Teams return to the ice on September 23rd for start of 2023-24 men’s hockey season
Burlington, Ont. – The path to the 111th Queen’s Cup was not an easy one, but with the dust settled on the memorable year that was, teams will be right back at it for a chance to raise the iconic championship trophy once again, as the OUA is pleased to announce the 2023-24 men’s hockey schedule.
2023-24 Men’s Hockey | FULL SCHEDULE
Fans of varsity hockey in Ontario will be treated to an early taste of regular season action, with the first game of the year coming on September 23rd when the Nipissing Lakers host the Guelph Gryphons.
While those two teams will see their seasons start sooner, the rest of the conference contingent will have to wait until the following month for their foray into the 2023-24 festivities. The next entry comes on October 4th, when the RMC Paladins take on the York Lions for a lone Wednesday night tilt, with a stacked schedule to follow across the next three days.
OUA bronze medalists a year ago, the Concordia Stingers commence their campaign against McGill – a rematch of the 2023 East Division semifinal – on October 5th as one of three Thursday night tilts, and among those making their debuts on October 6th are another pair of last year’s final four teams. Lakehead, who fell in the semifinals and in the third-place tilt, hit the road to battle Brock, while the finalists from Windsor, who fell just short in the triple overtime Queen’s Cup Championship a year ago, will travel to TMU.
Helping to round out the busy opening slate that day are the UQTR Patriotes. The two-time reigning conference champions will also be on the road to start their quest for the three-peat, as they head to the nation’s capital for a back-to-back, starting against Ottawa on the 6th and then wrapping up with an East Division semifinal rematch versus Carleton on October 7th.
Play will continue through the months of October and November before the opening semester’s schedule wraps up during the first week of December. The ninth and final week of fall play will see recent playoff participants – the Redbirds and Gee-Gees, who met in Round 1 a year ago – collide on December 6th for the final regular season offering of the semester.
The action will then start back up on January 4th with a pair of games – the Badgers challenging the Bold and the Ravens hosting the Gee-Gees. As if those tests aren’t tough enough, that weekend will also feature a tall task for the 111th Queen’s Cup participants – the Patriotes and Lancers – who will go toe-to-toe on January 5th for the first time since their lengthy championship bout last season.
The marquee matchups will continue into the latter half of the season with plenty more dates to circle on the calendar. The annual Frosty Mug, hosted at the Sleeman Centre in Guelph, will take place on January 19th with the Thunderwolves rolling into town to go against the Gryphons.
After starting their winter slates in head-to-head fashion, meanwhile, Ottawa and Carleton will be back at it on February 8th for the Colonel By Classic, a contest that ended in a thrilling 8-7 overtime win for the latter in 2023. That won’t be the only rivalry hitting the ice that night, as Queen’s and RMC will add to the storied Carr-Harris Cup history books as well with their all-Kingston matchup, in what will be their penultimate game of the regular season, respectively.
Those two tremendous tilts will be part of the final week of regular season competition, with teams wrapping up their respective 28-game schedules from the 8th to the 10th, and not long after that, comes the highly anticipated quest for the Queen’s Cup.
On February 11th, a play-in game will hit the ice between the West Division’s No. 6 and No. 7 seed. The winner of that game will then join the best-of-three opening round matchups taking place from February 12th to 18th. Those series will see the No. 3 seeds play the lowest seeds (i.e., No. 6 seed in the East and play-in winner in the West), respectively, while the fourth and fifth-ranked teams will also face off.
From there, the series victors will advance to play the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, respectively, each of whom receive byes in the opening round of play. Those best-of-three quarterfinals will run from February 19th to 25th, with winners then advancing to the semifinal series from February 26th to March 3rd.
The last team standing from each division will then play for the right to hoist the historic Queen’s Cup, with the 112th edition of the OUA men’s hockey championship taking place on March 9th.
