Despite a strong season, the Gaels have some unfinished business.
After shutting out the Toronto Varsity Blues 4-0 on March 15 to clinch a spot in the U SPORTS National Championships, the Men’s Hockey team fell short of a national title in the quarterfinals on March 21 against the Saskatchewan Huskies, losing 2-4 in Ottawa, Ont.
While the result wasn’t what the Gaels had hoped for, Captain Jack Duff, Sci ’26, said the team’s high level of confidence never wavered throughout the season—especially heading into the OUA playoffs.
“We’ve been confident all year. We won 22 games this year, and we knew going into U of T that we were gonna win that game. It’s just that the mindset never changed. […] We had full confidence in our group, we’ve been doing it all year,” Duff said in an interview with The Journal.
Though they outshot the Huskies 38-19, the Gaels couldn’t score at the same rate as their opponent, losing 2-4 in a hard-fought game.
Liam Tanner, Kin ’28, opened the scoring just under two minutes into the game, but the Huskies answered with a powerplay goal five minutes later. The Gaels responded with a powerplay goal of their own three minutes later, courtesy of OUA First Team All-Star Nolan Hutcheson, ArtSci ’25.
Unfortunately, it was the last goal the team scored this season, as they gave up three unanswered goals and fell 2-4 in regulation.
The loss came down to a combination of penalty kill struggles and missed opportunities on offence, said Duff.
“I think our issue was our penalty kill. We let in two, and the third one was right off the kill. I think that was a big aspect of what happened to our game. It got us tired, and then on the offensive side of things, I think we were just throwing pucks out, and we weren’t trying to put it in,” Duff said.
Head Coach Brett Gibson echoed Duff’s disappointment, but emphasized the team stayed true to its identity.
“I felt we played to our identity really strong. It’s who we are; we get on pucks, we have first touches, and we create a lot of offence from that, making teams defend it at great lengths. It was an uncharacteristic night,” Gibson said.
Speaking to the blue collar identity he’s long worked to instill in the program, Gibson feels he’s truly coming close to accomplishing his goals with this team.
“When I say blue collar, I think we are blue collar. We don’t have the amenities that other schools have. We don’t have the arena, we don’t have the resources, but we have each other,” Gibson said.
“Blue collar can be put in many different ways, but to me, it’s just about going on the ice and out working teams on a nightly basis. That’s blue collar, and the things we do away from the rink and at practice that no one knows about are karma, and that’s what our program is all about.”
For Duff and many other players on the team, the early end of their season left many unsatisfied. While nothing is certain yet, Duff feels as though he’ll be back, citing unfinished business.
“I have unfinished business. I obviously wasn’t very excited about how the season went. I think we could’ve done better in nationals and even the OUA. There’s unfinished business for me and a few other guys on the team,” he said.
While the team left nationals empty-handed, Gibson saw this year as a huge step forward for the program.
“When you get to the Elite Eight, you’re playing against the best teams in the country. They [the Huskies] were ranked two and I felt like we outplayed them for the majority of that hockey game, the only place we didn’t was on the scoreboard,” Gibson said. “If you look at what we did throughout the playoffs and throughout the regular season, statistically it’ll go down as probably the best year at Queen’s in hockey history.”
With much of the roster set to return and unfinished business on the table, the Gaels are already looking ahead. The loss may have stung, but it also lit a fire—one that promises to carry over into next season.
Tags
brett gibson, Jack Duff, Men's hockey, U SPORTS Championships
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