July 14, 2022
OUA announces women's hockey schedule for the 2022-23 season
Burlington, Ont. - The ice will soon be calling for the upcoming 2022-23 Ontario University Athletics (OUA) season, as the conference's 12 women's hockey teams start to face off once again on October 20th.
2022-23 OUA Women's Hockey Schedule | FULL
While the divisional breakdown will remain unchanged from a season ago, the game count will increase following the 2021-22 campaign. With three games scheduled against their divisional foes and a home-and-away against each of their cross-division combatants, teams will hit the ice for a total of 27 regular season contests this season.
The first of those contests will take place on October 20th, with the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks hosting Toronto Metropolitan University and the Guelph Gryphons welcoming the Waterloo Warriors. The following night sees Western battle Queen's, Ontario Tech travel to Windsor, and York hosting the 2022 finalists from Nipissing.
The final two teams to take the ice on opening weekend (October 22nd) are the Toronto Varsity Blues, who take on the Warriors in a battle of regular season division winners from a season ago, and the Brock Badgers, who begin their title defence against the Gryphons in a West Division semifinal rematch from 2022. The Badgers and Blues will then round out the first week of play with a head-to-head encounter on October 23rd.
The fall calendar, much like the winter, will feature seven weeks of on-ice play, and after a pair of tough matchups for the Badgers to start their year, they will also see some stiff tests to close out the 2022 calendar. In the semester's penultimate week, the team will take on the Mustangs on November 26th, who they shut out in their West Division final from a year ago, before facing off with the Lakers in a McCaw Cup rematch on December 2nd.
The fall semester concludes the following day, on December 3rd, with teams then returning to the ice on January 6th.
Teams will not only need to be sharp heading into the winter break, but coming out of it as well, especially the reigning OUA and U SPORTS finalists from Nipissing. The North Bay squad will follow up their McCaw Cup rematch in the tail end of the fall with a session against their most recent semifinal foes on January 8th. The Lakers took down the top-ranked Blues a season ago to claim the East Division title, and the perennial nationally-ranked squads will both look to come out victorious in one of their first tilts in 2023.
Both of those teams will also be among the squads putting a bow on the regular season on February 18th, as four games will help wrap up the 14th and final week on the schedule and confirm the playoff picture to follow.
The top eight teams will make up the postseason picture, with play switching from the single-game elimination format from a season ago back to best-of-three series in the opening two rounds. The quarterfinals will take place from February 22nd to 26th within the division (i.e., East No. 4 v. East No. 1; West No. 3 v. West No. 2, etc.) with the winners then advancing to the semifinals. The final four squads standing will then crossover for their respective matchups, with the winner of each division's 1v4 matchup taking on the opposing division's 2v3 matchup winner in another best-of-three series from March 1st to 5th.
The conference championship, finally, determining which remaining team will be the latest to claim the coveted McCaw Cup, will take place on March 11th.
2022-23 OUA Women's Hockey Schedule | FULL
While the divisional breakdown will remain unchanged from a season ago, the game count will increase following the 2021-22 campaign. With three games scheduled against their divisional foes and a home-and-away against each of their cross-division combatants, teams will hit the ice for a total of 27 regular season contests this season.
The first of those contests will take place on October 20th, with the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks hosting Toronto Metropolitan University and the Guelph Gryphons welcoming the Waterloo Warriors. The following night sees Western battle Queen's, Ontario Tech travel to Windsor, and York hosting the 2022 finalists from Nipissing.
The final two teams to take the ice on opening weekend (October 22nd) are the Toronto Varsity Blues, who take on the Warriors in a battle of regular season division winners from a season ago, and the Brock Badgers, who begin their title defence against the Gryphons in a West Division semifinal rematch from 2022. The Badgers and Blues will then round out the first week of play with a head-to-head encounter on October 23rd.
The fall calendar, much like the winter, will feature seven weeks of on-ice play, and after a pair of tough matchups for the Badgers to start their year, they will also see some stiff tests to close out the 2022 calendar. In the semester's penultimate week, the team will take on the Mustangs on November 26th, who they shut out in their West Division final from a year ago, before facing off with the Lakers in a McCaw Cup rematch on December 2nd.
The fall semester concludes the following day, on December 3rd, with teams then returning to the ice on January 6th.
Teams will not only need to be sharp heading into the winter break, but coming out of it as well, especially the reigning OUA and U SPORTS finalists from Nipissing. The North Bay squad will follow up their McCaw Cup rematch in the tail end of the fall with a session against their most recent semifinal foes on January 8th. The Lakers took down the top-ranked Blues a season ago to claim the East Division title, and the perennial nationally-ranked squads will both look to come out victorious in one of their first tilts in 2023.
Both of those teams will also be among the squads putting a bow on the regular season on February 18th, as four games will help wrap up the 14th and final week on the schedule and confirm the playoff picture to follow.
The top eight teams will make up the postseason picture, with play switching from the single-game elimination format from a season ago back to best-of-three series in the opening two rounds. The quarterfinals will take place from February 22nd to 26th within the division (i.e., East No. 4 v. East No. 1; West No. 3 v. West No. 2, etc.) with the winners then advancing to the semifinals. The final four squads standing will then crossover for their respective matchups, with the winner of each division's 1v4 matchup taking on the opposing division's 2v3 matchup winner in another best-of-three series from March 1st to 5th.
The conference championship, finally, determining which remaining team will be the latest to claim the coveted McCaw Cup, will take place on March 11th.
