The CIS Blog

Men's Basketball: Top 10: Top 6 stay put, Carleton's really good

2012-01-24T19:16:00.000-05:00

We're right in the heart of the season, and with only a few weeks to go in most conferences, we're getting a better idea of who the contenders and pretenders are. Here's our evaluation of the teams moving up, moving down and staying put in this week's CIS top ten.

RPI and other numbers here; CIS top ten here.

STAYING PUT:

Carleton Ravens (15-0 OUA, 21-0 CIS, RPI #5, SRS +23.6)

Despite being quite obviously the best team in the country, Carleton is no. 4 in the RPI, a little tidbit that has rankled some of the CIS faithful. This is mainly due to their strength of schedule being ranked 38th and the fact that RPI doesn't consider margin of victory (SRS does; they're doing pretty ok in that department, way ahead of everyone else), but I won’t spend any time trying to justify the RPI’s merit – I’ll leave that to Rob, or at least someone who won’t make a fool of themselves trying to explain math.

Instead, I’ll try to make my own case that Carleton is, in fact, the best team in the country.

- Since beating McMaster on opening night by 16 points, the Ravens have won every single game they’ve played by an average of 39.8 points (including a 3-point win over Lakehead and an 82-point win over RMC, the latter of which shouldn’t really count). Again, RPI doesn't care by how much they've won.

- The Tyson Hinz-surrounded-by-shooters routine that the Ravens play so well is even more terrifying than we thought. Hinz is shooting nearly 62 per cent from the field with his crafty post game while having also developed excellent three-point range (40 per cent). Meanwhile, two high-volume shooters (Phil Scrubb and Elliot Thompson) are shooting better than 50 per cent from long range, followed by Willy Manigat’s 44 per cent and Cole Hobin’s terrible (note: not terrible) 39 per cent. Forget that this team has superb defensive schemes and rarely has lapses in focus; they have a simple, effective offence with the right personnel in place to make it terrifying.

- This is a little rock-jock, but they’re the national champions and have showed no signs of slowing down. So, eat it, RPI.

Lakehead Thunderwolves (12-2 OUA, 20-2 CIS, RPI #10, SRS +12.4)

One of the McMaster poo-bahs told the Sil’s sports editor before the Marauders’ impending visit to the Thunderdome for two days last weekend that his young team had “no idea how intense it would be playing there.”
If there’s a better home court advantage in the CIS, including the flights/long drives to Thunder Bay, and passionate/slightly crazy local fans, I don’t know where it is.

UBC Thunderbirds (10-2 Canada West, 16-3 CIS, RPI #6, SRS +12.5)

An OT win over 6-8 Manitoba and a one-point squeaker over Winnipeg suggests the Thunderbirds aren’t exactly cruising right now, and they’re depending on their few veterans more than ever. On the bright side, Malcolm Williams somehow scored 10 points in four minutes.

St. FX X-Men (9-2 AUS, 19-2 CIS, RPI #2, SRS +9.3)

Beating Cape Breton handily despite Jeremy Dunn shooting 2-17? That’s pretty cool, I guess. But if X is going to keep this going into the playoffs, they’ll have to do better from long range: They’ve taken fewer than 19 threes in a game just once this season, but have shot worse than 35 per cent on those attempts in eight of their 11 games. That kind of inefficiency is tough to depend on when the games matter.

Saskatchewan Huskies (9-4 Canada West, 14-5 CIS, RPI #3, SRS +13.0)

Can we say Jamelle Barrett is back yet? In his past three games (all Saskatchewan wins) he’s shooting 63 per cent from the field while averaging 39.5 points per 40 minutes. The Huskies go as Barrett does, and if he keeps it up they’ll be a team to watch out for.

Laurier Golden Hawks (12-2 OUA, 18-6 CIS, RPI #8, SRS +10.2)

Despite having a few issues giving up turnovers and the occasional slow night from three-point range, Laurier has found a way to find the bottom of the bucket pretty consistently. Since their, 88-83 loss to Lakehead on Jan. 13, they’ve shot between 48.6 and 49.4 per cent from the field in each of their three games – all wins.

