Hockey: Men's top 10 tracker; Alberta, Manitoba, McGill advance to U-Cup; SMU takes opener

Perish the though the University Cup should just be awarded to Alberta. McGill has also qualified, with Lakehead's sweep of Western resulting in a rare third-place game.

Meantime, Manitoba earned the second Canada West berth, taking out Saskatchewan 5-1 in the series decider on the Huskies' home ice. Blair Macaulay had a hat trick for the nationals-bound Bisons (nice to see, speaking as a former resident of the keystone province).

A good talking point: The AUS is the only conference in the country with first-round byes, since Canada West (which cut its post-season from six teams to four) and OUA (which expanded from 12 to 16) made a change. Did sitting around for a week hurt UNB and Acadia? Really, though, there are no excuses.

It took until the season's final poll to have more than two teams get a No. 1 vote. That's right up there with when football had four teams getting No. 1 votes after Laval lost in the regular season.
  1. Alberta Golden Bears (170 points, nine first-place votes) (30-6, 23-4-1 CW, 2-0 playoffs, 1st in RPI through Friday) — Beat Calgary 3-1 and 5-2 to get one of Canada West's two berths.

  2. UNB Varsity Reds (165, eight first-place votes) (37-5, 27-1-0 AUS, 0-3 playoffs, 2nd RPI) — One has to wonder if a team ever went through a CIS season with only four losses against Canadian competition, all to the same team.

    Who knows what did in UNB. Taking a penalty on the shift after tying a must-win game in the third period, as it did in Tuesday's season-ended, was a killer. Phil Mangan scored the series-winning goal on the ensuing St. FX power play.

  3. UQTR Patriotes (144, one first-place vote) (29-9, 23-3-2 OUA-E, 4-2 playoffs, 6th RPI) — Got a life preserver from Lakehead and will host Western in the OUA third-place game next week.

  4. Acadia Axemen (111) (23-16, 19-6-3 AUS, 1-3 playoffs, 7th RPI) — Did the see-you-later and now they'll be spectators.

  5. McGill Redmen (107) (33-12-1, 22-6-0 OUA-E, 6-1 playoffs, 3rd RPI) — Swept UQTR 3-2 and 7-4 to win the East for the third successive year. The Redmen power play was 7-of-12 in the series with its best offensive d-man, captain Yan Turcotte, sitting out a suspension.

    Francis Verreault-Paul had a five-point night in Friday's series clincher vs. the Patriots. Defenceman Sebastien Rioux also had four points in the two games, picking up for the suspended Turcotte.

    McGill will face Lakehead for the Queen's Cup.

  6. Western Mustangs (96) (27-12, 21-7-0 OUA-W, 4-2 playoffs, 5th RPI) — Will travel to UQTR for a third-place game.

    The Mustangs beat the Pats 5-1 in London in the regular season, but that was when it had a healthy Anthony Grieco in goal. Teams seem able to win up there at Le Colisée, which used to be a non-starter.

  7. Lakehead Thunderwolves (65) (28-12, 19-7-2 OUA-W, 6-1 playoffs, 4th RPI) — Beat Western 4-1 and 5-2, so like Carleton in basketball, they'll host nationals having qualified on merit.

    Scott Dobben scored the series-winning goal on a penalty shot with eight seconds left in the second period on Saturday. It was short-handed, too. A penalty-shot shortie, eh?

  8. Saint Mary's Huskies (48) (27-15, 16-8-4 AUS, 6-1 playoffs, 8th RPI) — Took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-5 AUS championship by winning 7-1 in the opener on Sunday.

    For those scoring at home, that's an aggregate 16-3 score in the Huskies' past two games against the Axemen and X-Men

    Alberta and McGill have pulled off the puck double.

  9. Saskatchewan Huskies (42) (20-18, 16-8-4 CW, 1-2 playoffs, 12th RPI) — Done for the season after a 5-1 loss to Manitoba in Game 3 on Saturday. The Bisons came back after losing the lid-lifter, also winning 4-2 on Saturday .

