University of Guelph’s women’s hockey going for eighth OUA title

Guelph will be hosting some of the best university hockey players in the province. CTV’s Colton Wiens has a preview on what to expect.

The University of Guelph women’s hockey team is one win away from being provincial champions for the eighth time in the program’s history.

The University of Guelph Gryphons will host the University of Ottawa in the McCaw Cup on Saturday afternoon.

“We worked all season for this, so, I think everything that we’ve been through all season just prepares you for these moments. It’s exciting,” Katherine Heard, a forward and captain of the Gryphons women’s hockey team, said.

“We’re feeling good. This is obviously a really exciting time for our athletes, and I’m so proud of all the work they put in to be here,” Katie Mora, head coach of the Gryphons women’s hockey team, said.

The Gryphons are full of talent. Fifth year goalie Martina Fedel just represented Italy at the Olympics and followed that up by shutting out Ontario Tech University in the OUA semifinals. Heard was named OUA West MVP this season and an OUA West first team all-star. Guelph also finished the regular season in second place in Ontario and were ranked as high as third in the country by U Sports in October.

“I have so much respect for athletes that they trusted the game plan that we put in place and ultimately executed to achieve the next step in their goal,” Mora said.

But the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees aren’t an easy opponent. Ottawa has played in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec for most of their history and joined the OUA last season. They’re going for their first Ontario championship on Saturday, after finishing the season second in the east. Ottawa took down the University of Toronto and Wilfrid Laurier University to make it to the provincial final.

“They’re a physical team and they just came off a really exciting series against Laurier. So, I think just sticking to our game and trying to bury some goals,” Heard said.

No matter who wins the McCaw Cup on Saturday, both Ottawa and Guelph have earned a spot in the U Sports National Championship, which will be hosted in Elmira for the second year in a row by the University of Waterloo. The Gryphons know they’ll have to beat the Warriors again if they want to win a national title.

“Preparation is so important. Any time that you have experience competing against teams that you see at nationals helps with the next goal that we have at hand, which is to win,” Mora said.

While nationals are exciting, Guelph’s focus is on the provincial title this weekend. They hope playing close to home will help.

“Any time that you can keep routine as part of game day preparation is really important. And being able to host McCaw and having our fans here is going to be super special. And obviously Elmira is just down the road, so, there’s a lot of things that we can prepare here that will help us when we get there,” Mora said.

The McCaw Cup is a one game elimination championship. Puck drop is at 3 p.m. on Saturday at Gryphon Centre Arena