PLAYOFF PREVIEW: Men’s hockey to face Redbirds in opening round

The Gee-Gees clinched a spot in the playoffs at McConnell Arena, and they'll be opening the postseason at McConnell Arena.

With the OUA regular season wrapping up, the playoff matchups have been set. The sixth-ranked Gee-Gees (13-11-2, 28 points) will faceoff with the third-seeded McGill Redbirds (14-8-4, 32 points) in the opening round.

The winner will face the UQTR Patriotes in the OUA quarterfinals.

The best-of-three series begins Wednesday, Feb. 15 in Montreal, with game two going in Ottawa on Friday, Feb. 17. If necessary, game three will take place at McConnell Arena on Sunday, Feb. 19. All games start at 7:00 p.m. 

Tickets for game two are on sale at tickets.geegees.ca. 

"It was good to get a couple of days rest and let the guys enjoy Super Bowl Sunday," said Gee-Gees head coach Patrick Grandmaitre. "But we're right back to work on Monday. Playoff preparation is always a bit of a deeper look into a team, and we've played them all year." 

Ottawa has had decent luck against McGill this season, taking five of six points off the Redbirds. In addition to their pivotal win on Thursday, Feb. 9 to secure a playoff spot, the Gee-Gees thrashed McGill 6-1 at McConnell in November before falling in overtime in the penultimate game of the 2022 calendar year.

The two teams have squared off in the playoffs once since the Gee-Gees program restarted in 2016-17. McGill ended Ottawa's 2017-18 season in the second round by defeating them in game three 6-3.

The Gee-Gees were paced offensively in goals and points by Mathieu Desgagnés, although he didn't play in the final four regular season games. Captain Anthony Poulin led the team in points, with Jean-Philippe Tourigny starting seven of the team's nine games in the second half. 

Eric Uba, William Rouleau and Brandon Frattaroli are the key offensive players for McGill, while one-time Montreal Canadiens third-round pick Scott Walford leads them from the backend. Alexis Shank and Emanuel Vella have split time nearly evenly this year – and on the Redbirds deep run in the 2022-23 playoffs – and handicapping a starter any given night would be pure speculation.

The Redbirds boast the conference's second-best powerplay (26.2 percent), but their penalty kill (76 percent) leaves something to be desired. Ottawa's special teams are average among their conference foes – their powerplay fired at 22.7 percent in the regular season and their penalty kill was at 84.6 percent.

Carleton (14-9-3, 31 points) will host Ontario Tech (13-10-3, 29 points) in the other first round matchup, with UQTR (21-4-1, 43 points) and Concordia (19-7-0, 38 points) earning byes.

The OUA West opening round sees Brock (17-9-1, 35 points) host Laurier (13-13-1, 27 points) and Toronto Metropolitan (16-9-2, 34 points) host Toronto (14-10-3, 31 points). Lakehead and Windsor hold identical 18-6-3 records and earned byes. 

All OUA playoff games can be streamed live, for free, on OUA.tv.