Fraser Valley Cascades (9-5 Canada West, 13-5 CIS, RPI #14, SRS +5.0)

The Cascades are breathing easier about their playoff chances, but they’ll have to finish strong to lock up a spot in the postseason dance: their four remaining games are against UBC and Trinity Western, who sit at 8-6 having won six games in a row.

MOVING UP:

Alberta Golden Bears (10-4 Canada West, 12-5 CIS, RPI #1, SRS +11.0)

The object of ire for RPI haters looks to have found some consistency, having won four in a row and vaulted themselves to the top in said statistical ranking. They’ve done it despite struggles from last year’s top scorer Daniel Ferguson, who has averaged just 15.3 points on 36 per cent shooting in those wins. But hey, if you’re number one, I guess that doesn’t really matter.

Concordia Stingers (7-0 QUBL, 14-4 CIS, RPI #4, SRS +6.0)

They shot 33 per cent and still didn’t lose to McGill? Instead of the Kyle Desmarais show, Decee Krah and Evens Laroche have turned Concordia into a three-headed monster, or stinger, or whatever has three heads and is really good at basketball.

MOVING DOWN:

Victoria Vikes (11-3 Canada West, 12-5 CIS, RPI #7, SRS +10.6)

Three losses in the new year, the latest being a 75-71 defeat at the hands of the suddenly resurgent Winnipeg Wesmen, have the Vikes wishing 2012 never came around. They’ll have three games on the road and one at home to try to figure things out before the playoffs; those will also tell us whether the Vikes’ hot start was a flash in the pan or a real turnaround.

Hockey: AUS Weekly Update

2012-01-24T19:08:00.001-05:00

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.

Men's Basketball: OUA West Weekly Roundup

2012-01-24T17:00:00.001-05:00

Another week in the OUA West has gone by, and once again, another team has started to fall from top of the West. Last week it was Brock and Guelph, this week it’s McMaster’s turn. They stayed in tight with Lakehead on Friday night, but were blown out on Saturday by 20 points. The weekend sweep by Lakehead has pushed McMaster into fourth place in the West. Laurier and Lakehead remain tied with Windsor third. This week also saw Lakehead move from third in the CIS into second and Laurier from seventh to sixth.

Games In-Depth

Wednesday, Jan. 18

Laurier 97 vs. Guelph 91

Guelph can’t buy a break since the CIS returned from Christmas. It seems like week after week Daniel McCarthy and either Adam Bering or Kareem Malcolm put up 20 points, but still come up short. Friday night at Guelph was no different. This time, though, Bering had 20 points and 8 rebounds, McCarthy had 23 points and 6 rebounds, while Malcolm finished with 19 points 8 rebounds. The rest of the team: 29 points.

This game wasn’t exactly one for fans of defence with 4 players on both teams reaching double digits. And, if you’re going to forget defence against Laurier, they’re going to burn you. Laurier’s bench had 32 points to Guelph’s 16, which is rarely a stat you can lose and still win a game. Laurier’s Kale Harrison had an off night by his standards with 15 points and 5 rebounds. Max Allin ended with game highs with 27 points and 11 rebounds.

Friday, Jan. 20

McMaster 76 vs. Lakehead 83
Heading into Thunder Bay, McMaster had a chance to make up some ground and challenge for top in the West. Well, at least that was the plan until they ran into a Lakehead squad that has hit full stride. McMaster threw everything they could at Lakehead. They tied or beat them in most offensive and defensive categories, had full contribution from their entire line-up (40 points off the bench) and went into the fourth quarter with the game tied. So, what was the difference? I don’t think I’m going out on a limb when I say turnovers. McMaster had 18 to Lakehead’s 7, which Lakehead turned into 13 points.

