U Sports women's ice hockey championship

The U Sports Women's Ice Hockey Championship, is a Canadian university ice hockey tournament conducted by U Sports, and determines the women's national champion. The tournament involves the champions from each of Canada's four regional sports conferences. The Golden Path Trophy is awarded to the winners.

History
The championship has been competed for in U Sports since 1998, when the sport was established in what was then known as the Canadian Interuniversity Athletics Union. Prior to that, only teams from Ontario would compete for a women's ice hockey championship.

The trophy was donated by Katherine Cartwright in 1998, which is when the championship was first contested. Cartwright was the first head coach of the Queen's Gaels women's hockey program in 1971 and led the movement to reinstate women's hockey at the collegiate level in 1960, following a nine-year hiatus.

With the completion of the 2022 championship, the Alberta Pandas have won the most national championships, with eight wins in 10 appearances, followed by the McGill Martlets, with four wins in nine appearances. The Concordia Stingers and Montreal Carabins are next with three and two titles, respectively, followed by six teams with one win each.

The 2020 championship tournament was cancelled after two semi-final games had been played due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 15 October 2020, it was announced that the 2021 national championship was also cancelled.

Ontario champions pre-1998 national championship
Previously, the only significant Canadian university women's ice hockey championship was the determination of the champions in the large Ontario associations, as the few non-Ontario teams tended to play against local or regional community teams rather than in organized interuniversity associations. In Ontario, the Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Union (WIAU) existed from 1921–22 to 1970–71, then merged with the Ontario-Quebec University Athletic Association to forme the Ontario Women's Interuniversity Athletic Association (OWIAA), competing from 1971–72 to 1996–97. The OWIAA awarded the Dr. Judy McCaw trophy to its annual champion.

WIAU champions (1921–1971)

 * 1921–22 University of Toronto
 * 1922–23 University of Toronto
 * 1923–24 University of Toronto
 * 1924–25 University of Toronto
 * 1925–26 Queen's University
 * 1926–27 University of Toronto
 * 1927–28 University of Toronto
 * 1928–29 University of Toronto
 * 1929–30 University of Toronto
 * 1930–31 Queen's University
 * 1931–32 University of Toronto
 * 1932–33 University of Toronto
 * 1933–34 University of Toronto
 * 1934–35 University of Toronto
 * 1935–36 University of Toronto


 * 1936 at 1948 No official competition


 * 1948–49 University of Toronto
 * 1949–50 University of Toronto
 * 1950–51 University of Toronto


 * 1951 to 1960 No official competition


 * 1960–61 University of Toronto
 * 1961–62 University of Toronto
 * 1962–63 University of Toronto / Queen's University
 * 1963–64 University of Toronto
 * 1964–65 University of Toronto
 * 1965–66 University of Toronto
 * 1966–67 University of Guelph
 * 1967–68 University of Guelph
 * 1968–69 University of Guelph
 * 1969–70 University of Guelph
 * 1970–71 McMaster University

OWIAA champions (1972–1997)

 * 1971–72 University of Guelph
 * 1972–73 Queen's University
 * 1973–74 University of Guelph
 * 1974–75 Queen's University
 * 1975–76 McMaster University
 * 1976–77 Queen's University
 * 1977–78 McMaster University
 * 1978–79 Queen's University
 * 1979–80 University of Toronto
 * 1980–81 University of Toronto
 * 1981–82 University of Toronto
 * 1982–83 York University
 * 1983–84 University of Toronto
 * 1984–85 University of Toronto
 * 1985–86 University of Toronto
 * 1986–87 York University
 * 1987–88 University of Toronto
 * 1988–89 University of Toronto
 * 1989–90 University of Toronto
 * 1990–91 University of Toronto
 * 1991–92 University of Toronto
 * 1992–93 University of Toronto
 * 1993–94 Université de Toronto
 * 1994–95 University of Guelph
 * 1995–96 University of Toronto
 * 1996–97 York University

Reference