TORONTO, ON – After 28 games of regular season action and a thrilling play-in game, it’s finally time to drop the puck on the 2024 OUA Queen’s Cup Playoffs.
Featuring the hosts of the 2024 U SPORTS Men’s Hockey Championship, the TMU Bold, it’s a special year for the OUA West, one where a winner looks like a complete wildcard in what was an extremely competitive season.
With six teams set to battle for divisional supremacy, they do so after a thrilling play-in game between the No. 6 Laurier Golden Hawks and No. 7 Nipissing Lakers, which saw Laurier prevail 5-4 in overtime after tying the game at 4-4 with less than 10 seconds remaining.
The top two teams, the Brock Badgers and TMU Bold, earned a bye, while the remaining teams ranked 3-6 played best-of-three series in the first round.
Here’s a look at a few storylines to start the postseason. Also to note, 2024 will feature three OUA teams, in addition to TMU at the U CUP.
OUA West First Round:
- No. 3 Toronto Varsity Blues v No. 6 Laurier Golden Hawks
- No. 4 Windsor Lancers v No. 5 Lakehead Thunderwolves
Contender – TMU Bold
As hosts of this year’s national championship, the TMU Bold have secured a ticket to the U CUP. However, they’ve ironed things out throughout the season and look to ramp up at the right time for the playoffs.
With a first-round bye having finished second in the conference, the Bold are a dynamic offensive team that features some of the top star players in the conference. While their weakness likely rests on the bottom six forward and bottom half of defence, their top players are among the best in the OUA.
At the same time, many are in what could be their final days in U SPORTS, given looming professional opportunities and graduation, adding an extra desire for the group to get some OUA hardware this year.
Veteran forward Kyle Bollers leads the team with 18 goals for 42 points in 28 games this season, but he has been far from the lone standout player among the experienced athletes. Aaron Hyman, who has captured the eyes of pro scouts this season, has 19 points from the blue line and has taken on an essential role at the top of their lineup.
In addition to Bollers and Hyman, the Bold also features the intriguing Russian additions of Danil Grigorev, who scored 12 goals and 21 points as a 19-year-old rookie in their top six, while midseason addition and Arizona Coyotes NHL prospect Artem Duda has seen his ice time increase, in his ramped up responsibilities ahead of the playoffs, and is up to two goals and five points since joining the team in January.
The Bold finished second, behind Brock in most categories, including goals scored (103) and goals conceded (70). However, among top contenders, they had the best powerplay, operating at a 23.4 percent clip, only behind the Windsor Lancers by 0.01 percent.
Starting netminder Kai Edmonds has a .918 save percentage, considerably down from his .934 rookie season. However, the Bold have been in more offensive games this year than in past editions.
With their first-round opponents being one of Laurier Golden Hawks, Lakehead Thunderwolves, or Windsor, TMU won’t have an easy road through the OUA West but will hope that their abilities showcased in the 19-1-8 record are enough to carve a Queen’s Cup path.
Contender – Brock Badgers
The Brock Badgers are a contender in the OUA Queen’s Cup Playoffs but are not as surefire a lock as their division-topping season may suggest. Brock enters the playoffs after a 21-0-7 season, their best regular season in program history — yet their reliance on top players could cut their Queen’s Cup and U CUP hopes short.
Still, winning the Queen’s Cup and qualifying for the national tournament are two very different tasks in 2024, with four OUA teams making it to the national final eight, meaning that is likely where the Badgers should plot their goals.
Brock’s primary success comes from goaltending as rookie netminder Connor Ungar showcased himself perfectly in his first season, posting a 2.15 goals-against-average and a 0.932 save percentage while passing now Stanley Cup champion goaltender Logan Thompson’s previous Brock record for wins in a regular season.
Head coach TJ Manastersky has built himself a strong team in his last two seasons in charge and has gotten the best out of the players he inherited before taking over, such as Jared Marino, Zach Taylor and Jacob Roach. However, the Ungars’ excellence undoubtedly powered the Badgers to the heights they find themselves at heading into the postseason.
