KINGSTON, Ont. - The Queen's men's hockey team enters their OUA East semifinal matchup as the lower seed in the series as the three-seeded Gaels take on the second-seeded Concordia Stingers who also claim a national ranking at No.7 in Canada.

GAME 1: Wednesday, February 22, 7:30 p.m. Queen's at Concordia, OUA.tv
GAME 2: Friday, February 24, 7:30 p.m. Concordia at Queen's, OUA.tv | Tickets
GAME 3: Sunday, February 26, 7:30 p.m. Queen's at Concordia, OUA.tv

REGULAR SEASON & OPENING ROUND RECAP

Nov. 19: Queen's 2, Concordia 1
Feb. 10: Concordia 6, Queen's 3

The two teams split their season series but the road team were winners in the opposition rink for the two games. The Gaels took a 2-1 victory at Concordia back on November 19 and lost 6-3 in Kingston on February 10. The latter game featured players from both sides missing from the lineup as they were competing at the FISU Winter Universiade for Canada. The Gaels were down Kevin Bailie (Belleville, Ont.), Slater Doggett (Oakville, Ont.), Spencer Abraham (Campbellville, Ont.) and Eric Ming (Williamstown, Ont.) while Concordia was without their captain Olivier Hinse in the final matchup.

Both teams saw their opening round playoff series go the distance with Concordia defeating UOIT 3-2 in their deciding game and the Gaels winning 2-0 over Ottawa in game three last Saturday.

Ryan Bloom (Calgary) and Peter Angelopolous (Nobleton, Ont.) each had a pair of goals to lead Queen's over the Gee-Gees while the Stingers were led by Anthony De Luca and Olivier Hinse who had two goals apiece in their opening series win. 
 

MUST SEE - @BloomCheds41 scores to even the game at 1-1 in the 1st. Catch the action live on https://t.co/9xTOznwjCF pic.twitter.com/DPagL7kOE5

— #ChaGheill (@queensgaels) February 11, 2017

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Queen's - Spencer Abraham: After impressing at FISU with five goals and six points for Canada Abraham was able to collect a pair of assists in the opening round. Look for him to turn around the Gaels scoreless powerplay unit.

Concordia - Olivier Hinse: Team Canada's captain at FISU and the Stingers leading scorer, Hinse will rely on his time with Bailie in between the pipes at Kazakhstan in Canada to help solve the Queen's netminder in the OUA playoffs.

KEY TO THE SERIES: GOALTENDING

The Gaels will look to their goalie with the superhero Thor on his mask to be their Mjölnir (Thor's Hammer in Norse mythology and one of the most fearsome weapons) leading them past a high scoring Concordia offence. Bailie was spectacular in the opening round against Ottawa posting a 1.22 GAA and 0.962 SV% across three games while playing 245:26 which is the equivalent to four full games plus an additional 5:26. This series marks the third time Bailie has had a chance to make it to the OUA East final and he will surely be on his game against Concordia.

For the Stingers, they will be relying on rookie netminder Philippe Cadorette to lead them past the low-scoring Gaels. Cadorette posted a modest 2.70 GAA and 0.916 SV% in the regular season and saw those numbers shift to 2.34 and 0.920 against UOIT in the playoffs.