CIS HOCKEY: GAELS, GEE-GEES GO ELECTRONIC FOR PLAYOFFS

MEN'S HOCKEY: The schedule is set for the university hockey playoff series between one team that's near -- the Ottawa Gee-Gees -- and one who's dear -- the Queen's Golden Gaels.

Game 1 of the best-of-3 Ontario University Athletics East quarter-final is Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the U of O Sports Complex. Game 2 is Friday at 7 p.m. at Jock Harty Arena, and a potential Game 3 would be back in the capital on Sunday at 2 p.m. If it goes the distance, we'll be there in some way, shape or form.

The Streaming Sports Network (www.ssncanada.ca) will have live video for the games in Ottawa and a possible audio stream for Friday's game in Kingston, which will air on CFRC 101.9 FM (www.cfrc.ca). The winner will face the Trois-Rivieres Patriotes in the OUA East semifinal.

Queen's (8-14-5-1) finished five points behind Ottawa in the regular season, but beat them 2-1 on Jan. 27 and tied them 2-2 in their first meeting Nov. 3. Gaels rookie goalie Ryan Gibb made 80 saves across those two games. That game late last month was Ottawa's only loss in the past three weeks; coach Dave Leger's Gee-Gees (11-12-3-2) finished the season on a 6-1 roll, and actually helped Queen's earn its playoff seed by beating Concordia 5-1 on Sunday (Kéven Gagné had three points and Martin Bricault made 42 saves).

Meantime, the Gaels pulled off a four-point weekend to edge out Concordia and RMC, securing a playoff berth Saturday night after Jonathon Asselstine got the deciding goal with 5:03 left in a 3-2 win over the Toronto Varsity Blues. Gibb came up big once again in goal as the Gaels were outshot 35-16.

At the same time, the RMC Paladins were eliminated after being held to a 4-4 tie against last-place Ryerson, whose goalie Pierre Beaulieu made 48 saves. It's a disappointing end to some RMC players' careers, such as fifth-year captain Tyler McTavish, not to mention Jim Hulton's first year as coach. RMC needed a three-point weekend and got only one, tying Toronto 2-2 Friday on Kanata native Roman Srutek's goal with 1:03 left.

WOMEN'S HOCKEY: The Tricolour women's bid to finish second in the OUA women's loop and get a bye into the semis took a hit as they could only split their weekend series against Waterloo, taking Sunday's game 4-3 in overtime on a Victoria Kaufman goal 29 seconds into the extra session. Melissa John made 61 saves in the two games. Toronto, though, is only one point back of the Gaels and has a game in hand.

The Ottawa Gee-Gees got 40 saves from Julie Lalonde in a 2-1 upset of No. 1-ranked McGill. The Gee-Gees and Martlets will see a lot of each other in the next month, between the Quebec conference playoffs and next month's CIS nationals in Ottawa.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.