49 Sports previews the East Division ahead of the Queen's Cup playoffs
Toronto, Ont. (via 49 Sports, Richard Coffey) - The 2024 Queen’s Cup playoffs are finally here.
With the defending back-to-back champs, one of the hottest teams in the country, and the rest with reasons to be optimistic, the OUA East playoff matchups will be ones to watch from start to finish.
Thanks to their red-hot final few weeks, the McGill Redbirds clinched the No. 1 seed, while the UQTR Patriotes finished a single point behind in the No. 2 spot. Those top two teams each earned a bye through this first round, while the remaining teams ranked 3 through 6 play a best-of-three series.
Here’s a look at a few storylines to start the postseason.
East Division Quarterfinals:
No. 3 Ottawa Gee-Gees v No. 6 Ontario Tech Ridgebacks
No. 4 Queen’s Gaels v No. 5 Concordia Stingers
Contender - McGill Redbirds
This one feels obvious, but there is no team in the OUA hotter than the McGill Redbirds, and they are peaking at precisely the right time. With a seven-game winning streak and nine wins in their final ten games, the Redbirds flew up the standings (pun intended) to clinch first in the East Division, a first-round bye, and potential home-ice advantage for the entire Queen’s Cup playoffs (until a potential championship game).
There are reasons in every facet of the game why the Redbirds have been so successful this season. They finished with the league’s second-highest offence at 116 goals, thanks to the four-headed monster of William Rouleau, Eric Uba, Brandon Fratteroli, and Zachary Gallant, each hitting over 30 points.
Rouleau as a sophomore and Uba and Fratteroli as juniors each registered new career highs, while Gallant, in his first full year playing with McGill after leaving the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda, finished with 13 goals and 31 points in 26 games.
That offensive firepower came through on the powerplay as McGill finished at a 34.0% clip, nine percent higher than the second-best team. The Redbirds led the OUA in both powerplay and penalty kill percentage at 89.2%.
As the top seed in the division, the Redbirds receive home-ice advantage in every series prior to the 112th Queen’s Cup, and only have to look back six years to 2018 to see the advantage that can bring. The 2018 East semifinal matchup against the Ottawa Gee-Gees and their East final against the Concordia Stingers went to a deciding game, which the Redbirds won on their home ice at McConnell Arena. Home was definitely where the heart was for McGill this season, as they finished the year 12-1-1 on their ice, the second-best record in the league behind the Brock Badgers.
The Redbirds were a top team, and if they can pair that offensive prowess with an equally impressive run in net from Alexis Shank, there might not be a team out there who can stop McGill.
Sleeper - Queen’s Gaels
A year ago, the Queen’s Gaels offence was not what fans were accustomed to seeing, and they missed the 2023 Queen’s Cup playoffs as a result. A team that led the OUA with 87 goals in 19 games in 2021-22 saw that number drop to 66 goals in 28 games a year ago and saw the Gaels drop to seventh in the East, missing the playoffs by two points.
One year later, thanks to some breakout performances, the Gaels are back in the playoffs as the fourth seed, and it’s those breakout performances that might help carry them deep into the postseason.
The key emergence for the Gaels this past season has easily been sophomore Dalton Duhart. Duhart came out of the gate scorching hot, with 14 points in his first four games of the year, and finished the season second in scoring with 17 goals and 44 points. Fourth-year Jonathan Yantsis tied for fifth in scoring with 18 goals and 37 points, making the Gaels the only team with two players among the top five point producers in the OUA.
The offence for Queen’s has been balanced beyond Duhart and Yantsis, though, with seven players reaching at least 20 points. Altogether, they helped Queen’s pot 112 goals, their first 100+ goal season since 2009-10 and tied their program record for wins in a season at 19.
The Gaels also found success after an off-year a season ago in net. Third-year Christian Purboo stepped into the starter role early for the Gaels and didn’t look back, posting a 14-4-1 record in 19 games while finishing second with a 1.82 GAA and third with a .934 save percentage.
The Gaels have dreams of picking up their first Queen’s Cup since 2018-19, but to start, they must get through a formidable opponent in the fifth-seed Concordia Stingers. Concordia profiles similar to Queen’s as a solid offensive team, finishing with 109 goals, but they come with a couple more wrinkles than the Gaels.
For one, Concordia’s offence was done about as by committee as possible. No player scored more than ten goals for Concordia, but 20 players on the Stingers hit the back of the net at least once on the season. In a tight three-game series, offence by committee, to the extent the Stingers have done, can be tricky without that one critical offensive piece to lean on in the clutch.
In net, the Stingers split their starts between Jordan Naylor and Nikolas Hurtubise almost evenly, but should look to go to Naylor in the playoffs. Naylor did lose his final three starts, but in two of them, he had a save percentage above .920. Meanwhile, Hurtubise struggled throughout much of the season, allowing at least three goals in all four of his starts in the winter semester before allowing just a single tally in a 2-1 win over UQTR on February 8th. Still, in a series against an offensive team like the Gaels, Naylor profiles as the stronger goalie.
The Stingers should be a challenge, but with a breakout star in Duhart and a more stable presence in the net, the Gaels should make it out of the opening round and be poised to surprise in these playoffs.
