GUELPH, Ont. - On Tuesday, July 8, 2025, Ontario University Athletics (OUA) released the 2025-26 men's and women's hockey schedules. The Guelph Gryphons men's and women's varsity hockey teams will begin regular season play in early October, with regular season play wrapping up in mid-February of 2026. On the women's side, the Gryphons will play a 26-game regular season schedule, while the Gryphons men's hockey team will play a 28-game regular season schedule.
On the men's side, the Gryphons will open the new season in Thunder Bay against the Lakehead Thunderwolves on Friday, October 3, 2025.
It marks the first of back-to-back matchups versus Lakehead to start the season, with the Gryphons and Thunderwolves facing off again on October 4 in Thunder Bay. The home opener for the men's hockey team will take place on Thursday, October 9 when the team returns to Gryphon Centre Arena to host the Waterloo Warriors.
The Gryphons women's hockey team will officially drop the puck on their 2025-26 campaign at home on Wednesday, October 8, 2025 against the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks. It is the first of two home games to start the regular season slate for the women's hockey program, who will also host the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks on Friday, October 10.
The Gryphons have been crowned OUA champions a total of 14 times, seven on the men's side (most recently capturing the Queen's Cup in 2019-20) and seven on the women's side (most recently capturing the McCaw Cup in 2018-19). The Gryphons have also been crowned national champions in hockey on two occasions, with the women's team winning a U SPORTS Championship in 2018-19, while the lone national title on the men's side came during the 1996-97 season.
A season ago, the Gryphons women's hockey team fell just short in their pursuit of an 8th McCaw Cup, falling to the University of Toronto Varsity Blues in a tightly-contested OUA semifinal series.
Should the Gryphons women's hockey team earn a spot in this season's McCaw Cup, the team would then also earn a spot at nationals in March, with the 2026 U SPORTS Women's Hockey Championships (March 19 - 22) set to be hosted by the Waterloo Warriors for a second consecutive season at the Woolwich Memorial Centre in Elmira.
On the men's side, the Gryphons will enter the 2025-26 season with their sights set on returning to the OUA playoffs after narrowly missing out on the postseason in 2024-25. The Gryphons will compete against 18 other universities from across Ontario for the right to lift the Queen's Cup. Should the Gryphons make a run in the playoffs and finish as one of the top teams in the OUA, they would be destined for Atlantic Canada for the 2026 University Cup, with Saint Mary's University set to host the 2026 U SPORTS Men's Hockey Championship at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax. The national championship tournament is set to take place in Halifax March 19 to March 22, 2026.
For more information on the rest of the OUA men's and women's hockey schedules, visit oua.ca.