However, the Badgers are not only goaltending- they are far from it. They’re a hard-working team that has elevated their play with slick skill at the top of their lineup this season and play a much more fluid style than they have in past years, showcasing every aspect of their roster.
Roach has continued his strong offensive form and enters the postseason after a 16-goal, 40-point campaign, while Tyler Burnie also broke a point-per-game pace with his 33 points, including 15 goals.
Helping Brock’s efforts in the postseason also include their prowess at five-on-five play and how, even with the second-worst powerplay in the division at 17 percent, they still found the success they did and led the OUA West with 107 goals scored.
Meanwhile, they boasted the second-best penalty kill in the division at 86.2 percent.
With veterans such as the leaders mentioned above, in addition to Ungar and defenceman Matthew Barnes, the Badgers are a team to watch these playoffs and one that should have hopes of competing at the U CUP come March.
Sleeper pick – Lakehead Thunderwoles
The Lakehead Thunderwolves came within one game of the 2023 U CUP, dropping the OUA bronze medal game to the Concordia Stingers. However, getting to that point this season likely puts them in the national tournament, and there’s little reason to think they can’t go on from there.
Things didn’t go as smoothly for the Thunderwolves as last season, and they enter the playoffs as the fifth seed, boasting a 14-2-12 record, and set for a first-round battle against the challenging Windsor Lancers.
Yet, there’s still ample opportunity for the group, one with the conference’s most energetic crowd and one that often sells out for playoff games, and won both meetings against Windsor this season.
With immense depth throughout the roster and little drop-off in each line, the Thunderwolves, highlighted by Griffen Fox, Nick De Grazia and Colin Van Den Hurk, are a team suited for playoffs and one that head coach Andrew Wilkins will hope can navigate their way through the opening round.
Considering six games without a regulation loss, their depth and momentum will also benefit their efforts.
For Windsor, it could come down to special teams, as they lead the division with a 26 percent powerplay, compared to Lakehead’s last-place 13.8 percent efficiency. Meanwhile, the Thunderwolves will combat Windsor’s high-powered advantage with a mere 81 percent on the penalty kill.
Making nationals and winning the Queen’s Cup is a lofty goal for Lakehead. Still, considering their wins against higher-ranked teams in Windsor, Toronto and the McGill Redbirds, they are an elusive, sneaky contender.
OUA West series to watch
Toronto Varsity Blues v Laurier Golden Hawks
The Toronto Varsity Blues have the most national championships of any OUA U SPORTS hockey team. However, it’s been a tough slog in recent seasons,. Last year, they got past TMU in the opening round but fell to Lakehead.
The year before, they crashed out in the quarterfinal against the Waterloo Warriors. In the season prior, 2019-20, after ranking in the U SPORTS Top 10 most weeks and topping their division, they fell out to the eighth-seeded Western Mustangs.
Toronto’s last U SPORTS title came in 1984, and they last made the national final in 1993. ‘93 also marked the last of their all-time leading 41 Queen’s Cup titles.
Given their matchup and the inconsistencies they showed through the season, head coach Ryan Medel and the Varsity Blues might be the team most primed to suffer an upset in the first round.
That said, it would be an upset. On paper, the Varsity Blues are significantly better than the Laurier Golden Hawks, and they won both matchups this season, with the second one coming in a shootout.
Laurier, however, features Sam Rhodes, Patrick Brown, Nick Giunta, and Declan Graham, four key aspects to their success this season, and have the third-best powerplay in the division at 23 percent, set to clash with Toronto’s division-leading 80 percent penalty kill.
The Golden Hawks enter this matchup in top form, however, winning eight of their last 10 regular season games, the best recent record in the OUA, while also carrying the momentum from a last-second tying goal and an overtime victory over the Nipissing Lakers in the divisional play-in game.
Toronto’s leading scorer, Nick Wong and his 12 goals and 34 points, alongside Billy Moskal, Nick Grima and goaltender Jett Alexander, won’t be an easy out for Laurier. Still, this series is undoubtedly the series to watch in the OUA West’s opening round of play.