Cam Michaud led the way for McMaster with 14 points and 7 rebounds, while Adam Presutti finished with 12 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists and a team high 31 minutes. Venzal Russell ended the game with 19 points, 5 steals and 3 assists. Yoosrie Salhia had 15 points and a game high 13 rebounds.

Saturday, Jan. 21

Brock 57 vs. Windsor 78

With both Laurier and Lakehead sweeping their weekend games, Windsor needed to keep pace, especially with an upcoming series against Lakehead this weekend. Windsor took it to Brock, who continues to free fall further from the top of the West. The Lancers were also helped by 27 points coming off the bench compared to the Badgers 11. It also helps when you outrebound a team 60 to 41 like Windsor did. Andrew Kraus finished with 11 points and 5 assists for Brock, while Rotimi Osuntola Jr. had 17 points and 8 rebounds. Also, Lien Phillip absolutely dominated inside the paint with 15 rebounds for the Lancers, which 12 were defensive. Phillip also added 12 points for Windsor.

Player of the Week

Max Allin stepped up in a big way this weekend for Laurier. He had 27 points and 11 rebounds against Guelph. He followed it up with 23 points and 8 assists against Western on Saturday night. Laurier relies on their offence more than any other team in the West and when your best scorer, Kale Harrison, has a couple of so-so games (15 points against Guelph and 2 against Western) someone has to pick up their game and Allin answered the call. His weekend totals were 50 points, 15 rebounds, 14 assists and he only had 4 turnovers in 74 minutes of playing time. This weekend was, by far, the Maxwell Allin show.

Upcoming Game(s) of the Week

Friday, Jan. 27 and Saturday, Jan. 28: Lakehead vs. Windsor

The West is down to three teams challenging for first in the West. After these two games, it could be down to two. The Thunderwolves are tied with Laurier for first place and Windsor has third to themselves. If Windsor is going to take over first they need a weekend sweep over Lakehead, which isn’t likely going to happen. If Windsor comes away with one win I think they’ll be happy. Lakehead though, they need a sweep. Laurier has a fairly easy week against Brock and Western. Lakehead can ill-afford to fall behind Laurier this close to the playoffs. I’m expecting the Thunderwolves to come out with one of their best defensive weekends since the season started.

Introducing "CIS Name Of The Year"

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

Inspired, of course, by Name of the Year, but also wishing to return that august competition to its collegiate roots, we've decided to run a similar contest this year, choosing the best name in CIS.

We have some names in mind already (Ilarion Bonhomme, you can expect a high seed), but with so many CIS athletes across the country, we're going to miss some.

This is where you come in. In the nomination form below, enter the name of an athlete you wish to nominate for the Name Of The Year tournament (and, if possible, a link to the roster to verify that athlete exists). The seeding committee will review the nominees and issue a tournament bracket in due course.

Please note that you only have to submit the name once ... we are not giving more consideration to names submitted multiple times, so ballot-box stuffing will not have any effect on seeding.

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(Our apologies to Monty Hardware for not running this contest while he was still eligible.)

Men's hockey: Top 10 tracker: Plenty of top-ten matchups to cure the Januaries in all of us

2012-01-22T19:46:00.000-05:00

This week's action (schedule, rankings) for the top 10 hockey teams...

UNB (+2.2 SRS, RPI #2) — W 5-1 at STU, L 5-1 at Moncton, L 8-7 vs. UPEI

Not much to say from afar about the St. Thomas game, though it was 3-1 until UNB's third and fourth powerplay goals came in the last 90 seconds of the third.

Friday was certainly not what UNB expected. After trading goals in the first, Moncton's Charles Bergeron broke through on the power play against and they didn't give up the lead again (or another goal). Dan LaCosta has had the best save percentage of any of the three goaltenders UNB have used this year, but not on this night, allowing 5 goals on 27 shots.