    Saskatchewan won 5-2 on Friday.

  10. St. Francis Xavier X-Men (23) (20-21-1, 11-12-5 AUS, 5-1 playoffs, 13th RPI) — Lost 7-1 to Saint Mary's in the opener of the best-of-5 AUS championship series.
Outside the top 10:
  • The ARV teams: Manitoba (21), Waterloo (1).
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20 comments:

  1. X beats UNB 3-2

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  2. 3-2 is the magic score apparently - St. FX downs UNB in three straight.

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  3. where does unb fall to in the top 10 now! hha so unexpected but the university cup just got a whole bunch more exciting here in thunder bay!

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  4. Wow!!! So long UNB...wonder what kind of odds the Vegas bookies would have given on that outcome? LOL

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  5. UNB Bruins Fan3/02/2010 8:48 pm

    Man, St FX. is on some kind of roll...5 straight 3-2 wins in the playoffs...how long can they keep it up??

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  6. Thanks you St. FX.
    From, Alberta

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  7. Stunning. UNB falls to at least number 7, correct?

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  8. alberta has no cake walk either in the west!

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  9. Let's see: UNB goes out three straight in the playoffs, Carleton actually had two regular-season losses in basketball, Laval did not make the Vanier Cup. It's good craziness!

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  10. Wow...UNB knocked out by the best trap hockey since the New Jersey Devils Hayday....hats off to them for knocking off the champs..but man is that ever boring hockey to watch the way they play.

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  11. I'm reminded of a comment by an old pitching coach, Johnny Sain: "The world doesn't care about the labour pains. They just want to see the baby."
    Credit the X-Men for preparing a game plan for a specific opponent and then going out and playing it.

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  12. Anybody know if Danton has been a factor in St.Mary's efforts against Acadia?

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  13. The OHT34 stops at the end of the regular season to make it fair to everybody. A season-ending playoff-included poll will be released. Based on regular season results here's the rankings:
    1 UNB
    2 Alberta
    3 Western Ontario
    4 Waterloo
    5 Acadia
    6 UQTR
    7 Saskatchewan
    8 Manitoba
    9 Lakehead
    10 Calgary
    11 St. Mary's
    12 Laurier
    13 McGill

    14 UPEI
    15 Lethbridge
    16 St. FX
    17 Carleton
    18 Moncton
    19 Guelph
    20 Regina
    21 Dalhousie
    22 UBC
    23 Toronto
    24 York
    25 St. Thomas
    26 UOIT
    27 Windsor
    28 Queen's
    29 Ryerson
    30 Brock
    31 Nipissing
    32 Concordia
    33 RMC
    34 Ottawa

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  14. well glad to see hollywoods systen makes more sense then the CIS..stoping ranking with everyones regular season being looked at

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  15. A crazy finish to Game 1 between the Bears and Dinos in Edmonton. Just looking at the game summary doesn't tell the whole story - it was a crazy one that looked like something out of Slapshot.

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  16. SMU will burst X's bubble !
    Danton will dominate !

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  17. What was the 'crazy finish' in Alberta? I heard that Alberta ran the goalie causing an injury and then the 2nd Calgary goalie was tossed so that they only had their #3 available for Saturday.

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  18. The Dinos #3 guy Nathan Deobald played well last night, pretty entertaining game.
    Eric Thurston looks like he is going to roll with Travis Yonkman the rest of the way in goal.
    Former Bears' Mark Howell and Cory Cross behind bench for the U. of C. and there were some fairly animated gesticulations between the benches...
    The days of the Dinos being Alberta's doormats are coming to an end.
    But Alberta advances to Thunder Bay, and if they win the Canada West on home ice next weeke, they should go as #1 seed...

    Bob Stauffer

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  19. SMU 7 vs X-men 1.
    Danton dominates !!!

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  20. We get back at the retreat by early evening to take a much-needed shower and a hot cup of tea.




    Dalhousie Hotels

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