Men’s Hockey (2-0 OUA Playoffs)

@ McGill (2-0 OUA Playoffs) Wednesday, February 22, 7:00 p.m.

Host McGill on Friday, February 24, 7:00 p.m. at the uOttawa Minto Sports Complex

After recently emerging on the victorious side of a first round sweep, the Gee-Gees will be taking on the top seeded OUA East team, the McGill Redmen, in the second round of the playoffs. Game one of the best of three series will take place at McGill on Wednesday evening, before the teams switch gears and head back to uOttawa for game two on Friday night.

The semi-final opponents were the only two teams in the OUA East to sweep their first round series, doing so with identical goals-for and goals-against statistics, with eight and three respectively.

While McGill swept the Garnet and Grey in the regular season head-to-head, the Gee-Gees are coming off some convincing post season play in which they only allowed three goals against a Nipissing team that boasted a high flying offense that had scored the second most goals in the OUA East regular season.

Rookie goaltender Russell Abbott (Mill Bay, B.C.) has provided the Gee-Gees with a solid last line of defence through the first round, currently sporting a 1.50 goals against average and boasting a 0.941 save percentage, second best in the postseason thus far.

“Russell has had to come up with some big saves so far, especially in the first game,” said Gee-Gees first year head coach Réal Paiement. “In the playoffs, your goaltender is a large part of your success, so as long as he is playing solid we will give ourselves a chance to win.”

However, it is at the other end of the ice that may have to be the focus of Gee-Gee preparation, as the Redmen were the second best defensive team in the country during the regular season, allowing only 62 goals against through 28 games. Also, in their four regular season matchups, the Garnet and Grey could only generate five goals against McGill, who had the top-two ranked goaltenders in the OUA East as well.

The Gee-Gees will look to their top line of Matthieu Mehot (Ottawa, Ont.), Stephen Blunden (Ottawa, Ont.), and Luc Olivier Blain (Longueuil, Que.), as well as breakout rookie Alexandre Touchette (Gatineau, Que.) to continue their strong offensive play that they have put on display through two playoff games. Touchette is currently tied for the lead in OUA playoff scoring with four goals.

“Obviously right now we are going to need two lines to roll. Our top lines are made of leaders, and they know what it takes to lead us,” said Paiement. “The depth of having two high production lines is important against a team that finished with the best defensive record in the league.”

McGill also possesses a dynamic offensive game that the Gee-Gees will need to focus on.

“McGill is a talented, skilled, well-coached squad,” said Paiement. “Having said that, their biggest strength is their work ethic and for us to match their work ethic is not going to be enough. We are going to have to out-work and out-compete them in order to win.”