta's victory was their 15th, the most by any team to date, and five more than University of Toronto Varsity Blues. It also marked the 5th time they had defended a championship title. The University of Toronto Blues held the record for title defenses at the time, with 6.

Tournament All-Stars

, from the Alberta Golden Bears, was selected as the Major W.J. 'Danny' McLeod Award for CIS University Cup MVP. Reddick had 3 goals and 1 assist for 4 points and a +3 rating in the tournament.
Joining Reddick on the tournament All-Star team were:
Forward: Jordan Hickmott
Forward: Cam Braes
Defenseman: Jesse Craig
Defenseman: Jordan Murray
Goalie: Andrew D'Agostini