Hockey: UNB X'd out; St. Francis Xavier breaks out the brooms

X-Men 3-2 could play an epic in Antigonish and a horror film in Fredericton.

Call it the upset of the new decade, maybe the new century. St. Francis Xavier swept aside the defending national champions tonight with a third successive 3-2 win in the AUS semifinal. Bryan Gillis, Phil Mangan and Brad Peddle are the toast of Antigonish tonight.

Gillis stopped 89-of-95 shots across the three games (and his defence rallied around him). Mangan scored four goals in the series, including two game-winners and a game-tying goal.

Meantime, Peddle must done had a terrific coaching job. The X-Men frustrated UNB's power play, clogged the neutral zone as well as any team ever coached by Jacques Lemaire and got solid team defence and goaltending.

Needless to say, this has to be the first time in relevant history a team's only four losses against CIS competition all came against the same team.

It guarantees the country a new University Cup champion and provides an irresistible storyline for next season, when UNB hosts the nationals in Fredericton and will likely have Martin Houle coming in as their No. 1 goaltender.

The Varsity Reds will be back. Not unlike Carleton in March 2008, the dynasty isn't dead, it's just resting.
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1 comment:

  1. Is there any video or highlights floating around the interwebs of this?

    ReplyDelete