Saturday was also quite unexpected, if only because you don't see 15 goals all that often. The Panthers had a 6-1 lead after three shorties in the second, and that's about all I think I can say, because there are goalie discrepancies between the two boxscores available. Over at the CIS site, it says Travis Fullerton and Seamus Bowen appeared for UNB, while the AUS site says it was LaCosta and Matthew Davis (which is likely correct). While they figure that out, we'll move on to the other teams.
McGill (+0.8 SRS RPI #1) — W 1-0 (SO) vs. Carleton

They scored just one even-strength goal in their 4-3 loss to Toronto last week. One assumes that wouldn't happen against Carleton, in front of an expected sellout crowd, but it was actually worse than that: they didn't score a goal at all until the shootout. Of course, they didn't allow one either, coming away with the shootout win (or as we call it around here, a tie). Hubert Morin made 32 of 32 saves and stopped all three Carleton shooters.
Saskatchewan (+1.0 SRS, RPI #6) — L 4-2 at Manitoba, L 3-1 at Manitoba

Series of the week? Sure, why not. Give Manitoba the sweep. On Friday, the Huskies didn't score until the second half of the third period, when they were down 2-0, and to make matters worse after scoring both their goals they allowed another one within a minute each time. (Only 451 people went to see this game? Really?) On Saturday, they didn't score until what we're going to call garbage time, 58:42 of a 3-0 game. Not the best week for Saskatchewan.
Western (+0.8 SRS, RPI #9) — W 1-0 at Lakehead, W 1-0 at Lakehead

(Friday link goes to the OUA boxscore, since it's not on the CIS site yet.) There was only one goal all game here, from Keaton Turkiewicz on the PP in the second. Repeat the same sentence, but with "Zach Harnden" and "the first", and you've got Saturday's game. (Harnden would later get two and 10 for checking to the head.)
Alberta (+0.7 SRS, RPI #3) — W 5-0 vs. Lethbridge, W 6-1 vs. Lethbridge

In his last game, Lethbridge's Scott Bowles played the first period then was pulled after allowing 3 on 10 shots. In this weekend's games, Bowles was left in for all 11, facing 78 shots in total.

Johnny Lazo scored two for Alberta on Friday (putting him, I believe, fifth in goals in Canada West); Alex Rodgers and Kruise Reddick had two assists each. Lazo scored again on Saturday, and the Bears also got two from Jordan Hickmott in what was another rather lifeless game for Lethbridge.
Acadia (+1.5 SRS, RPI #16) — W 4-3 vs. St. F-X, W 1-0 at St. F-X

Another typically above-average Acadia season seems ready to continue against the X-Men (shootout win over UNB or no shootout win over UNB). The Axemen did need a few powerplays and 49:36 to take the lead for good, but they did. Andrew Clark assisted on all four goals, his sixth multi-assist game of the year and his 11th with two points or more.

Sunday it looked close there for a minute, with the Axemen's one-goal lead withstanding a short powerplay in the third that ended 34 seconds after it began when X's Bryce Swan took a slashing call. Oops. Given how little Acadia had tried to attack that period (three shots, even though they had nearly four minutes of 5-on-4), that could have been the difference here. Two one-goal wins for Acadia, though.
Moncton (+1.3 SRS, RPI #17) — W 4-2 at UPEI, W 5-1 vs. UNB, W 7-2 vs. St. Thomas

Three wins in four days, outscoring their opponents 14-5, combined with UNB's two losses, put those Blue Eagles into a tie for first place. I don't know my AUS tiebreakers, but UNB's behind on wins so I'm going with that. It'll also make the season finale between these teams, on Feb. 11, that much more interesting.
Lakehead (+0.5 SRS, RPI #8) — L 1-0 vs. Western, L 1-0 vs. Western

Poor Jeff Bosch. He's faced 38 UOIT shots this year and allowed 10 goals (including seven in last week's 8-5 loss), for a horrid save percentage of .737. Yet against everyone else he has a .909. It's probably going to be Alex Dupuis for both of these road games against the good-but-not-that-much-better-than-Lakehead Mustangs.

