Toronto, Ont. – Final Four, one series to play, the McCaw Cup is officially in sight. 

After a quarterfinal weekend that saw the first major upset of the season, just four teams remain in the hunt for the 2024 McCaw Cup. Toronto looks to repeat as champions, Guelph looks for their first McCaw since 2019, York since 1997, and Waterloo looks for the first in their history. 

Continuing an underdog story, a team looking to defend it’s title and more, the semifinal round is brimming with stories that have only gotten more interesting after York’s 3-2 win in game one and Guelph’s 1-0 shutout.

York Lions vs Waterloo Warriors

Raise your hand if you thought that not only would the York Lions be up in their semifinal, and they would get here via a quarterfinal sweep… okay, now put your hand down because you’re lying.

The Lions’ two-game quarterfinal sweep of the Nipissing Lakers might go down as the biggest upset of the 2023-2024 OUA Season. The Lakers, the top seed in the OUA East for the entire season and 34 points up in the standings on the Lions, fell in two games with just a single goal scored. 

In game one, the Lions can thank Emma Wedgewood for the win as the sophomore in her first playoff start, delivered a 44-save shutout before Sydney Paulson potted the game-winning goal 14:12 into overtime to give York the 1-0 win. 

In game two, it was a team offensive effort that carried York as six different Lions hit the back of the net, chasing Nipissing starter Chantelle Sandquist from the game and helping York take the easy 6-1 win and earn the sweep. Wedgewood was strong again, allowing a goal to Maggie Mckee late in the second but stopping 34 for the win. 

The Waterloo Warriors had a slightly more challenging opening round. Facing the Laurier Golden Hawks, they went up 2-0 just six minutes into game one before allowing a pair of goals to tie the game at two. Waterloo then saw their 3-2 lead disappear when Kylie Laliberte tied the game with under four minutes in the third but Lyndsey Acheson picked up the goal five minutes into overtime to give Waterloo the 4-3 win. 

In game two, it was Waterloo’s stars coming through in the clutch. Leah Herrfort picked up her first of the playoffs halfway through the first, but after Laurier tied it in the second, it was Tatum James cashing in on the powerplay with the game-winner in Waterloo’s 2-1 win to take the series. 

“Logic” would say that Waterloo is the favourite to comeback and win this series with a 26-point lead in the standings over York, but “logic” also got the previous series wrong. To add to that, these teams met twice in the regular season, and the York Lions took both wins. The first was a 2-1 win back on Nov 3, at home, before travelling to Waterloo two weeks later and getting the 6-3 win.  

The Warriors certainly have the means to make a comeback in the series though. They have a pair of stars in Leah Herrfort and Tatum James, a goalie equal to Emma Wedgewood in Kara Mark, and they have the league’s best penalty kill facing York’s second-worst powerplay.

The biggest X-Factor in this series, though, might be that unexplainable playoff magic. York clearly had it in their previous series, and sometimes, teams are just meant to be in the playoffs in spite of what the predictions and prognosticators might say. 

Will York continue to surprise the OUA world and get back to the McCaw Cup final? That’s the big question.

Guelph Gryphons vs Toronto Varsity Blues

This series, while light on “magic,” is a true playoff heavyweight matchup and after one game it’s lived up to the billing. The Toronto Varsity Blues are looking to be the first team to defend their McCaw Cup title since Guelph did it in 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. The team standing in their way? Those same Guelph Gryphons the top-seeded team in the province. 

Guelph’s quarterfinal against Windsor was straightforward as Martina Fedel and Hannah Tait simply did what they had done all year. Tait picked up a pair of goals in game one before adding an empty netter in game two to lead the conference in goals in the opening round. Meanwhile, Fedel picked up back-to-back 20-save 3-0 shutout wins as the Gryphons earned a relatively easy two-game sweep. 

On the other side,  in a matchup with the Queens Gaels, the Toronto Varsity Blues dropped game one 3-1, forcing a double-overtime 2-1 win in Game two off of a goal from Abby Howland. Finally, in game three at Varsity Arena, the Blues put the series away with three goals in less than 80 seconds in the second period to turn their 1-0 lead into a 4-0 lead and cruised to a 6-1 win and a series victory. 

In the two matchups between these teams in the regular season, only three total goals were scored. In the first matchup in Guelph in October, it was Emma Elders who scored the only goal of the shootout to give the Blues the 2-1 victory. A month later, the Gryphons travelled to Toronto and, thanks to a 16-save shutout from Martina Fedel, needed a single goal from Jaime Magoffin to take the 1-0 win. 

Really, the biggest X-Factor for the Gryphons is the play of Fedel and it showed in Game One. The third-year goalie made a star turn in 2023-2024, leading the OUA in GAA at 1.03 and save percentage at .951. Including their two playoff games, Fedel has allowed just three goals in her last five starts and has only lost one start in her last twelve since the beginning of November 2023. A 21-save shutout in game one pushed Fedel’s playoff shutout streak to 180 minutes.

On the other side, after her tandem partner from a year ago Madeline Albert graduated, Erica Fryer stepped back into the starter’s crease for her final season in blue and white and took control. She finished second to Fryer with a 1.39 GAA and in sixth in save percentage at .929.
Despite losing game one versus Queen’s, Fryer was still strong across the series, delivering a .932 save percentage over three games. 

On paper, Guelph is the stronger team, but Toronto’s roster still carries a lot of the players who have that championship experience from last year’s title. From Aili McKeown and Taylor Trussler up front to Erica Fryer, who was McCaw Cup player of the game in the Blues 2020 win. It will take all of that experience to help Toronto try to extend their series and push for their McCaw Cup repeat.