EDMONTON – The Canada West hockey schedule was released on Wednesday, which sees the Golden Bears play 20 conference games, 10 of which at Clare Drake Arena.
The 55-time conference champions will open their 2021 season on October 15th, when they visit the Mount Royal Cougars in Calgary.
Alberta will host Regina (Oct. 29/30), UBC (Nov. 19/20), Manitoba (Nov. 26/27), MacEwan (Dec. 4 / Feb. 11), and Calgary (Jan. 28/29) in 2021-22.
The 2021-22 season will see the addition of the MacEwan Griffins and the Trinity Western Spartans in both men's and women's hockey. Both institutions were slated to join CW hockey in 2020-21 before the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As announced by the Canada West on May 5th, an alternative format will be used for the 2021 season. Teams will play a reduced 20-game regular season schedule. The women's schedule features two conference-wide bye weekends to allow for the rescheduling of games if needed, while the men's schedule has one bye week worked into the schedule.
There are no changes coming to the conference playoffs, which will once again feature the top six teams playing best-of-three series throughout the playoffs with a first-round bye for the first and second seeds.
Playoffs for the men get underway February 18-20 with the women's playoffs opening up a week later February 25-27.
All Golden Bears games will be streamed live on Canada West TV, with passes available for purchase in August.
SCHEDULE HIGHLIGHTS
- The Golden Bears will play 20 conference games in 2021/22, before returning to 28 conference games in 2022/23.
- The 20 conference games played by the Bears will be their shortest conference schedule since they played 18 games in 1973/74.
- Alberta has won three of the last four Canada West titles, losing in the conference semifinal in 2020.
