The Queen's Gaels had quite a final weekend to wrap up the 2022 CUFLA regular season. With McGill coming to Kingston on Saturday with visions of beating Queen's to set up a first-place showdown against Trent in Peterborough the following day, the Gaels threw a wrench in those plans and ultimately earned a home playoff date against the Redbirds.
Queen's 13, McGill 7
Box score
Queen's broke open a tight game by scoring 6 straight goals en route to closing out their win with an 8-1 run with goals coming from seven different players. As a result, McGill will have to return to Kingston next weekend for a rematch.
While McGill's Saturday loss clinched first in the East for Trent, the Redbirds could still have captured second with a win over the Excalibur Sunday, but wound up dropping a 12-11 decision in an exciting contest at Justin Chiu Stadium. That dropped McGill into fourth, the first time since 2010 that they haven't finished first or second in the East Division (outside of last fall, when they were not able to play).
Queen's, under new head coach Connor Kearnan, is looking like a deep club that is building belief they can compete with anyone. On Saturday, Winston Bashford-Land had a hat trick and four other plays scored 2 goals each. That included Carter McKenzie and Curtis Plante, who wound up tied for the team's scoring lead with 26 points each and who added 4 and 2 assists, respectively in the game.
The Gaels still had a bit of work to do to clinch a home playoff game, even with McGill's loss to Trent; they had Ottawa coming to town and needed to beat the winless Gee-Gees to move into a tie with Bishop's at 7-3. Queen's took care of business, roaring out to a 5-0 lead and cruising to a 19-7 win.
Other Week 7 CUFLA Games
October 19
McGill 8, Bishop's 6
Box score
McGill Athletics story
It was a busy weekend for McGill. They played their second three-game weekend of the season, which could help them prepare for the challenge of having to play three games in three days at the Baggataway Cup championship. The Redbirds took a step towards getting there when they opened with a win over the Gaiters Thursday night at home. Ethan Forgrave had 3 goals and an assist, all in the first half, as McGill outscored Bishop's 6-2 through 30 minutes then held on for the win as the Gaiters rallied to pull within one midway through the fourth quarter. A final goal by Isaiah Cree with 5:29 to play allowed McGill to hang on for the win.
October 21
Toronto 10, McMaster 6
Box score
It was definitely a weekend for strong starts paying off in Week 7. Toronto blanked McMaster 3-0 in the first quarter and pulled ahead 7-2 by halftime to beat the Marauders. The Varsity Blues (5-5) wound up in fourth place and will head to Brock to play the Badgers (6-4) in the playoffs for a Baggataway Cup berth.
October 22
Bishop's 14, Ottawa 4
Box score
The Gaiters could ensure themselves a home game by beating Ottawa, and they didn't leave anything to chance, putting up quarter scores of 4-1, 4-1, 3-1 and 3-1. With McGill's loss to Trent Sunday, that clinched second place and a home game this weekend for Bishop's (7-3) against Carleton (5-5).
Western 7, Guelph 6
Box score
Western kept their slim hopes of finishing first in the West Division alive by coming out on top of a back and forth battle with the Gryphons. Western went ahead 5-2 at the half with three unanswered second-quarter goals, but Guelph responded by blanking the Mustangs 4-0 in the third, pushing them ahead 6-5. In the fourth, it was Western's turn to post a scoreless frame and they added goals by Scott Del Zotto and Connor Murphy to improve to 9-1.
The Mustangs then had to await the result of Guelph's Sunday game against Laurentian because the Gryphons held the tiebreaker after having beaten Western 12-5 in their September meeting to win the head-to-head. When Guelph won to also become 9-1, it meant the Gryphons would play Laurier (2-8) while the Mustangs would take on McMaster (4-6) next weekend.
Brock 9, McMaster 3
Box score
McMaster held leads of 1-0 and 3-1, thanks largely to a pair of goals from Mitchell Pellarin. Dreams of an upset evaporated, though, when Brock scored 3 goals in three minutes of the second quarter and shut out the Marauders the rest of the way en route to the win that clinched third place and a home playoff game for the Badgers.
Queen's 19, Ottawa 7
Box score
See above
Trent 12, McGill 11
Box score
With first place clinched in the East, Trent came out looking like a team that had less on the line than McGill, who could still have earned second place with a win by the Otonabee River. The Redbirds opened the scoring when John Miraglia connected a minute and a half in. After a Colton Armstrong response tied it up, McGill put together a string of 4 goals in four minutes to stun the Excalibur and their fans.
A pair from Trent's leading goal scorer, Cole Hanrahan, pulled them a bit closer. Then, after McGill's Cameron McGinnis scored just six seconds after the opening whistle of the second quarter, Trent went on a 4-1 run with goals from four different players (defender Curtis Conley, Armstrong, Tyler Hendrycks and Taite Cattoni) to even things up with 17 seconds to play till halftime. It looked like the third quarter would start 7-7, but another faceoff win by Sam MacDonald led to another quick goal—this one by Rowan Birrell—and the Redbirds edged ahead before the intermission.
Trent was clearly ready to play when the game resumed; they dominated the third quarter and outscored McGill 4-1 in the frame. Conley extended the lead to 12-9 with the first goal of the fourth, giving him a hat trick of pole goals.
It looked like things were all settled, but McGill kept battling. Ethan Forgrave, who wound up as the team's third-leading scorer but played primarily a defensive role Sunday, stepped up to score on a rip through traffic just inside the near post just under five minutes from full time. Then McGinnis drove through a defender to bang home shot on top of the crease and it was a one-goal game.
With 1:09 to play, and given the knack McGill had shown for scoring quickly off faceoffs, nothing was settled yet. The Excalibur hung on to win the game and finish the regular season on a winning note. As the Baggataway Cup hosts and East first seed, their next game will be on Semifinal Saturday, October 5, vs the winner of the Friday quarterfinal between the West two seed and East three seed.
Brock 10, Laurier 3
Box score
The Badgers and Golden Hawks were already locked in to third and sixth, respectively, in the standings. Then they locked into a close contest through three quarters, with Laurier pulling within 2 goals when Ben Penny-Perreault scored just over four minutes from the end of the third. But Brock posted 5 unanswered goals in the fourth for the final margin of victory.
Guelph 12, Laurentian 1
Box score unavailable
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