Dupuis did his best in both games, but it's hard to win without scoring (or, at the very least, when you have more ten-minute misconducts than goals).

This is why you read the Lakehead recaps of games: most other schools would just say "Matt Caria was given a game misconduct for unsportsmanlike conduct", if they mention such a penalty at all, not "mouthing off to the official." It's a small thing but it at least lets you know (more about) what happened.

UPDATE: But, apparently, that's not all that happened. Caria has been suspended for two games for "a racial slur." (Thanks to Always OUA for the pointer.)
Manitoba (+1.0 SRS, RPI #4) — W 4-2 vs. Saskatchewan, W 3-1 vs. Saskatchewan

Ten Bisons got on the scoresheet in their Friday win over Saskatchewan, with both Matthew Lowry and Blair Macaulay receiving a goal and an assist. First conference win over Sask. for Manitoba since Feb. 26 of last year. They liked it so much, they did it again. Joe Caligiuri was in goal for both games, stopping 64 of 67, a few months after he let in 5 of 32 against these same Huskies.
Saint Mary's (+1.6 SRS, RPI #5) — L 4-3 (OT) at Dalhousie, W 6-4 vs. Dalhousie

A home-and-home against Dalhousie without any travel is a good opportunity for the Huskies to keep pace with the UNBs and Acadias of the AUS. Dal's opponents have a save percentage of .915, which, if they were a team, would lead the AUS. (Am I just an idiot, or can I not see the individual leaders for save percentage in the AUS?)

However, Dal's Friday opponent, those Huskies, managed a save percentage of merely .818, losing 4-3 in overtime. It's almost like teams can upset other teams or something. Jordan Villeneuve-Gagne scored the OT winner here. Another loss would hurt that RPI quite a bit...but they didn't lose again, putting up 5 to Dal's 1 after three powerplay goals in the third, and just sort of hanging on for the rest of the game.

(I would really like someone to explain to me how, in the Saturday game, the Huskies recorded a shot on goal on an empty net but did not score...)

Men's basketball: Tracking Carleton's dominance

2012-01-22T19:45:00.000-05:00

You may remember that we ran a pair of football prediction contests here in the fall (1, 2). We were going to do the same for men's basketball, but time ran out on us, so instead we're just running this one simple contest: what will Carleton's average margin of victory be in their 14 OUA East regular-season games?

After receiving a grand total of 27 entries, we have an average prediction of 29.5 points. (For reference, last year Carleton won their OUA East games by an average of 36.1 points; in 2009-10, they averaged +26.9, including their loss to York.)

Through seven games, the Ravens are averaging a winning margin of 43.1.

Jan. 6: Beat York by 36
Jan. 7: Beat Laurentian by 47
Jan. 13: Beat Ryerson by 31
Jan. 14: Beat Toronto by 34
Jan. 18: Beat Ottawa by 40
Jan. 20: Beat Queen's by 32
Jan. 21: Beat RMC by 82

Men's basketball: Top 10 tracker: Carleton wins by 40 (and not against a last-place team); Saskatchewan beats up on the QUBL (in a way)

2012-01-22T13:44:00.000-05:00

This week's schedules and results for the top 10 teams (RPI here) ... there are 21 distinct games involving the top 10 teams this week, since nobody plays each other.

Carleton (12-0 OUA, 18-0 CIS, RPI #3, SRS +25.6) — W 74-34 vs. Ottawa, W 96-64 vs. Queen's, W 120-38 vs. RMC

The only remaining undefeated team is going up against two teams that are winless against everyone but themselves, and are dead last and next-to-dead last in RPI. I wouldn't be surprised if someone like Cole Hobin sees more minutes tonight than in both Queen's/RMC games put together (which almost happened: 25 vs. 27; I should have said Tyson Hinz, who didn't even see the floor vs. RMC). There's got to be a Tom Brady-vs.-the-Broncos principle at play here. Someone get Dave Smart an ugly hoodie with the sleeves cut off. On second thought, don't do that.

