Ottawa, ON- The Ottawa Gee Gees may not have raised the Queen’s Cup, but they have earned a chance to compete for a national title at the Cavendish U Sport National championships in Halifax as the fourth seed.
The Gee Gees finished the regular season third in the OUA East after going 17-7-4. Their first round opponent, the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks managed to steal the second game in the best of three series but the Gee Gees ultimately emerged the winners after shutting out the Ridgebacks 5-0 in the third game.
Once again, the Gee Gees found themselves needing three games to take care of business in the second round of the playoffs. Their series against UQTR, who finished second in the East, started with a 2-1 loss. The Gee Gees rallied in the final two games to move on to the third round.
They swept the Concordia Stingers in two. Ottawa was unrelenting in their quest to win the OUA East, scoring seven goals and allowing the Stingers just two of their own.
It took six periods for the Gee Gees to fall to the Guelph Gryphons in the Queen’s Cup final. Kevin Domingue scored the lone Gee Gees goal in the third period less than thirty seconds after Guelph had scored a power play goal. Both teams were exhausted by the time the third overtime period began, but neither team wanted to take the loss. After over 100 minutes of hockey, Ted Nichol scored for the Guelph Gryphons.
As the Gryphons raised the cup and celebrated with their gold medals, the Gee Gees disappointedly accepted their silver medals. They were looking for gold, but the silver around their necks was enough to send them to Halifax.
In terms of forward depth, the Gee Gees have Kevin Domingue. Domingue played all 28 games for Ottawa and finished the regular season with 18 goals, the second most in the OUA. Domingue found another gear in the postseason scoring eight goals in nine games. If The Gee Gees are looking to make a run in Halifax, Domingue is going to have to bring the goals in most, if not all, of the games they play.
The playmaking ability of Cody Drover who leads both the team, and the OUA in assists will also be key.
The Gee Gees used four goaltenders over the regular season but it was first year, Domenic Graham who took on the majority of the minutes. He posted a .914 save percentage. Graham played over 100 minutes in net in the Queen’s Cup final, stopping 36 of 38 shots.
The Gee Gees led the OUA in shots per game, taking an average of 41.4 in the regular season. They forced Guelph’s goaltender, Andrew Masters to make 50 saves in the Queen’s Cup final.
Ottawa is a team that will try to exhaust their opponent with a barrage of shots. This requires their opponents to block shots on top of having solid goaltending.
While their power play isn’t much better than average, their penalty kill has been phenomenal. They play aggressively and outwork the opposing power play. This led them to allow just 11 power play goals over the course of the season. It helps, of course, that they were one of the least penalized teams in the OUA.
The Gee Gees will be playing the host team, Acadia Axemen in the quarter final. The Axemen fell in the AUS championship game to No. 1 UNB Reds. Both teams will be looking for a taste of victory in Halifax after coming so close to winning their conferences.