GUELPH – It's the payoff for navigating the grind of the long regular season. The OUA playoffs are here. And for the No. 6-ranked Guelph Gryphons men's hockey team, it's a time to forget about the numerous wins from the last few months and refocus on what's immediately ahead.

For the Gryphons, that would be the Windsor Lancers. The two rivals meet in an OUA West quarter-final best two of three series, which gets underway Thursday, Feb. 15 at Gryphon Centre Arena. Guelph went an impressive 21-6-1 this season, scoring a conference-best 122 goals.
 
Head coach Shawn Camp knows all that success means little now, especially against a dangerous team like Windsor, which has had the Gryphons' number this season.
 
"We finished the season on a high note with two big wins against two quality teams in York and Ryerson but the guys are smart enough to know that it's a whole new season," said Camp. "We have to earn our wins again in the playoffs."
 
Camp and his players know it will be a battle with Windsor (10-11-7, eighth place in the OUA West. There's no love lost between the two teams and the feisty matchups started all the way back on Oct. 1 when Guelph beat the Lancers 2-1 in the Ridgetown Showdown exhibition matchup. Of the Gryphons' six regulation losses on the season, two were against Windsor, a 5-3 loss on home ice on Oc. 28 and 4-1 road loss on Dec. 2, the final regular season game of 2017.

 
Camp said Windsor is a hard-working team with balanced lines and mobile defencemen. One of Guelph's biggest problems will be solving Lancer goaltender Jonathan Reinhart, who finished tied for third in the conference in save percentage at .926.
 
"Their goalie has played extremely well against us so this is going to be very challenging series for us," said Camp. "They have our full attention. We haven't earned anything yet."
 
The Gryphons are definitely a different team as the playoffs open. They have gelled as the season wore on and can overwhelm teams with a potent offence, led by team scoring leader Todd Winder, a rookie who scored 18 goals, four of them counting as game winners. Third-year forward Cody Thompson had a team-high 22 assists, while captain Scott Simmonds (12-20-32) and second-year forward Marc Stevens (14-11-25) are additional threats in the opponents' zone. The team is also solid in the back end with defencemen like Josh McFadden, Patrick Kudla, Mathieu Henderson, and Max providing depth, toughness and loads of skill.
 Max McCutcheon.

Andrew Masters has taken over the bulk of the Guelph goaltending duties since late in 2017. The first-year Gryphon and former member of the NCAA's Miami of Ohio program has been sharp, earning wins in 11 of the 13 games he has played since Nov. 24.
 
The team knows that getting in an early hole will be dangerous.
 
"We need to have a good start in the series, that's real important for us," said Camp. "We also need to trust what we've been doing. We'll rely on the good habits that we had through the season to carry us in the playoffs but with the added urgency that this is a short series and anything can happen."
 
The Gryphons have developed a reputation as a team that likes the big games. Guelph has not only won but been dominant in its high-profile regular season games on the schedule, be it Aggies Night (4-1 win over Toronto), Hockey Day in Gryphonville (8-4 over Nipissing), the Frosty Mug (5-0 over Laurier), and Senior Night (6-2 over York).
 
"This is a veteran team with a lot of experience," said Camp. "They have experience and some of them have won an OUA championship. That will help in moments of adversity.
 
"This has been a particularly close-knit group."
 

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Gryphon Regular Season Statistics
Lancer Regular Season Statistics
OUA Individual Leaders
OUA Team Leaders