Here I thought their first game might actually be a game. Nope. Well, it was, kind of, until the second half. The Gee-Gees shot 25%. Yeah.

Queen's did better* but were outrebounded 22 to 3 on their offensive glass, and nearly outrebounded on Carleton's too (11 to 10). Carleton shot an effective 76%. Who does that?

RMC did worse. Much, much worse. I can't say anything else.

* The Gaels shot an effective 57%? Has anyone shot that well against Carleton? Certainly not this year. Ironically, coach Steph Barrie told Wayne Kondro that they "haven’t shot the ball well all year."
Lakehead (10-2 OUA, 18-2 CIS, RPI #10, SRS +11.7) — W 83-76 vs. McMaster, W 91-71 vs. McMaster

Lakehead's two losses have been by a combined six points, and were both to top-10 teams. Not bad. They happen to be behind 16-6 Laurier in RPI because their preseason (Brandon, Regina, Winnipeg) didn't feature the quality of teams that Laurier's did (Concordia, CBU, UBC, UFV).

This series is the second of three straight for the GGOD[T]s against the dangerous half of the OUA West. They already hold the tiebreaker over Laurier, and a sweep or a favourable-point-differential split against Mac and Windsor will put them in the driver's seat for good. A more-than-2-to-1 turnover differential in Lakehead's favour helped in this one, as did Lakehead's 52 second-half points to Mac's 36. But what probably got to the Mac coach the most (I'm just guessing here) was his team's eight trips to the line vs. Lakehead's 24 — the 11-point differential there was basically twice the margin of victory.

A 10-of-20 night on threes, with Ben Johnson shooting 4/6 himself, paced the 'Wolves to an easy win Saturday. Two double-doubles on the weekend for Yoosrie Salhia, and 28 on Saturday for Venzal Russell, albeit on 12/26 shooting.
UBC (8-2 CW, 14-3 CIS, RPI #6, SRS +14.4) — W 93-84 (OT) at Manitoba, W 74-73 at Winnipeg

Close, close weekend for UBC. Just one more basket against them in either game and they're 0-2. Six straight wins, yes, but with at least half an asterisk. Respect for the Wesmen, who nearly beat two top 10 teams.

One of UBC's smaller advantages is their ability to get to the line, and they slipped slightly in that respect in their loss to Lethbridge, who are themselves quite good at it too. This will likely not matter this weekend, though...or it will, because they essentially managed to add a point per every three field-goal attempts (24 FT / 75 FGA), whereas the Bisons only had 10 FT on 79 shots. Kamar Burke scored 15 and added 15 boards, Doug Plumb had 16 and 10 of his own, and Tommy Nixon scored 20 of his own.
StFX (7-2 AUS, 17-2 CIS, RPI #2, SRS +8.6) — W 79-66 vs. Dal, W 90-71 vs. Cape Breton

According to coach Steve Konchalski, the reason for the seven one-game suspensions on Sunday was that the players "went out":

“They went out on a night three days before the game, and that’s against team rules. We have a team rule that says within three days of a game, you’re not allowed to go out. You’re not allowed to go out to a pub. You’re not allowed to go anywhere.”

Now, the midweek/weekend schedule that is a common part of AUS play means the games are often only three or four days apart. So for anyone who is curious, and assuming we're reading the rule correctly, no St. F-X players are allowed "to go anywhere" from Jan. 3 to Jan. 21, and again from Feb. 8 to Feb. 19. It's not the policy I would adopt, but then again the players presumably knew what they signed up for.

In any case, they won this game, with at least 10 players not going out between Sunday and Wednesday. 22 from Jeremy Dunn led X over Dal, with three others topping 10.

