Hockey: Men's Top 10 Tracker

Our ever-popular Top 10 tracker: The voters are in for a fun time on Monday, since Nos. 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 each have a loss already this week. How about having two players in the AUS, Saint Mary's Cam Fergus and UNB's Kyle Bailey, each score four goals in a game on Saturday?
  1. UNB Varsity Reds (170, all 17 first-place votes) (31-1, 21-0-0 AUS, 1st RPI) — Won road games over St. Thomas (9-4) and Moncton (3-1).

    UNB lost its first game against a collegiate opponent, 4-1 to Maine on Tuesday, in a close game where special teams were the difference.

    Maine was 2-for-5 on the PP while UNB was 0-for-5 while outshooting the Black Bears 21-19. UNB is on the road against Moncton on Friday and St. Thomas on Saturday.

  2. Alberta Golden Bears (152) (23-3, 18-1-1 CW) — Won in overtime twice at Saskatchewan, 5-4 and 4-3, with both games involving a blown two-goal lead in the third (the Huskies coughed it up Friday, then the Golden Bears did it Saturday before Derek Ryan salvaged the win). Evan Daum should have more to say about it both here and at South Campus Sports.

  3. Western Mustangs (123) (20-7, 18-4-0 OUA-W) — Had a nice back-to-basics 4-1 win over UOIT on Saturday (see the liveblog). Keyvan Hunt was in net after dodgy goaltending cost the 'Stangs in two recent losses, but with only 18 shots against, he had plenty of time to scan over the crowd of 1,821.

    The Mustangs, who the OUA West's best defensive record, lost 6-5 on Friday to Brock, the lowest-scoring team in the division, figure that out (six goals against on 25 shots for Josh Unice).

  4. Acadia Axemen (119) (17-10, 14-4-2 AUS) — Goose-egged St. FX 4-0 on Saturday, finally ending a long string of close games. They lost 4-3 in overtime at Dalhousie on Friday (Ben Breault forced OT for the Tigers with 89 seconds left and assisted on the winner).

    Acadia is 8-2-1 in its last 11 and UNB accounts for the middle number.

  5. McGill Redmen (100) (22-9-1, 17-4-0 OUA-E) — Salvaged a split for the week by beating Nipissing 5-3 at home on Sunday, scoring three times on the power play and once short-handed. And they didn't get any too many men penalty, like a certain NFL team someone who writes here supports.

    What happened in the 8-2 loss at UQTR on Wednesday? That was unexpected. It was 8-0 after two periods, so it conceivably could have been a lot worse for McGill. The Patriots scored two goals in the first three minutes.

  6. UQTR Patriotes (73) (18-6, 16-3-1 OUA-E) — Regained first in the division with a 6-1 home win over Carleton, making their aggregate score 14-3 for the week. They could jump as high as No. 4 next week.

    UQTR was actually outshot in the 8-2 win over McGill, with Jean-Christophe Blanchard making 19 of his 42 saves in the opening period. He was evidently there for them before it became a rout.

  7. Laurier Golden Hawks (64) (16-9, 14-6-2 OUA-W) — Lost twice at home, 4-0 to Laurier and 4-2 to Guelph, to fall into second place in the OUA West and likely close to out of this week's poll.

    The Gryphons had twice as many shots (50-21) and twice as many power-play opps (going 2-for-9 with the odd man to the Golden Hawks' 0-for-4). Thomas Kiriakou scored twice.

  8. Manitoba Bisons (45) (19-9, 12-6-2 CW) — Split at Calgary (6-1 loss, 3-2 win where they did all their damage at even-strength, while both goals against were on the power play).

  9. Saint Mary's Huskies (33) (17-10, 12-5-3 AUS) — Beat Dalhousie (7-3) to complete a four-point week, coupled with a 4-2 win over St. Francis Xavier.

  10. Lakehead Thunderwolves (17) (18-9, 15-5-2 OUA-W) — Dan Speer dropped the hammer with back-to-back third period goals in the 4-0 blanking of Laurier. The Thunderwolves allowed only one goal during their two-game trip to southern Ontario, also beating Brock 2-1.

    For the group: Lakehead should move up, but should stay behind Saint Mary's, correct?
Outside the Top 10:
  • How about Lethbridge's Adam Chorneyko scoring a natural hat trick on Saturday vs. UBC? The assists went the same way on each one, first assist to Mark Shefchyk, second to Andrew Marshall.

  • The unbalanced sked might tip the OUA East's third-place race toward Toronto (13-15-1, 12-7-3 OUA), which is now tied with Carleton (14-14, 12-7-3) after beating Ryerson and RMC this week.

    Toronto's six remaining games include three with RMC and single contests vs. Queen's, Nipissing and Ryerson. They're playing all teams below them in the standings.

    Carleton has two games vs. McGill and two vs. UQTR among its remaining six. If they hang on to third, they'll earn it. Queen's (12-10-1) got back in it by beating Nipissing 6-3 on Saturday, with Payton Liske scoring a hat trick.

    The Gaels have a trip to Toronto next Friday and then finish with four homes in a row vs. weaker teams.
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14 comments:

  1. Actually UNB has 2 league games this week visiting Moncton and St. Thomas. They lost 4-1 to Maine

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  2. actually UOIT is playing UWO at the JLC. not thompson arena. fact checking is important when blogging

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  3. Thanks for the lecture ... it said "Thompson Arena" on OUA schedule.

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  4. Tim in London1/20/2010 8:59 pm

    @Anon 9:41am (fact checked),

    I only wish I could have a full time job and contribute/run two great blogs about Canadian and international sports and only get the location to a game (where attendance will be 3 figures) incorrect due to researched information that was wrong. Lighten up.

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  5. Thanks Tim ... I just should have checked another source and I do get stuff wrong than you know. I'd love to see a game at JLC, btw!

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  6. What the heck is going on in the OUA? Western blows out Lakehead twice. UOIT beats Western. Carleton beats McGill then loses to Concordia. And now tonight, UQTR thumps McGill 8-2. Just when I thought I was starting to figure things out....

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  7. I believe Alberta can only eliminate Sask. from 1st place contention this weekend, but can't clinch 1st overall until next week against MB at the earliest.

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  8. Editor's note: "Huge rout" redundant; "rout" will suffice. (See No. 6.)

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  9. Daniel Da Silva1/23/2010 12:25 pm

    Like I said before, the Mustangs are going to need Grieco back in net asap. Unice is cold and Hunt has had a brutal season. Two weeks in a row giving up 6 goals on about 25 shots, costing them the game.

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  10. @10:58: You are correct, sir.

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  11. Editor's note: "See No. 6" is redundant; pointing to the only instance of "rout" will suffice.

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  12. Would not be surprised at all to see Western fall to #5, behind Acadia and UQTR. Acadia deserves to be #3 (or maybe it's that Western doesn't). I don't really think UQTR is the #4 team, but based on recent performances, it would not be a surprise to see them end up there.

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  13. UQTR won big this week. Kind of it makes it harder to ignore them.

    I had Acadia No. 3 last week, see no reason to change.

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  14. Based on the erratic rankings at the bottom for the past few weeks, I'd venture to guess that Lakehead does move up, while Laurier, Manitoba and Western move down.

    UNB
    Alberta
    Acadia
    UQTR
    St. Mary's
    Western
    McGill
    Lakehead
    Manitoba
    Calgary

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