OUA West rivals, Brock and TMU, set for playoff clash with Queen's Cup berth on the line
Toronto, Ont. (via 49 Sports / Ben Steiner) - The OUA West men’s hockey final sees two familiar teams set to battle for divisional supremacy.
Two years after both Brock and TMU qualified as the OUA runner-up and third-place finishers in the conference, earning a spot at the 2022 U CUP at Acadia, they’re back in the OUA semifinal, this time looking to finish the job with a Queen’s Cup ring.
Brock won the semifinal in 2022 before losing to the UQTR Patriotes in the final – a potential Queen’s Cup championship matchup in the cards – while TMU beat the McGill Redbirds in the Queen’s Cup bronze medal game, another potential rematch.
Given that TMU are the hosts of the U Cup tournament this season and the OUA’s four berths in the bracket, the focus at this point of the campaign isn’t just on advancing in the OUA playoffs, but getting into the final that would avoid a bottom two seeding at the national championship. Should either team win the OUA outright, they would secure a top-three seed at the tournament.
While either team will face a tough challenge in the final against UQTR or McGill, getting past one another isn’t a simple task either, considering the challenges each has presented this season, with team dynamics that clash at every turn.
The teams split their two games this season, both winning on their home rinks, with the Badgers taking a 6-3 win in Thorold in November and TMU responding with a 3-2 home-ice victory in January.
However, that 6-3 loss for TMU came with a memorable moment for veteran forward Kyle Bollers, sending highlights of that game to millions of mobile phones across Canada with his first “Michigan” goal in the OUA. Still, despite the highlight, Brock took what turned out to be a critical game.
Throughout the second half of the season, Brock and TMU dueled each other, alongside a pesky Toronto Varsity Blues team, for the byes through the first round of the playoffs, rattling off winning streaks to push them into the contention conversation.
Brock finished the year with a 21-7-0 record, slightly ahead of TMU’s 19-9-0, and good enough to earn them the top seed and home advantage in the series. To get to this point, TMU defeated the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks in two games. At the same time, the Badgers got through a two-game set against the Windsor Lancers, with Mathew Duarte scoring a double-overtime series-winner in the series-clinching matchup.
Led by head coach TJ Manastersky, Brock entered their series as favourites, and backed by the best regular season offence and defence heading into the playoffs, the team came out firing on all cylinders in the opener, netting the 6-1 win and putting an immediate stamp on the series. In what was a much closer Game 2 that saw the game go into double-overtime on the heels of some masterful goaltending from Windsor's Nathan Torchia, who needed to be at his best with his team being outshot 65-46 therein, Brock prevailed once again and punched their ticket to this week's test against TMU.
Forward Jacob Roach, who led the team scoring with 16 goals and 40 points in 28 games, will be relied upon to drive offence, alongside fellow veterans Tyler Burnie and Jared Marino, who have both been through the wringer of the OUA playoffs and have found recent success.
Yet, the most critical part of the Brock plan moving forward may just be in the crease with rookie netminder Connor Ungar, who has quickly established himself as one of the best in the conference and will hope to rise to the occasion in the semifinals.
Through their two playoff games, Ungar finds himself at a .945 save percentage, while his regular season numbers jumped off the page at .932, reminiscent of another former young Brock goaltender, Logan Thompson, now a Stanley Cup Champion with the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights.
It won’t be as simple as the previous two games for Brock to manage, though, with TMU entering the matchup with their top players playing near their peak, notably NHL defensive prospect Artem Duda, who has two goals and four points in as many games.
Playing significant minutes with stay-at-home defenceman Ryan Wells on TMU’s backend allows Duda to bring his free-flowing, dynamic style to the OUA as he hits his stride after taking a few weeks to settle into the league, of which he is among the youngest players.
"Duda is arguably the best player, if not one of the best players, on the ice, and you really see as he's gotten more comfortable. I think his game's really starting to take off," said head coach Johnny Duco after Duda’s first playoff goal in Game 1 against Laurier. "He's been tremendous at home,"
Outside of Duda, keep an eye on TMU’s top six forwards, highlighted by Bollers and his team-leading 18 goals and 42 assists this season, and backed up with strong campaigns from Kevin Gursoy, Chris Playfair, and another young Russian talent, Daniil Grigorev, who scored 12 goals as a rookie and caught form late in the season.
It’s been a successful campaign for both teams heading into the West Final, and in reality, some factors push either team to championship contention and a higher seed at the U Cup. Yet, as is the case so often, it comes down to fine moments, which will be critical in this series.
There’s no decisive factor. TMU’s mid-table penalty kill against Brock’s modeling powerplay, and somewhat repeated the other way, there’s a canceling factor in nearly every comparable metric between the two. Still, it's just two wins and a chance to host the Queen’s Cup on the line.
Game 1 goes on Thursday night in Thorold at Canada Games Park at 6:00 pm ET, while Game 2 is set for the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto on March 2 at 6:30 pm ET. If needed, the deciding Game 3 would be back at Canada Games Park on March 3 at 6:00 pm ET.
