September 16, 2024
GAMEDAY | SFU opens season up at home vs. UBC
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BURNABY, BC – The Simon Fraser University Red Leafs are set to take on the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds to kick off the 2025 season.
The Red Leafs will face the Thunderbirds for the first time in over a year, and will play host to the rival club for the first time as a non-conference team and at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre since January 6th, 2023. The last meeting between the two teams saw the Thunderbirds edge out the Red Leafs by a 5-3 final score, while the last time the clubs faced each other at Bill Copeland the Red Leafs tied the game late in front of a home crowd of over 1,000, but ultimately fell in overtime by a score of 5-4.
“We’re excited for the opportunity to play them,” said Head Coach Mark Coletta, “they play at a pretty high level and are one of the top teams in CanadaWest, so hats off to them for what they’ve achieved.”
“The bottom line is that they’ve got a bunch of guys who played at the major-junior level that play a different style of hockey,” Coletta continued, “We’ve got to play with speed and be aggressive; we’ve got to start that right away on Friday.”
The Thunderbirds enter Friday’s game for their first matchup since being eliminated in the first round of the 2024 USports University Cup back in March, where they would be eliminated by the eventual third-place finishing McGill Redbirds representing Ontario University Athletics.
UBC also added multiple key players during the off-season, including NCAA D1 transfer Nick Ardanaz from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers (R.P.I.) of the Eastern College Athletic Conference. Ardanaz, a 2021 BCHL alumni, played two years with R.P.I. adding 38 games of NCAA D1 experience to the Thunderbirds blueline.
SFU will look to get off to a much better start than last season where the team found themselves struggling throughout the year, only winning a handful of games. While the team didn’t win as much as they hoped and planned to, they believe that with the experience of so many close games against NCAA D1 competition and a better start to the year they will find success and make their fans and supporters proud all season.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00pm PT, doors will open at 6pm, and tickets are still available at shop.sfuhockey.com.
UBC | LAST FIVE
03.15 at McGill | 2-3 L (University Cup Quarter-Final)
03.03 vs. Calgary | 5-3 W (CanadaWest Final)
03.02 vs. Calgary | 2-1 W (CanadaWest Final)
03.01 vs. Calgary | 2-5 L (CanadaWest Final)
02.25 vs. Alberta | 4-0 W (CanadaWest Semi-Final)
SFU Red Leafs vs. University of British Columbia Thunderbirds
⏰ 7:00pm PT
📍 Bill Copeland Sports Centre; 3676 Kensington Ave., Burnaby, BC