Hockey: AUS Weekly Update


The AUS standings certainly tightened up on this busy week, thanks in no small part to UNB’s goaltending woes and their problematic power play. Someone other than the V-Reds are in first place for the first time this season, and that special someone is Acadia. Moncton and UNB are just one point back in a tie for second place, and importantly, both teams have a game in hand on the Axemen. Saint Mary’s is just two points back in fourth place, but Moncton and UNB also have a game in hand on the Huskies. That game in hand will be made up on the last Wednesday of the regular season. UPEI is lurking two points back in fifth. StFX is barely holding onto the last playoff spot, 11 points behind the Panthers and just one point ahead of Dalhousie. STU are five points back of Dal, and need to see a lot of X-Men and Tigers losses for any hope at the postseason.

Remember us?

Acadia has been a good team flying under the national radar (not that there’s a lot of that …) for a couple of years now, as attention has tended to focus on UNB, SMU and StFX. Understandable, as those are the teams advancing out of the AUS the last while. But Acadia did push UNB to four games in the conference semis last year, including a CIS-record quadruple overtime game. They had a young D who are more experienced this year, and they’ve added some key recruits up front. Wednesday Acadia traded goals with resurgent Dal and Andrew Clark won it in overtime. Friday they had a dominant first period against StFX, saw the X-Men come back in the second and then won it in the third period on a power play goal from d-man Michael Ward. After both teams had Saturday for a travel day, they had the rematch in Antigonish Sunday at 4:00 pm and Acadia squeaked out a win thanks to Carter’s 13th goal. Rookie Evan Mosher got the shutout, his second of the season. Three wins in the week and there the Axemen are at the top of the AUS standings for all to see. No hiding now.

Wednesday – Acadia 3 @ Dal 2 OT
Friday – StFX 3 @ Acadia 4
Sunday – Acadia 1 @ StFX 0

No one said it was going to be easy

Before the start of the season, goaltending looked to be a strength for the Varsity Reds in their quest to repeat as CIS champs. Travis Fullerton has two University Cup rings already and UNB added Dan LaCosta, who once upon a time won two games in the NHL. No need for a third-string ‘tender to push the incumbents. However the regular season has turned into a goalie nightmare for head coach Gardiner MacDougall and the team’s supporters. In the first half LaCosta, who red-shirted last season and didn’t play any hockey, battled a nagging groin problem, but that was still okay for UNB because Fullerton was the hottest goalie in the AUS. Then Fullerton had that emergency appendectomy operation on November 4 and the V-Reds have been scrambling ever since. Grad student Matt Davis was hastily added to the roster to get UNB through that weekend and a couple of Junior B guys on campus were added as his back-ups. LaCosta suited up the next weekend on the road, but had to leave after the first period in the second game and Davis was back in, and he got UNB all the way to a shoot out against Acadia. Now Davis did play CIS hockey three seasons for St. Thomas, including all 28 games in 2007-08, but his last AUS game before this season was Feb. 11, 2009, and he’s only been playing beer league hockey since as he turned his focus to work and the MBA degree program at UNB.

Fullerton returned just 28 days after his operation and won on Dec. 2 and all was good again in V-Reds Nation. However, the Ottawa Gee-Gees crashed the net several times in an exhibition game on Dec. 30 and after the game we learned Fullerton had “tweaked something.” He hasn’t played since and now the team is admitting he’s got a knee issue. No problem, because LaCosta seemed finally to be in fine form and appeared to relish the workload. That is until Friday night when he struggled physically in the third period and came out with about 3 minutes left in the game and the Moncton lead pretty well insurmountable. LaCosta start\ed the game against UPEI on Saturday, but after one period that’s it, and the job was handed to Davis for the first time since mid-November. He had a tough go of it, and yet UNB still almost won that wild game.

If UNB doesn’t get a healthy Fullerton or LaCosta back, they’re probably not going to win the AUS and/or the CIS championship this year. Davis is a gamer, but I don’t know if he has time to regain his 2008 form by playoffs, and the AUS is too competitive for a team to advance without a sharp goalie. The V-Reds have enough depth to compete without the 7 or 8 skaters who are injured now, and their competitors have injuries too, so there’s no sympathy for the Red ‘n Black. That’s hockey. But trying to win a national championship with a rusty third-string goalie whose first-string days are probably behind him? That might be Mission Impossible: March in the Aitken Centre.

Wednesday – UNB 5 @ STU 1 
Friday – UNB 1 @ UdeM 5 
Saturday – UPEI 8 @ UNB 7 

We CAN beat UNB

Wednesday Moncton was across the Fixed Link to play their bitter rivals in Charlottetown. There were lots of power plays, but only one PP goal. UPEI got the first goal in the game, but UdeM answered with four. Friday was the BIG game, against arch-rival UNB who had won the last 12 meetings. The V-Reds had the edge in play in the first period, but Moncton was up 2-1 after 20 minutes. UdeM’s Kevin Charland scored at 7:18 when the teams were 4-on-4, and then the V-Reds were handed a golden opportunity when Francis Rochon was given two minors and a ten-misconduct for a high hit on Taylor MacDougall at 8:46. The UNB PP came up blank for the first two minutes, with their best point shot chance smoking captain Kyle Bailey in the back of the leg. Then Moncton’s captain Dean Ouellet was called for tripping and UNB had two minutes of 5-on-3. No joy. Turning point in the game. Les Aigles Bleus were flying high after that extended penalty kill while the V-Reds looked a bit deflated. Lacosta struggled physically in net in the third period and Moncton added two more goals. The home crowd was more than a little excited. Saturday the Tommies arrived in town and were picked apart, with Eric Faille (AUS male athlete of the week) notching the hat trick. Certainly a big weekend win for Moncton in the endless provincial rivalry with Fredericton.

