As the last week of the regular season wrapped up, teams looked to make a push in the rankings and get ready for the playoffs for each of the respective divisions. This made for lots of excitement and heartbreak.
The teams that we’re able to move up in the rankings were the York Lions, Carleton Ravens, Ryerson Rams, New Brunswick Reds and the Trinity Western Spartans.
York jumped up from the third to second spot The Lions went to London and played the Western University Mustangs and defeated them 1-0 to extend their win streak to five. Their next game was back at home in Toronto where they played the Windsor Lancers. York was able to beat the Lancers 1-0 by overpowering them with eleven shots as the Lancers were only able to register two. With this win, the York Lions clinched the top spot in the OUA West and will get a bye in the first round of playoffs. They also reached a historic milestone of 50 wins against OUA opponents after not losing to an OUA school since the end of August back in 2017.
Carleton also shifted sup the rankings winning both of their games The first victory was revenge against the Ryerson Rams, the Ravens played on home turf and beat the team that ruined their shot at a perfect season record by a score of 1-0.
The next victory was much more open as the Ravens dismantled the Trent University Excaliburs 6-0. As the Ravens won both games it solidified them in the first spot of the OUA East rankings.
The UNB Reds were the school that made the biggest advance in the national rankings. They first played against, the winless, Mount Allison Mounties and to no one’s surprise UNB was able to walk away with a 7-2 win. The next game was at home, the Reds faced l’Université de Moncton Aigles Bleus. The score between the Reds and les Aigles Bleus ended with a 1-0 victory for UNB and with this win UNB jumped from the 10th spot and now sits in the eighth position. The Reds still have one more game to play this week as the face off against the number one team in the country, the Cape Breton Capers.
The last positive position change in the rankings goes to the school that was able to move from the non ranks and into the 10th position. The TWU Spartans played against the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds at home, the Spartans won 4-1 with big help from Cody Fransen who tallied his second hat trick of the season.
With schools that rise, there are schools that fall. The schools that weren’t able to make a positive move and dipped down were the Carabins de l’Université de Montréal, the University of British Columbia, and St. Francis Xavier X-Men.
The Carabins played the Concordia University Stingers but were unable to come away with a win and the game ended with a tie. With this tie, Montreal fell out of the top three and now sits in fourth.
UBC slipped only one spot down from fifth to sixth as they went 1-1 this week. As previously mentioned before, the Thunderbirds lost to the Spartans 4-1. UBC was able to bounce back against the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades at home with a decisive 3-0 win. The last team to move down was the X-Men. Even with winning both games over the week, St. Francis wasn’t able to stay in the Top 10. The X-Men played the Memorial University Seahawks and beat them 3-0 in front of the X-Men’s home crowd. The second game was away against the University of Acadia Axemen and narrowly beat them 1-0.
With this being the last week in the regular season, it will be interesting to see what happens in the playoffs. Who will come out on top? We’ll just have to wait and see.