Toronto, ON- The OUA Playoffs begin for the Guelph Gryphons on Thursday as they have their first game against the Laurier Golden Hawks on home ice. Let’s look at a preview of what’s to come.

The Gryphons are 3rd in the Western conference with 39 points and the Golden Hawks are in 6th place with 29 points. Laurier definitely has their work cut out for them; they’ve lost 12 games this season while Guelph only lost 6.

Although the Gryphons are ahead of the Golden Hawks in the standings, not everything is as it seems. They’ve encountered each other twice during the regular season and both teams have a win. The Golden Hawks won 4-2 over the Gryphons in their first meeting, but fell short the second time by one point and lost 4-3. But, these teams have history dating back to the 2006-07 season; the Gryphons only have one more win than the Golden Hawks from that season until now, with a total of 19 wins.

These teams also have playoff history as well and faced each other in the 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2012-13 seasons. The Gryphons won all three times; they went to Game 3 in 2010 and 2011 and won two straight games in 2013, after losing the first in overtime.

A key player the Golden Hawks will have to look out for is Gryphons’ centre Mikkel Aagaard. He’s scored 22 goals in 28 games and also has 24 assists. There’s no doubt he’ll still be on his game heading into Game 1. While Aagaard is a strong player, the Golden Hawks’ left wing Anthony Conti levels out the playing field. He’s scored 15 goals this season and is the team’s top power-play goal scorer. The Gryphons will definitely have to kill the power-play when he’s on the ice and prevent him from scoring.

Will history repeat itself? You can catch the action this Thursday streaming on OUA.TV with coverage to follow. right here on 49 Sportnet.

Cover Photo: thontarion.com