Wednesday – UdeM 4 @ UPEI 2 
Friday – UNB 1 @ UdeM 5 
Saturday – STU 2 @ UdeM 7

They’ll take a 3-point weekend about now

Saint Mary’s didn’t have a Wednesday date. They are the only AUS team that doesn’t have to play a Wednesday in the second half. The weekend was the Battle of Halifax, instalments III and IV. Friday in Dal’s soon to be demolished barn, the Tigers were up two zip early in the second before the Huskies put a furious push on to tie the game, outshooting them 17-8 in the process. The teams traded goals two minutes apart in the third period and Tiger Jordan Villeneuve-Gagné scored the winner early in overtime. In the rematch on Saturday at the Forum, there were lots of penalties and lots of power play goals. SMU was up 6-2 when a brouhaha broke out at 15:26 which saw Dal’s Daniel Bartek got five and a game for charging while five other players picked up ten-minute misconducts and assorted other minors,. Somehow the Tigers ended up on the power play. Pierre-Alexandre Vandall got a goal on the PP, and added a shorty 71 seconds later in the classic too little-too late.

Friday – SMU 3 @ Dal 4 OT 
Saturday – Dal 4 @ SMU 6 

Panthers still in the hunt 

The week didn’t start off well for UPEI at home with that loss to Moncton on Wednesday. However their weekend in Fredericton went just great. Well, they did appear to have discipline (or referee) issues on Friday depending on who you talked to at the Lady Beaverbrook Rink with STU getting 11 power plays to their four. UPEI’s Jared Gomes tied the game at 18:06 in the third, and then 34 seconds later was assessed two-and-ten for contact to the head high sticking. Eighteen seconds into the PK Chris Desousa was sent off for apparently chirping at the ref. Really!? So the four-on-four overtime started out with a 40-second five-on-three situation for the Tommies. No one scored in the ten-minute overtime, so they went to the shootout and only Desousa scored. Karma?

Saturday’s game just up the hill at the Aitken University Centre was wild. The Panthers went 3-for-3 on the power play in the first period versus UNB’s LaCosta, and added two shorthanded goals and an even strength goal against substitute Davis by the 8:05 mark of the second period. Then came the improbably UNB pushback, with three goals on the struggling PP and two even strength markers sandwiched around a Desousa goal. There were nine goals in that second period. UNB’s Luke Gallant added a shorty at 3:30 of the third and the comeback was complete. However there was no fairy tale ending for the V-Reds, as despite the UNB territorial dominance in the final period UPEI did manage a couple of forays into the other zone, and on one of them late in the period Gomes managed to beat Davis with a backhand to the short side. UPEI was outshot 45-28 but goalie Mavric Parks managed “to steal an 8-7 game” to quote coach Forbes MacPherson.

Wednesday – UdeM 4 @ UPEI 2 
Friday – UPEI 4 @ STU 3 OT-SO 
Saturday – UPEI 8 @ UNB 7 

Not a great weekend for the X-Men 

Two losses against Acadia propelled the Axemen to the top of the AUS standings, and left StFX dangerously exposed to missing the playoffs. Gut check time in Antigonish.

Friday – StFX 3 @ Acadia 4 
Sunday – Acadia 1 @ StFX 0 

Turnaround for the Tigers

Dalhousie slid into the Christmas break riding an 11 game losing streak. In January they’re 4-2-1 and now just one point back of StFX for the last playoff spot. Wow. I guess coaching changes can make a difference, especially when a number of players return from injuries.

Friday – SMU 3 @ Dal 4 OT 
Saturday – Dal 4 @ SMU 6 

Tough times for Tommies
 
On Wednesday STU hosted UNB, with their cross-campus rivals not pleased after picking up only one point the previous weekend. It was all V-Reds the first two periods, with UNB outshooting St. Thomas 29-11 and scoring three times, twice on the power play. STU had a better third period, and some hope, when Randy Cameron scored at 7:59, but UNB’s PP was clicking late in the game and they scored twice in 22 seconds to salt away the win. Friday enigmatic Yuri Cheremetiev scored his first two goals of the season in the first period, the Tommies power play was 0-for-11 in the game and UPEI won it in the shootout. On Saturday they again had a two-goal lead, but Moncton roared back with seven unanswered goals. Charles Lavigne took all three losses in nets for the Tommies.

Wednesday – UNB 5 @ STU 1 
Friday – UPEI 4 @ STU 3 OT-SO 
Saturday – STU 2 @ UdeM 7

This week
The game of the week is the battle for first place between Acadia and UNB on Friday, with the V-Reds holding a game in hand on the Axemen. Saturday the struggling Varsity Reds could help decide whether there is a postseason for Dalhousie. Moncton is off to Nova Scotia to play StFX and SMU with the potential to leapfrog Acadia if they should stumble against UNB or UPEI. UdeM’s travel partner is STU, so they’re basically in spoiler role against SMU and StFX. While first place may be a bit of a long shot for UPEI, they could make it interesting if they win against Dal and Acadia. As for Dal, the playoffs are now possible so they probably need to at least split their games to stay in contact with StFX.
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1 comment:

  1. Every hockey team needs a half-decent Junior A goalie around. In fact, Manitoba and Calgary have three major junior goalies on their rosters.

    ReplyDelete