To be the best, you've got to beat the best.

That's the challenge and opportunity ahead of the Nipissing Lakers women's hockey team as they being Round 2 of the OUA McCaw Cup Playoffs Wednesday night at Memorial Gardens.

After defeating Ryerson in three games in Round 1, the Lakers will now face the regular season champions, the Queens Gaels, who enter this round having eliminated Waterloo in the first round.

Both teams went the distance in Round 1 and both enter having recorded two shutouts in their first round victories.

There are a lot of similarities between the two teams who split their season series, with the Gaels winning 3-2 on home ice and Nipissing blanking the Gaels 1-0 in overtime here in North Bay.

The Lakers rank first in goals for and fourth in goals against, while Queens is third in goals for and second in goals against, so the series has the potential to be very low scoring, but at the same time, both teams have the ability to generate offence and put the puck in the net.

The balance both teams have offensively is what puts them apart from the rest of the league and it's what helped them advance to Round 2.

The Lakers had six different goal scorers in the first round, including two players with two goals each.

Queens, on the other hand, had six players record one goal each.

The Lakers had 17 skaters find the back of the net and five had at least six goals during the regular season, led by Maria Dominico and Bronwyn Bolduc.

Queens had three players with at least nine goals, including the league's leading scorer, Katrina Manoukarakis, who had 15 goals and 30 points during the year.

It will also be a showdown in the blue paint, as the Lakers will continue to look to Danika Ranger, who was 6-2-0 in the regular season and is now 2-0 in the playoffs with two shutouts.

She's made 39 saves and has 120 minutes of perfect hockey under her belt.

Stephanie Pascal, in the Gaels net, was outstanding all season.

She recorded six shutouts during the season and another two in the playoffs, posting a 14-3-3 record.

With both teams strong offensively, stingy defensively and lights out in net this series has the makings of a classic and with so much on the line, neither team will want to give an inch.

The best-of-three semi-finals kicks off Wednesday night in North Bay, with puck drop set for 7pm at Memorial Gardens.

Round 2
Game 1 - Wed. Queens @ Nipissing at 7pm in North Bay
Game 2 - Fri. Nipissing @ Queens at 7:30pm in Kingston
Game 3 - Sat. Nipissing @ Queens at 7:30pm in Napanee*
*If Necessary