ELMIRA, Ont. - As if it could have shaken out any other way.
Despite losing in the first round of the OUA playoffs, the host Waterloo Warriors were rewarded for their strong regular season with the #6 seed in the 2026 Miller Waste U SPORTS Women's Hockey Championship, jumping ahead of conference finalists Manitoba (#7) and Montreal (#8).
The result: a chance at revenge against #3 Guelph, whose triple-overtime game three victory ended Waterloo's McCaw Cup hopes.
The Gryphons would go on to win the McCaw Cup over the Ottawa Gee-Gees, while the Warriors took two weeks to rest up before taking the ice at Woolwich Memorial Centre for a tune-up scrimmage with the Nipissing Lakers on Friday.
It seems fitting these two teams should meet in Elmira. Waterloo's 2025-2026 campaign began at home against Guelph with a 5-0 pre-season victory. The regular season series was split with both teams winning one at home. The Gryphons, of course, took the playoff series two games to one, with the home team winning each game once again.
So the season series, all told, sits at 3-3, with a seventh game set for Thursday that will send one team to the national semifinal and another to the consolation bracket.
Neither team has beaten the other on the road this season. The Warriors are the tournament hosts, but the Gryphons will have last change as the higher seed. Woolwich Memorial Centre sits 13.4 KM north of Columbia IceField Arena, and 28.4 KM west of Gryphon Centre Arena, so a strong crowd for both sides is to be expected.
The most important distance at play here, however, is 85 feet. That's the width of the ice at Woolwich Memorial Centre, the same as Waterloo's home rink. The Warriors struggled to create chances at times on Guelph's international sized ice, which is 13.4 feet wider.
At home, the Gryphons' were able to play aggressively in the offensive zone and count on their speed allowing their defenders to get back to prevent rush chances. In game two of the playoff series, all five of Waterloo's first period goals came off rush chances, with the black and gold taking advantage of a pinching defender or a bad change to create 2-on-1s or breakaways the other way.
This season, the Warriors have outscored the Gryphons 15-1 on home ice, while the margin at Gryphon Centre Arena was much closer at 11-8, with all three games being decided by just one goal.
Both teams are very familiar with each other's playstyles now, and it will be interesting to see what the next moves in the season-long chess match between Warriors Head Coach Shaun Reagan and Gryphons' bench boss Katie Mora will be.
One of the more pivotal turns came in the aforementioned game two, when Mora pulled OUA West second team all-star Sophie Helfenstein from the net in favour of 2024 OUA West Goaltender of the Year Martina Fedel, who'd recently returned from representing team Italy at the Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina.
Fedel allowed three more goals that game, but stopped 45 of 47 shots, including all 28 in overtime, in game three. She was nearly unbeatable the rest of the playoffs, shutting out Ontario Tech in back-to-back games in the OUA semifinals and allowing just one goal in the McCaw Cup final. She finished the OUA playoffs atop the conference in wins (4), GAA (1.05), and SV% (.953).
Kara Mark (New Hamburg, Ont./Waterloo Oxford District Secondary School and Victus Academy), the 2025 OUA West Goaltender of the year, had an excellent postseason as well, posting a 1.81 GAA and .937 SV% in Waterloo's lone three-game series.
It's not just between the pipes where these teams have won some hardware, however. Guelph's Katherine Heard took home this year's OUA West MVP after leading the division with 25 points – eight goals and 17 assists – in the regular season. Last year's OUA West MVP was Waterloo's Carly Orth (Bolton, Ont./Humberview Secondary School), who tied for the conference lead with 31 points. Orth scored 10 goals and 12 assists for 22 points this season.
Both have been at their best when playing each other this year. Heard has three goals and three assists in five games against the Warriors, while Orth has scored two and assisted on six for eight points in five games against the Gryphons.
The Warriors' edge continues to be their scoring depth. They had eight players finish the regular season with 0.5 or more points per game, including Keiara Raitt (Ancaster, Ont./Ancaster High School) who had a monster second half of the season after returning from injury, with 11 goals and 16 points in 16 games. She was a big reason Waterloo led the OUA with 78 goals.
The gryphons, meanwhile, rely primarily on their top line for offence, with Heard, Maeve Sutherland-Case, and Jadyn Calder their only players above the 0.5 ppg threshold in the regular season. That line, however, is an absolute force to be reckoned with, combining for nearly a goal per game.
Finally, the X-factor for Waterloo will be what it has been all season – staying out of the penalty box. The Warriors ranked dead last in the OUA with an 80% penalty kill in the regular season, while placing third in times shorthanded (95) and second in power play goals against (19 – 36% of their total goals surrendered). There's an argument to be made there's no better team in Canada at 5-on-5 than the black and gold, so avoiding unnecessary penalties will be crucial to Waterloo's national championship hopes.
The path to the Golden Path trophy begins in Elmira, in the kind of popcorn-ready grudge match the hockey gods don't hand out very often. This is one you won't want to miss.
Puckdrop is set for 7:00 PM on Thursday, March 19. Tickets are still available at gowarriorsgo.ca/whtickets. Student packages including transportation from CIF to Woolwich Memorial Centre are only $15. Hop on the bus and come cheer on the Warriors on the national stage.
