The Ligue de Hockey Universitaire Féminin is a women's university level ice hockey league covering the top university level teams in the province of Quebec and the Ottawa area. The league is an offshoot of the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec. The RSEQ was initially known as the Quebec Universities Athletic Association when it was founded in 1971. The organization was reorganized in 1989 when the governing bodies of university, collegiate, and high school hockey merged and the QSSF was born. The league became the RSEQ in November of 2010.
Based on archived information the league dates back in some form back to the 1980-81 season.
The Concordia Stingers women's ice hockey team won the first true two national championships held by Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union for the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons.
The McGill Martlets have existed in one form or another since 1896. The team was part of the very first Ontario Women's Provincial championship in 1914, finishing the tournament in second place. That league lasted until 1933. From 1936 to 1960, with a brief exception from 1948 to 1951 their was no competition in the Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Union, which was at the time the governing body for women's athletics at the university level in Canada. A revival of the team was began in 1963. The Montreal Carabins women's ice hockey joined Canadian Interuniversity Sport for the 2009-10 season.
National Champions[]
Since the establishment of a women's national championship tournament starting with the 1997-98 season the conference has produce eight national champions:
- Concordia Stingers 1998, 1999
- McGill Martlets 2008, 2009, 2011, 2014
- Montreal Carabins 2013, 2016
The league has also produce 7 silver medalists and 8 bronze medalist at the national tournament. The league featured both participants in the 2014 National championship game when the McGill Martlets defeated the Montreal Carabins 4-3 in double overtime.
Teams[]
The league is presently made up of five teams with three based in Montreal and two based in Ottawa.