Top teams, defending champions, and playoff magic featured in semifinal series

Toronto, Ont. (via 49 Sports / Richard Coffey) - The final four, one series to play, the McCaw Cup is officially in sight. 

After a quarterfinal week that saw the season's first major upset, 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 eyes the first OUA title in their program’s history. 

From continuing an underdog story to a team looking to go back-to-back and more, the semifinal round is brimming with stories. 

49 Sports takes a look at each of the two semifinal series. 

No. 4 York Lions vs No. 2 Waterloo Warriors

Raise your hand if you thought that not only would the York Lions be in the semifinal, but they would get here via a 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 2023-24 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 1, 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 2, it was a team offensive effort that carried York to victory, 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 Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks, they went up 2-0 just six minutes into Game 1 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 winning tally five minutes into overtime to give Waterloo the 4-3 triumph. 

Waterloo's stars came through in the clutch in Game 2, meanwhile. 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 the Warriors’ 2-1 win to take the series. 

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

By all accounts, though, Waterloo should win this series. They have a pair of stars in Herrfort and 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 had it in their previous series, and sometimes, teams are just meant to be in the playoffs despite what the predictions and prognosticators might say. 

Will York have more to surprise the world with? We'll have to watch to find out. 

No. 1 Guelph Gryphons vs No. 2 Toronto Varsity Blues 

This series, while light on ‘magic’, is a true playoff heavyweight bout. The Toronto Varsity Blues are looking to be the first team to defend their McCaw Cup title since Guelph did it in 2015-16 and 2016-17. 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 did what they had done all year. Tait picked up a pair of goals in Game 1 before adding an empty netter in Game 2 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 smooth two-game sweep. 

Conversely, in a matchup with the Queen’s Gaels, the Blues dropped the opener 3-1, forcing a double-overtime 2-1 win in Game 2 off of a goal from Abby Howland. Finally, in the decisive Game 3 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 cushion and cruised to a 6-1 win and a series victory. 

Only three total goals were scored in the two games between these teams in the regular season. In the first matchup in Guelph in October, Emma Elders 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 only a single goal from Jaime Magoffin to take the 1-0 win. 

The biggest x-factor for the Gryphons is the play of Fedel. The third-year goalie made a star turn in 2023-24, 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 previous twelve since the beginning of November.

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 Fedel with a 1.39 GAA and sixth in save percentage at .929. Despite losing Game 1 against Queen's, Fryer was still strong across the series, delivering a .932 save percentage over the three contests. 

On paper, Guelph is the stronger team, but Toronto's roster still carries many players with that championship experience from last year's title run. From Aili McKeown and Taylor Trussler up front to Erica Fryer, who was McCaw Cup player of the game all the way back in the Blues' 2020 McCaw Cup win, the Blues have the experience of winning it all that this Guelph roster doesn't. 

In a battle of two powerful teams, that might be the slight difference that separates the sides.