RELEASE | SFU Non-Conference Team adds University of Victoria to 2024.25 Schedule

BURNABY, BC – The Simon Fraser University Red Leafs Hockey Program has added the University of Victoria Vikes (BCIHL) to their 2024.25 home schedule.

The Red Leafs and Vikes will face off at Bill Copeland Sports Centre on November 29th, 2024 for the teams’ first match up since the 2023 BCIHL season. The game will be the non-conference team’s seventh home game of the season and brings the total game count to 21 for the year.

“It’s always nice to add games to the schedule, especially with a long stretch without games heading into the winter break,” said Head Coach Mark Coletta.

“UVic has done a really good job elevating their program, so I expect it to be a competitive game.”

Though the teams faced each other for decades before SFU iced a brand new roster in the BCIHL and created the non-conference team out of the existing roster, only a handful of players remain from the 2023 season when the iterations of teams last met. Players still on SFU from that season include Kiano Robinson, Jason Chu, Ben Ward, and Cale Dolan, while UVic’s Linden Deugeau, Dan Gatenby, Aidan Morrison, Jacob Paler-Chow (formerly of SFU), Ryan Strange, Lucas Thompson, and Jakob Drapeau are the only remaining players from that season.

The Vikes finished the 2024 regular season in second place with 29 points in 20 games played, and would go on to lose in the BCIHL finals to Vancouver Island University. UVic holds four BCIHL championships; tied with the defunct Selkirk College Saints and the second most among active clubs in the league behind SFU’s five. November’s game will be UVic’s seventh exhibition match and fifth non-conference matchup, having faced USports’ Trinity Western University (3-2 loss), and the Alberta Collegiate Athletic Conference’s Concordia University of Edmonton, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, and the University of Alberta–Augustana.