Expectations ‘very high’ for 2025-26 MRU hockey teams
Naomi Campbell, Contributor
Nothing brings Cougars fans together like hockey games at Flames Community Arena. From the 2023 women’s team’s Cinderella run to the U SPORTS National Championship to the 2024 men’s team finally breaking their semi-final curse, MRU hockey has spoiled its fans of late. Now, the team hopes to bring championship jewelry to its core of legendary graduating players in 2025-26.
For the first time in Mount Royal University’s history, the men’s team pushed through to the Canada West Finals last season, earning them a spot in the U SPORTS National Tournament, where they lost in the longest game in U SPORTS National Tournament history. Alongside them, the women’s team dominated in the regular season to push them through to a tough Canada West semi-finals matchup, ultimately losing in heartbreaking fashion to the University of Alberta Pandas. With some unfortunate losses for both teams in the playoffs, they have been training tirelessly to come back better than ever.
Men’s Hockey
The 2024-2025 season for the MRU Cougars men’s team was a year the players and fans will remember forever. After years of losing in the Canada West semi-finals, the team made its first appearance at the U SPORTS National Tournament last year. There, the Cougars lost in quintuple overtime to Toronto Metropolitan University, which set a new record for the longest game in U SPORTS National Tournament History at 143 minutes and 33 seconds of game-time, breaking the old record by 27 minutes.
Captain Kyle Walker, along with other veterans Josh Tarzwell, Spencer Moe, and rookies Justin Lies and Jayden Wiens make up the returning core from that legendary squad and bring explosive chemistry to the team this season. They will be skating with some amazing new transfers and a few new rookies, injecting the team with new energy in MRU’s 13th Canada West campaign.
Head coach Bert Gilling believes that this year’s men’s team is looking like a force to be reckoned with in Canada West and can contend for a U SPORTS title.
“With this group, there is a very high expectation for it,” Gilling said. “In my 11 years, I really believe this is the biggest group of returning players that I’ve had here, which is really exciting.”
With 121 shots on net and five game-winning goals last year, fifth-year forward Tarzwell and the other three graduate students are determined to make the most of their final seasons as they search for the next step in their professional careers.
“Bert always says make your last year your best year, and I think there is a lot of guys that also want to do that,” Tarzwell said. “And you know we’re all trying to go somewhere after this, whether it’s the East Coast, some guys are looking for American league deals, over in Europe. So the better the team does this year, the better our end result is going to be.”
“I’m just looking forward to, you know, my last year of college, playing with the guys, being around the rink, doing other fun stuff with them and just hopefully getting back to where we wanna go.”
Standing at six feet and four inches tall without his skates on, towering defenceman Tanner Komzak comes to the Cougars after playing two seasons with the University of North Dakota. Komzak is eager to get back into the regular season with a team he believes can go all the way and win championships.
“I think the reason for the transfer is I wanted to play somewhere where I felt respected, and then on top of that, I wanted to win,” Komzak said. “I know with the group of guys that we got here, they got the mindset where we wanted to go back to the National championship and win it this year.”
Komzak could prove to be a great addition to our defensive lineup. After losing Clay Hanus to a pro deal, Cougars Head Coach Bert Gilling believes Komzak can add the size and physicality the team needs.
“Tanner is adding a dimension for us,” Gilling said. ”He’s right-handed, he’s got good size, good physicality, good presence on the ice. Hopefully makes us a better defending team.”
Women’s Hockey
During the 2024-2025 season, the women’s team had a very successful year, finishing second in their division and earning a trip to the playoffs. They ended their season on an unfortunate loss to the University of Alberta Pandas in the semi-finals, but head coach Scott Rivett is excited to see how this year’s group can stack up against the best teams in Canada West and U SPORTS.
“We’ve got a little bit older, so I think we’re starting to see a little bit more experience from our group,” Rivett said. “So that’s exciting to see, because typically, stronger teams are a little bit older in our league the way it works.” “We’ve got some good pieces that we’ve added in from a recruiting perspective from last year into this year. So I think we’ve entered this season fairly optimistic and where we’re headed, we’ll see what it brings us.”
Fifth-year player Abbey Borbandy rejoins the roster for one more campaign and is one of the most exciting players in the conference to watch, scoring a career-high five goals last season. The defencewoman made eye-opening changes in her mentality and game last season, and hopes to end her Cougars career with a bang.
“I did see a big jump in my game overall,” Borbandy said. “I think I just found myself and just realized, it’s something that I loved doing in my life, and it’s not a stressful thing that I used to think it was.”“I thought I had to be perfect all the time, but I think when I got over that barrier, that’s when my game shifted too, is, like, you can realize, you’re here for a reason, you’re on a university’s team.”
Rookie Isa MacPhee joins the Cougars full of excitement to finally be playing university hockey. She previously played in Quebec for Stanstead College’s Varsity team, putting up 44 points in 70 games in 2024-25. Hailing from Kingsboro, PEI, MacPhee has become accustomed to traveling for her sport, but is entering a new phase of her life as a high-level student-athlete.
“I’ve been away from home since Grade Nine, so I’m kind of used to it now, but I think what’s different is just the university-level hockey and school,” MacPhee said.
Thankfully, her fellow Cougars have helped ease her transition, and now, MaPphee is ready to dominate in her rookie season in Canada West.
“Coming in, I think it’s just meeting lots of new people and just kind of like settling into the team and being ready for the season,” MacPhee said. “I’ve been ready for, I don’t know how long, I’m just excited to be here now and be able to play at a high pace, high compete level.”
Between the men’s and women’s teams’ recent successes, MRU has competed in two of the last three U SPORTS National Tournaments (2023, 2025) and firmly etched their names into the weekly U SPORTS Top 10 rankings with their in-conference dominance.
The men’s team will be in Saskatchewan for their first battle of the season, taking on the University of Saskatchewan Huskies on Friday, Oct. 3 at 6 p.m., with their home opener set for Saturday, Oct. 11 against the University of Calgary Dinos.The women’s team will begin their warpath on home ice as they host the Huskies on Friday, Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. All home games are free for students to attend and are held at Flames Community Arena, and all games are broadcast live on Canada West TV.
