TORONTO, ON –  It doesn’t take long for the restart of the OUA hockey season to turn into a playoff hunt, and with three weeks remaining in the regular season, teams don’t have much buffer to make too many mistakes. 

With the Queen’s Cup Playoffs looming in mid-February, here are four things 49 Sports learned in the latest week of OUA hockey. 

READ MORE | What we learned in OUA Women’s Hockey this week

Brock extends their winning ways with a win over UQTR

After dropping four straight games to end 2023 and start 2024, the Brock Badgers have hit their form in the second half of the OUA men’s hockey season, extending their win streak to three straight in a 3-2 shootout win over the UQTR Patriotes. 

While the Patriotes lost a few key players through the offseason break and have struggled since the calendar flipped to 2024, they established a strong effort against Brock before the home team turned the tides late. 

UQTR went up 2-0 early in the first period, but Brock, led by head coach TJ Manastersky, found their way back into the game through goals from Justin Brack and Jacob Roach before securing the extra point in the shootout. 

Rookie netminder Connor Ungar stopped 23 shots for his league-leading 16th win of the season, building on Brock’s previous 5-1 win over the York Lions and 5-3 win against the Guelph Gryphons. 

Although a single win over a foe from the opposite division may not have massive implications on the surface, it gave the Badgers an extra boost of confidence, having taken down one of the conference’s stronger teams while playing a complete game through the latter half of the contest. 

Extending their lead atop the OUA West to a five-point buffer on the second-place TMU Bold, Brock has a little bit of breathing room heading into their final six games, starting with a clash against the Western Mustangs on Thursday night. 

The OUA East playoff picture is starting to form

Three weeks remain until the start of the OUA Queen’s Cup Playoffs, and the top six teams in the OUA East are starting to separate from the rest of the pack. 

The top four teams, the UQTR Patriotes, McGill Redbirds, Concordia Stingers and uOttawa Gee-Gees, find themselves jockeying for position all within a point of each other, with the opportunity to secure a first-round bye should they finish top two. 

Yet, seeds five and six are beginning to come into focus, with the Queen’s Gaels holding onto the final playoff spot by three points, with a game in hand on seventh-place Carleton. The Ontario Tech Ridgebacks hold the fifth seed on points. However, their points percentage of .591 drops them behind Queen’s, boasting a .625. 

While the RMC Paladins and York Lions bring up the bottom of the conference and are well out of qualifying for the post-season, the focus on the Carleton Ravens looms large, as a strong start has slipped away and has them outside of the playoff picture. 

So far in 2024, the Ravens have yet to secure a point, with three straight losses to Ontario Tech, Ottawa and Concordia and have not won since a three-game win streak to close the first half came to an end. 

As has been the case for the last few seasons, the Ravens often rely on their top scorers, Parker AuCoin, Kieran Craig and Nick McCarry, to carry them to success, and that trio has only found the back of the net a combined two times in the last five games, as Carleton has fallen down the standings. 

The season is far from over, and the Ravens still have a chance to save their campaign. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to qualify for the playoffs in the OUA East, and the Ravens will need to turn things around quickly, starting with a Friday night matchup against the York Lions.