Gryphons look to end 18 year Queen's Cup drought against UQTR Patriotes
With just three wins in 13 games heading into the Christmas break, few likely expected the Guelph Gryphons to end up hosting the Queen’s Cup championship, but the Gryphons have put together a Cinderella run for the ages en route to earning a date with the UQTR Patriotes on Saturday, March 7th at 7:30pm on OUA.tv.
With just three wins in 16 games heading into the Holiday break, few likely expected the Guelph Gryphons to end up hosting the Queen's Cup championship, but the Gryphons have put together a Cinderella run for the ages en route to earning a date with the UQTR Patriotes on Saturday, March 7th at 7:30pm on OUA.tv.
The Patriotes run, though perhaps not as unexpected, is equally impressive, as they knocked out the top two seeds in the East division to earn a trip to the conference championship game.
Ranked No. 8 in the CIS Top 10 in the week leading up to the Queen's Cup, UQTR is a perfect 6-0 in the OUA playoffs, including back-to-back overtime wins against the Carleton Ravens in the second-round, and a 2-0 series sweep of the No. 5-ranked McGill Redmen by a combined score of 7-2 in the OUA semifinals.
Guelph's quest for the cup required upset wins over the third-seeded Waterloo Warriors, the Toronto Varsity Blues, and the top-seeded, defending Queen's Cup champion, Windsor Lancers.
Much of UQTR's success starts in goal with the strong play of rookie goalie Francis Desrosiers, who has posted a 1.93 goals against average and .945 save percentage while starting all six of the Patriotes playoff games.
In the other crease, Guelph has a rookie goaltender of its own that has put on a show during the playoffs. Andrew D'Agostini has a 3.00 goals against average and .913 save percentage in his eight playoff starts, though the numbers are slightly skewed after an 8-3 loss to the Toronto Varsity Blues in the second round. If you exclude the eight-goal lapse against Toronto, D'Agostini has a 2.28 goals against average and .934 save percentage in his seven other playoff starts.
Up front for the Gryphons, forward Nick Huard has come alive in the postseason, leading the team with nine points and is first in postseason powerplay goals with four. On defence, Nicholas Trecapelli has three goals and five assists in the playoffs after recording one goal and 12 assists during the entire regular season.
UQTR won the only meeting between these two teams during the regular season, dominating Guelph in a 6-2 win on Nov. 21. On offence, the Patriotes are led by Marc-Olivier Mimar, who has 10 points in six playoff games after finishing third in OUA with 35 during the regular season.
As a team, UQTR had five players in the top-15 in regular season scoring, and has eight different players with at least three goals during the playoffs.
Both the Guelph Gryphons and UQTR Patriotes will be advancing to the CIS University Cup taking place in Halifax, N.S. from March 12-15. Also heading to the University Cup will be the winner of the OUA bronze medal game between the Windsor Lancers and McGill Redmen.
Catch all the action on Saturday starting at 7:30pm on OUA.tv! Viewers in the Guelph, Waterloo, Brantford and Stratford regions can also watch the game locally on Rogers TV Cable 20.