Saturday's rivalry game wasn't really one, with nearly a 30-point lead for the X-Men after three. Although these teams have played three times this year in conference play, each winning at least once, the games haven't exactly come down to the wire. We're spoiled after last year.
Saskatchewan (7-4 CW, 12-5 CIS, RPI #4, SRS +11.0) — W 96-67 vs. UBC Okanagan, W 92-55 vs. TRU

A pair of absolute blowouts by the Huskies. Maybe they can play Carleton next year at this time instead, and give TRU, UBC-O, RMC, and Queen's a weekend off.

Did you know Michael Lieffers has 2.7 steals per game, more than Jamelle Barrett's 2.5? Lieffers' shooting is down (he led the league last year and is down about six or seven points to 56%), yet I am going to be very interested to see where he lands in this year's PER rankings.

Lieffers only scored eight against UBC-O but then again he only played 22 minutes. The bench got a lot of minutes here, with Saskatchewan leading 52-36 at the half.

I thought the Heat might go 5-17 this year (when I assumed it was a 22-game schedule) so they'll need to go 4-14 this year, or 2-4 in their remaining games, which won't probably happen (he said, looking at their remaining schedule).
Laurier (10-2 OUA, 16-6 CIS, RPI #8, SRS +11.0) — W 97-91 at Guelph, W 89-73 at Western

You never want to assume a 10-2 OUA West team will always lose to a 7-5 OUA West team, but Guelph (and 4-8 Western) better have a really friggin' good defensive game plan to keep that from happening, because this WLU side has the best offence (on a per-possession basis as well as per-game) behind the Ravens and they turn the ball over much, much less than anyone else. Much less. If UBC played Laurier, the UBC coaches would be screaming "ball pressure!" more or less continuously throughout the game, instead of more or less continuously throughout 70% of the game.

Guelph didn't really stop Laurier's vaunted offence (27 from Max Allin with 11 boards and six assists, 15 from Kale Harrison on just five field-goal attempts, 9/17 from long range as a team) but they gave them a run anyway. Laurier's 11-point margin in the second quarter was enough for them to hold on in the second half. Sounds like it was a good one in Guelph.

Western, on the other hand, had a first-quarter lead but there's a reason these games are 40 minutes long instead of 10. Of note in this game: (1) Kale Harrison scored just two points and (2) Matt Buckley grabbed 462 rebounds. Or 18. Something like that. (Cam has Buckley in the MUBL, but has never played him. Cam is also in last place in the MUBL. Just sayin'.)
Victoria (10-2 CW, 11-4 CIS, RPI #5, SRS +10.9) — L 71-75 at Winnipeg, W 101-79 at Manitoba

Third-best offence in the country so far? None other than these Vikes. (Third-worst uniform colours? Well...) It's going to be a really interesting weekend for Manitoba. And of course after focusing on Manitoba, it's Winnipeg who provide the upset. A 60-47 lead with 10 minutes to go is not often in danger, but so it went for UVic.

It went much better on Saturday, with a 22-point win over the not-upsetting-anyone-this-weekend Bisons. Terrell Evans hit a pair of season highs, with 19 points in 26 minutes off the bench. The local paper has a recap written by Ron Rauch, which I read as "Jon Rauch" and I was, understandably, quite terrified.
Alberta (8-4 CW, 10-5 CIS, RPI #1, SRS +9.9) — W 77-69 vs. TRU, W 87-54 against UBC Okanagan

The other half of the TRU/UBC-O road trip went about as well as the Saskatchewan half did for the B.C. teams.

RPI isn't the final word, especially not in January, but it's really interesting that Alberta, and not Carleton or anyone else, is No. 1. They have a 10-5 record, not as gaudy as others, but they've faced the toughest schedule in the country. Half their scoring comes from Daniel Ferguson and Jordan Baker, and maybe it's that reliance that led to a two-point loss to Manitoba, a one-point loss to Winnipeg, and single-digit losses to UBC and UVic the weekend before last.

