The University of Toronto Varsity Blues women's hockey team takes on the Western Mustangs in a best-of-three OUA quarter-final series, February 21-24.
 
Game 1: at Western, Wednesday, February 21, 7:00 p.m.
Game 2: at Toronto, Friday, February 23, 7:00 p.m.
Game 3: at Western, Saturday, February 24, 7:00 p.m.*
*if necessary
 
The Blues finished the season in sixth place in the highly competitive OUA standings with a 13-0-9-3 (W-OTW-L-OTL) record, while the Mustangs finished third with a 14-3-5-2 record.
 
The two teams split the season series as Toronto edged Western, 2-1, on Nov. 3 in London, before narrowly falling 3-2 at home on Jan. 6.
 
Their last post-season meeting came in the 2014 quarter-finals, where Toronto came away with a thrilling 2-1 series victory. All three games were decided by just one goal, with two going into overtime.
 
It will be a battle of rookie netminders as Toronto's Madeleine Albert and Western's Carmen Lasis have backstopped their teams all season.
 
Albert, a humanities major from Whitby, Ont., finished the regular season ranked second among OUA goaltenders in both GAA (1.32) and save percentage (.945), while notching five shut outs. Lasis ranked fourth in the province with a 1.48 GAA and seventh with a .940 save percentage and recorded four shut outs.
 
Fourth-year forward Kassie Roache led the Blues offensively, scoring a team-high 11 goals and 20 points, while defencemen Julia Szulewska and Gabrielle De Serres led the squad with 10 assists each.
 
For the Mustangs, third-year forward April Clark led or co-led the team in all offensive categories with 12 goals and 10 assists for 22 points, while adding four powerplay goals as well.
 
Western enters the playoffs riding a six-game win streak and with a lot on the line. The Mustangs host the 2018 U SPORTS championship, March 15-18, and will want to prove that they belong in the national tournament with their automatic host berth.  The Blues went on a five-game win streak (Jan. 20 – Feb 3), before dropping their last two games of the season.

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