UBC seeking championship double as top-seeded men's, women's teams host Canada West hockey finals

Take a walk past the viewing platforms overlooking University of British Columbia's Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Arena and you'll see Thunderbirds history, with banners of Grenoble 1968 Olympian and former UBC hockey goalie Ken Broderick alongside the school's 1915-16 women's hockey team hanging above the ice.

For an athletics program that began in 1915, sporting legends have passed through the Vancouver campus. Yet few have had the honour of winning conference, let alone national championships on the ice.

UBC's men's hockey team won two Canada West titles in 1963 and 1971, while the women's program has enjoyed more success, capturing five conference titles, with neither program raising a national championship banner.

From March 1-3, however, the two teams will host the Canada West finals, marking the first time the men will play conference championship games on home ice — the culmination of a rebuilt program that went 44 years without a home playoff game between 1971 and 2015.

Meanwhile, the women look to win three straight Canada West banners for the first time.

"When you come to the program, you want to leave a legacy and change the way UBC hockey is thought about," men's hockey captain Chris Douglas said. "Hopefully, we can look back one day and be proud that we were a part of this."