OUA East Division powerhouses open the Queen's Cup playoffs Wednesday

BURLINGTON, Ont. – With the quest for the 106^th Queen's Cup scheduled to begin Wednesday night, here's a quick look at the OUA East Division playoff matchups.  Fans can catch all the action streaming live throughout the postseason on OUA.tv.   

No. 1 McGill Redmen (21-4-3) vs. No. 8 Laurentian Voyageurs (11-12-5)

Coming off a regular season finale against each other, the Redmen and Voyageurs are the two teams most familiar with their opening round opponent in the division.  McGill is expected to have their top three players back in the lineup after missing five games while playing for the OUA all-star squad that won bronze for Canada at the FISU Winter Games.

The high-powered McGill offence found the back of the net 104 times during the regular season, the third highest goal total in the conference.  Laurentian will need to play a disciplined game if they hope to upset the No. 1 seeds, as McGill benefited from their league-leading 164 power play opportunities, scoring 34 times to lead the conference while on the man advantage.

Goals were much harder to come by this season for the Voyageurs, who averaged just 2.79 per game.  Winners of three of their final four regular season games, Laurentian appears to be getting hot at just the right time as they are averaging almost 5.5 goals per game over that span.

McGill swept their two-game regular season series with the Voyageurs, however, they needed OT to do so on Saturday night in a 5-4 Redmen win.    

Redmen to Watch: F Patrick Delisle-Houde – 27 GP, 13 G, 12 A, 25 PTS

Voyageurs to Watch: F Nick Esposto – 27 GP, 11 G, 6 A, 17 PTS

No. 2 Concordia Stingers (19-7-2) vs. No. 7 UOIT Ridgebacks (16-11-1)

The only team to score more goals in East Division than the previously mentioned Redmen is their crosstown rivals the Concordia Stingers.  Concordia heads out on the road for Game 1 of its opening round matchup against a Ridgebacks team that is unbeaten so far in the month of February.

The Stingers surely buzzed around the net this season as they averaged 4.21 goals per game, the second highest mark in OUA.  A major reason for their success this year has been a dominant power-play unit that scored at a rate of 24.5 percent during the regular season.  UOIT needs to be equally as careful when it is on the man advantage as the Stingers have stung their opposition for seven short-handed goals already this year.

Despite being short-handed 121 times this season, the UOIT penalty kill established itself as one of the best in the league, killing off the man advantage at a success rate of 86.8 percent, the fourth highest mark in the conference.  When they manage to flip the script on the opposition, the Ridgebacks found the back of the net 20 times this season while up a man.

Each of their meetings this year were decided by just one goal with the Stingers prevailing 4-3 on Nov. 18 and 5-4 (OT) on Dec. 2.

Stingers to Watch: F Anthony De Luca – 28 GP, 24 G, 19 A, 43 PTS

Ridgebacks to Watch: F Cameron Yuill – 28 GP, 7 G, 16 A, 23 PTS

No. 3 Queen's Gaels (18-7-3) vs. No. 6 uOttawa Gee-Gees (15-8-5)

In just their first season back in the league, the Gee-Gees really turned some heads and will be a serious "dark horse" heading into their opening round matchup the Gaels.

While the Redmen and Stingers are known for filling up the net, the Gaels have based their success this season around keeping the puck out of it.  Queen's is one of the stingier teams in the division, having allowed just 68 goals against year thanks to solid goaltending and disciplined play.  The team in tricolour took just 74 penalties this season, 27 times fewer than…  You guessed it: the Ottawa Gee-Gees.

If you asked anyone outside of the Gee-Gees locker room how their first season back in OUA would go, you'd likely be hard pressed to find someone mention a postseason berth, especially as the No. 6 seed.  A major reason for their resurgence was the hard work of a pesky penalty killing unit that allowed only 13 goals against in 101 opportunities.  After rattling off seven straight wins to open 2017, the Gee-Gees have stumbled a bit as of late and enter Wednesday with only one win in their final four games.

The two teams split their regular season meetings with Queen's winning 4-2 on Oct. 8 and the Gee-Gees returning the favour in a 6-3 victory back on Nov. 25.

Gaels to Watch: D Spencer Abraham – 22 GP, 3 G, 13 A, 16 PTS

Gee-Gees to Watch: D Adam Beveridge – 28 GP, 4 G, 10 A, 14 PTS

No. 4 Carleton Ravens (16-9-3) vs. No. 5 UQTR Patriotes (16-9-3)

It's hard to imagine that only one of the two East Division finalists from 2016 will advance past the first round a year later but that's the case when Carleton and UQTR open their series on Wednesday.  With the exception of 2014, the Ravens and Patriotes have met in the playoffs in five of the past six years.

Both the Ravens and Patriotes will be glad to welcome back some familiar faces to their respective lineups as 10 players rejoin their clubs after spending the last couple weeks in Almaty, Kazakhstan representing Canada at the FISU Winter Universiade.

Despite taking the fifth most penalties in the league, the Ravens penalty kill was the best in the conference, killing off 90.4 percent of the opposition's chances.  A major key to their success in this area was their staunch defence and goaltending, which only allowed 2.15 goals against per game.

For the defending Queen's Cup champions, the Patriotes are a shoot first and ask questions later style offence that scored 103 goals this season, the third most in OUA.  It'll be a battle of special teams on a nightly basis, as UQTR's fourth ranked power-play will go head-to-head with the top ranked Ranks penalty-kill.

Each team picked up a win head-to-head on the road this season.   

Ravens to Watch: F Michael McNamee – 24 GP, 12 G, 21 A, 33 PTS

Patriotes to Watch: F Pierre-Olivier Morin – 22 GP, 12 G, 22 A, 34 PTS