TORONTO - The journey to the Queen's Cup OUA Championship begins this week for the Rams as they face Lakehead in a best-of-three first round series. 

Back in early October 2019, the Rams hit the ice with their sights set on the coveted trophy after a heart-breaking second-round exit in 2018-19. The Rams were humbled with a slow start this season, going 2-2-1 in their first five games while allowing five or more goals in three of them. Once Ryerson found their footing, they triumphantly climbed back up to exactly match their 2018-19 record of 20-5-3. 

Recently, the nationally fifth-ranked Rams have demonstrated their competitive side, losing just twice throughout their 11 games in 2020. As they have with their entire Rams career, Matt Mistele (Whitby, Ont.) and Mathew Santos (Toronto) were atop the team leaderboards with 36 points each. Santos clung to a team-best 15 goals, while Mistele led the squad with 22 assists. Entering the playoffs, Devon Paliani (LaSalle, Ont.) is on fire, boasting a seven-game point streak. Paliani has had his name on the scoresheet in all but two games in 2020, with five goals and six assists for 11 points in his seven-game streak. 

Reigning over in Thunder Bay, the Lakehead Thunderwolves stand in the Rams' way in the first round. Lakehead was the last team to clinch a playoff spot in the OUA-West, although they wound up as the seventh seed thanks to Western's three-game slide. 

On paper, the series is not a mismatch. While Lakehead finished with a 13-12-3 record, they pack plenty of offensive firepower amongst their forward core. Thunderwolves forwards Daniel Del Paggio, Tomas Soustal, and Josh Laframboise all produced at a point-per-game or more. Del Paggio and Soustal had 33 and 32 points respectively, while Laframboise ended up fifth in OUA scoring with 16 goals, as well as 28 points. 

The Rams will look to contain these forwards, forcing Lakehead's depth to mobilize. The Thunderwolves had only seven skaters reach double digits in points while Ryerson had 13 players put up ten or more. Only one Lakehead defenceman, rookie Kyle Auger, was among them with 19 points. Meanwhile, Gregory DiTomaso (Etobicoke, Ont.) led the OUA in points from a defenceman with 26 while Zachary Shankar (Prescott, Ont.) collected 15 himself. 

In a back-to-back series earlier this season, the squads exchanged 3-2 wins. In their loss, the Rams had trouble fazing Lakehead netminder Nic Renyard, especially in the third period.  While Renyard started for the Thunderwolves for most of the season, he has not hit the ice so far in February. Freshman goalie Brock Aiken has shifted into the starter spotlight, collecting a 2-1-0 record to close out the season. Ryerson will try to test the rookie as he has just eight games of experience under his belt. On the back end, the extremely capable tandem of Garrett Forrest (Ashburn, Va.) and Taylor Dupuis (New Liskeard, Ont.) will anchor the Rams in net. 

A final factor to consider are the squad's special teams. Lakehead's power-play ended near the bottom of the OUA table, operating at 14.8 percent. Ryerson's even 20 percent efficiency was good for seventh in the league. On the penalty-kill, the two teams are evenly matched at 13th and 14th with Lakehead at 78.8% and the Rams at 78.3%. Neither squad is penalized too often, with the Rams collecting the second-least amount of penalty minutes with 276 as opposed to Lakehead being fifth-lowest at 308. 

As the Rams have home-ice advantage, they will host games two and three if necessary. Puck drop for game one is set for 7:00 p.m. in Thunder Bay on Wednesday. Games two and three will be on Saturday and Sunday at 7:15 p.m. at the Mattamy Athletic Centre. All Ryerson students can attend for free with their OneCard, and stream game one live at OUA.tv