TORONTO, Ont. – The road to the 2025 McCaw Cup will go through Guelph.
 
The Gryphons women's hockey team clinched the OUA's No. 1 overall seed in the upcoming women's hockey playoffs, thanks to a 4-1 road win over the York Lions on Saturday night (Feb. 15) at York University's Canlan Ice Sports Arena.
 
The No. 5-ranked Gryphons had four different goal scorers find the back of the net, with Avery Robinson, Jadyn Calder, Maeve Sutherland-Case and Jessica Teskey all contributing to the Gryphons 20th win of the season, with Gryphons second-year goalie Sophie Helfenstein turning away 30 of the 31 shots sent her way for the win. Saturday night's game marked the regular season finale for both teams, with Guelph wrapping up their 26-game OUA regular season schedule with a record of 20-4-2. The York Lions, meanwhile, finish the regular season with a record of 11-13-2. The Gryphons enter the playoffs having tallied a conference-best 58 points, with the Waterloo Warriors (55 points) the next closest team to the Gryphons in the final OUA standings.
 
2024-25 OUA Women's Hockey Standings
 
Saturday night's matchup between the Gryphons and Lions could very well end up being a first-round playoff preview. With the Gryphons having already clinched the No. 1 spot in the OUA West Division standings, they now await the winner of the division's 'play-in game' – with the OUA West No. 5-seeded York Lions set to take on the OUA West No. 4-seeded Windsor Lancers in a one-game, winner-moves-on game on Thursday, Feb. 20 in Windsor, for the right to face the Gryphons in the OUA Quarterfinals. The Gryphons will host Game 1 of their best-of-three OUA Quarter-finals series on Thursday, February 27 at the Gryphon Centre Arena.