Men's hockey Top 10: Moncton's lost weekend

1. Alberta — Finishes the first-half schedule next weekend with a two-gamer at UBC (which is available at citr.ca).
2. Moncton — Saint Mary's has one of the smallest rinks in the country, and Les Aigles Bleus must have been feeling especially claustrophobic after giving up six goals in the first period in Friday's 8-3 loss to No. 8 Saint Mary's. It ended up being a single-point weekend for the U de M, which lost 3-2 at St. FX on Saturday. They were down two after a period in that one, but emptied their tanks clawing back to force overtime. The X-Men's Brett Liscomb potted the OT winner.
   
3. UQTR — Moncton's stumble opens the door to the Patriotes, with their 14-1-0 conference record, moving up to No. 2. They won 4-2 at Carleton Tuesday, to get back at the Ravens for dealing them their lone loss, and beat two other eastern Ontario schools by matching 7-1 scores. (Hint: The University of Ottawa was not one of those schools.)
4. Saskatchewan —
5. UNB — It got a little silly in Saturday's 11-2 drubbing of Dalhousie. Kyle Bailey ended up with the mortarboard trick, four goals, so if you're ever at a Varsity Reds game, throw your diploma at him. Please take it out of the frame first.
   
   New Brunswick beat Moncton on the Nov. 15 weekend, and now gets their rivals at home next Saturday.
6. Acadia — Dropped its third straight, 3-2 to UPEI on Friday. Finish the first half vs. Dalhousie this Saturday, which gives them a chance to regroup.
7. Laurier — The Golden Hawks got out of Oshawa with a 6-4 win over Ontario Tech Saturday. It was 6-0 with eight minutes left before the Ridgebacks made a late push, likely with an eye to the teams' rematch next weekend.
   
   Laurier scored six goals with only Jean-Michael Rizk and Mark Voakes having multi-point nights. There's some balance. One would like to see some more decisive outcomes from the No. 7 team, but a win's a win.
8. Saint Mary's — The eastern Huskies are the alpha dogs of the week, knocking off St. Thomas 5-2 after that 8-3 win over Moncton. Cody Thornton, who was a 20-goal scorer four times in the OHL, had four goals over two games. Acadia's in a lull, so they might take their spot.
9. Lakehead — Goalie Kyle Moir only had to make 35 saves to get the two shutouts in a pair of 3-0 wins at Brock. Of note, the man with the best last name in OUA hockey, Lakehead defenceman Kalvin Sagert, scored a goal in the second game.
10. Waterloo — The Warriors split with a pair of OUA Mid West teams, beating Ontario Tech 3-2 in overtime Saturday with Doug Spooner factoring into all three goals. They blew a three-goal lead earlier in the week in a 5-4 loss to York.
    
    That's not exactly the best week to have after just breaking into the rankings.

Among the ARVers:

• UPEI followed up its win over Acadia by beating Dalhousie 6-3 on Saturday and could pick up some more support.
• Brock had back-to-back shutout losses.
• One rogue voter had Manitoba in his Top 10. The Bisons were swept at Lethbridge, 3-2 in overtime and 3-1.
• One website quibble ... in the OUA Mid East, Guelph (7-9-1) is listed in first place, even though in practical reality, it's fourth behind York (7-5-1) and Brock (6-5-3), which have four and three games in hand, respectively.
• Rob has posted the RPI in the comments. The OUA Far West has five of the top 11 teams, so perhaps the truth is that it's not a big deal if Laurier took their foot off the gas against a Mid East team. The OUA Mid East has three of the 11 worst teams — Queen's, Ryerson and RMC.