Women's hockey gets underway while contenders begin emerging on men's side
Toronto, Ont. (49 Sports, Ben Steiner/Richard Coffey) - As OUA men’s hockey entered its second week, the women’s game dropped the puck on their 2023-24 campaign.
While four games are still early on the men’s side, some themes are coming to light in how teams will play through the season's opening half, before a potentially hefty recruiting time over the winter break.
Meanwhile, the latest weekend of play gave us a first glance at what the OUA women’s hockey scene could look like in 2023-24, the final year with 11 teams, as uOttawa and Carleton are set to join in 2024-25.
49 Sports is back for Week 2 of OUA hockey takeaways.
WHKY: Waterloo’s dynamic duo pick up where they left off
If the Waterloo Warriors’ fortunes in 2023-24 rest on the backs of Leah Herrfort and Tatum James, then one game into the season, they are off to a pretty strong start. Nothing more can be said that already hasn’t been about the pair of Warriors veterans. With Herrfort netting a league-leading 36 points and James following in second with 29 a season ago, along with 15 goals apiece, the pair led the Warriors to a second straight OUA West Division title.
With the spotlight on them on Thursday in an opening night matchup against the Windsor Lancers, the pair jumped right back into action. After Faith Mitchell opened the scoring for Waterloo in the first period, seven minutes into the second, Herrfort potted her first goal of the season past Kristen Swiatoschik before James added her first 24 seconds later. The Lancers got one back in the third, but Waterloo cruised to a strong 3-1 win.
The Warriors kept a lot of their depth from their league-leading 85-goal offence from a season ago, but did lose one key piece in Carley Olivier. The two-time reigning OUA defender of the year graduated from Waterloo after a second consecutive point-per-game season with 23 in 23 games. Olivier now looks to move forward to the professional level as she heads to the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s New York franchise’s training camp ahead of its inaugural season.
Meanwhile, the Warriors must find that third piece beyond Herrfort and James that Olivier filled the previous two years. Fifth-year Trisha Cho is now the top remaining scorer on defence after picking up 15 assists a season ago. Whether she or someone else can comfortably step into Olivier’s role will go a long way in helping chart the Warriors’ future this season.
WHKY: Nipissing Lakers show dominance on opening weekend
The opening weekend could not have gone much better for the Nipissing Lakers, as they picked up a pair of dominant 4-1 wins against the Toronto Varsity Blues and TMU Bold to begin their 2023-24 season.
Despite critical players from last season’s run to the McCaw Cup final graduating, the Lakers controlled play against an experienced Varsity Blues team on opening night and got top quality conversions from their primary players.
Emma Thomas, Abbey Lunney, Katie Chomiak, and Madison Desmarais all scored in the opening game effort, with last year’s leading scorer, Malory Dominico, chipping in with an assist. Meanwhile, goaltender Chantelle Sandquist pushed aside 22 of 23 Toronto shots.
While head coach Darren Turcotte has retooled the team with younger talents in the offseason, the student-athletes stepped up in the opening week of the season, showing vigor, tenacity and organized play in the win over the defending champions.
At the same time, holding Toronto to 23 shots is a challenging task.
Although the season-opening victory in the McCaw Cup rematch took the primary focus for the weekend, the Lakers maintained their momentum through the second game, downing the TMU Bold in front of the weekend’s largest OUA women’s hockey crowd.
In the second game, Maggie McKee stepped up with a goal and an assist, while Lunney added a similar toll to her tally. Still, Chomiak led the team with a goal and two helpers, vaulting her to the top of conference scoring list after the first week.
The Lakers may look a bit different on the ice than in seasons past, but consistency in effort, systems, and ability to shut down opposing teams and strike in possession makes them even more of a contender after the opening week than they were going in.
MHKY: Brock Badgers making the most of the OUA West
After two weeks, three men’s hockey teams in the OUA still hold undefeated records, but few have looked more consistent and composed than the Brock Badgers.
Having opened the season with a pair of wins against reigning Queen’s Cup semifinalists Lakehead, the Badgers beat two lower-ranked teams this weekend, doing so confidently and with immense structure.
On Friday, they downed the Guelph Gryphons 4-2 before picking apart the Western Mustangs to the tune of a 5-1 victory -- with both victories coming away from home.
While other top teams often have players that stand out above the rest scoring-wise, the Badgers have impressed with their depth, as 12 players posted points on the weekend, including three-point games from Justin Brack and Jared Marino in the Western victory.
What has stood out is the Badgers' fluidity in neutral zone transitions, something that hasn’t always been there for the Brock program over the last several years. Early in 2023-24, they are showing an ability to maneuver the puck into offensive spaces quickly, and when they do, they create crowded shooting lanes to get shots on goal.
Heading into the year, some doubts surrounded head coach TJ Manastersky’s goaltending. Now, two weeks into the season, it looks as though Connor Ungar will continue to be the starter, riding a hot early stretch with four wins and a .940 save percentage on 116 shots.
Brock’s upcoming weekend will provide them with their toughest test yet, a challenging trip to Kingston to take on the also-perfect Queen’s Gaels, and a clash against the bruising RMC Paladins.
MHKY: Queen’s continues strong early season start
The Queen’s Gaels just missed the Queen’s Cup playoffs last season, and if their start to the new season is any indication, they have no plans of missing them again. After blowout wins on the road against the York Lions and Ontario Tech Ridgebacks to open the campaign, the Gaels returned to the Kingston Memorial Centre to take down the Ottawa Gee-Gees and Carleton Ravens.
A key reason for the Gaels’ strong run of play has to be the absolute meteoric start for sophomore forward Dalton Duhart. After a respectable four goals and nine points in 26 games in his rookie campaign, Duhart already has bagged seven goals and 14 points through his first four games. On Friday, he picked up a hat trick and an assist in Queen’s 5-3 win over the Gee-Gees, and a night later, added two goals and two assists in their 4-2 win over the Ravens.
After potting just 66 goals in 26 games a year ago, the Gaels are already up to 24 goals in their first four this season. Along with a strong start from freshman goalie Aidan Spooner, who sits 3-0-0 with a .940 save percentage through his first three OUA starts, the Gaels find themselves in a strong early position.
Head coach Brett Gibson will hope for his team to continue their hot start this weekend when they make a pair of cross-divisional road trip stops. On Friday, Queen’s heads to Guelph for the first time since January 2020, while on Saturday, they take on the also undefeated Badgers for the first time since October 2018 and do so in St. Catharines for the first time since January 2017.
