Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – You can finally circle MacEwan's Canada West hockey debut on the calendar.

A full 29 months after officially being accepted into the conference's ranks, the Griffins women's hockey team will host Regina on Oct. 15 (7 p.m.) in the first Canada West regular season game at the Downtown Community Arena.

"I am grateful for the countless hours our conference scheduling team has put in to ensure a robust but safe return to Canada West competition," said head coach and MacEwan interim athletic director Lindsay McAlpine. "This inaugural season feels even more exciting for our program considering it has been stretched over two years.

"Our athletes look forward to returning to the rink for meaningful competition, as we are set to take on the University of Regina at home for opening weekend."

The Griffins will also host the Cougars on Oct. 16 (2 p.m.) as they finally hit the ice for the first weekend as a U SPORTS hockey team.

See the Griffins' 2021-22 regular season schedule here

See the full Canada West 2021-22 women's hockey schedule here

MacEwan's first road trip will be Oct. 22-23 at Calgary and the 20-game schedule also includes visits to fellow first-year Canada West team Trinity Western Nov. 26-27, Saskatchewan Feb. 4-5, and Calgary-based Mount Royal University Feb. 18-19.

As for the cross-town Edmonton rivalry, the Griffins and University of Alberta Pandas will go head-to-head four times (two home-and-home series Dec. 3-4 and Feb. 11-12), including games at the DCA (Dec. 4 at 5 p.m. and Feb. 11 at 7 p.m.).

Of the nine teams in the conference, the top six will qualify for the post-season with Seeds 1 and 2 earning first-round byes. On the Feb. 25-27 weekend, No. 3 will host No. 6 and No. 4 hosts No. 5 in a pair of best-of-three quarter-final series.

The semifinals are slated for March 4-6 with the Canada West championship going March 4-6. Both of those series are also best-of-three.

The U SPORTS women's hockey national championship tournament is scheduled for March 24-27 at the University of P.E.I.