They must have heard me, because Rob Dewar led both teams in scoring with 21 against the WolfPack. Baker scored 15 and had 10 rebounds — seven defensive, more than the entire TRU team had on their offensive glass. Justin King did the same thing to the Bears in reverse (13 d-boards vs. 9). Then they shot nearly 60% against the Heat and Matthew Cardoza scored 14, one more than Ferguson.
Concordia (5-0 RSEQ, 12-4 CIS, RPI #7, SRS +6.1) — W 78-66 at Laval, W 69-61 vs. McGill

Two games in the same week? What is this witchcraft?

Something weird is going on the QUBL so far. Last week I noted that Concordia were shooting rather poorly yet still beating teams, and it seems that's because everyone has forgotten what they're supposed to do with the orange round thing. Quebec teams as a whole are shooting an effective 40%, and are scoring only 86 points per 100 possessions, while turning it over nearly 28% of the time. Collectively, they're basically UBC Okanagan, no offence to the Heat, which means Concordia's opponents are collectively worse than UBC-O.

And look! More of the same. 43 combined turnovers in the Laval game. Concordia shot an effective 45%. Then they shot 38% — and won — against McGill. If explorers were braving the St. Lawrence today, looking for quality men's basketball programs instead of lumber or beaver pelts or whatever, they'd reach what is now the Welland Canal, give up, and head back to the old country, taking Kyle Desmarais with them as proof that the journey wasn't totally fruitless.
UFV (7-5 CW, 11-5 CIS, RPI #13, SRS +5.2) — W 86-73 at Regina, W 85-75 at Brandon

Another underrated offence here (17th per-game, but 6th per-possession). Their best shooter so far has been transfer Michael James, who was previously a top-100 player with Winnipeg (in '08-09; he was ranked 204th in '09-10), but he's only their fifth-leading scorer. It'll be interesting to see what happens to UFV if he gets more minutes.

Kyle Grewal and Sam Freeman each scored 23 against the reeling Cougars (who dropped five spots in the RPI after last week's sweep at Manitoba and sit dead-last in a division where five of the eight teams are below .500). Grewal had 21 more against Brandon, going to the line 13 times, and Jasper Moedt put up 15 and 15 in the 10-point win that required a 28 to 15 fourth quarter.

In other news...

Since Windsor's not in the top 10 anymore, we've been missing out on This Week in Chris Oliver, so let's get that in here now. "Keeping people at a distance doesn't allow them to hurt you, but they can not help you either."

Hockey: Canada West weekly roundup

2012-01-17T19:09:00.002-05:00

If there was any doubt which team heads the Canada West pack heading into the home stretch of the regular season, there isn’t anymore thanks to the Saskatchewan Huskies sweep of the Alberta Golden Bears this past weekend.

Here’s a look at some of the headlines from this past weekend of action.

Huskies make a statement

In a series with first-place on the line, the Saskatchewan Huskies came out and made a statement at home. The now number-three ranked Huskies earned a 5-2 win Friday night in Saskatoon before following that effort up with a gutsy 5-4 victory in a Saturday matinee.

The Huskies Saturday win was especially impressive after the home team used four second period goals to erase a 3-1 Alberta lead after 20 minutes of play. Captain Kyle Ross led the way with the hat-trick performance Saturday in front of just over 1,200 fans at Credit Union Centre.

With the pair of wins Saskatchewan takes sole possession of first in the conference opening up a four-point lead on Alberta. That gap isn’t insurmountable, but is unquestionably significant.

Friday – Alberta 2 at Saskatchewan 5
Saturday – Alberta 4 at Saskatchewan 5

Bisons still in the running

First-place isn’t guaranteed to go the way of Saskatchewan, but if any team is going to catch them it could be Manitoba. The Herd are a full six points back, but have two games in hand on both Saskatchewan and Alberta.

While a clean regulation split between the Bears and Huskies would’ve been ideal for head coach Mike Sirant’s team, at least the Huskies didn’t leave any scraps for Alberta to distance the Bears from the Bisons.

This coming weekend will determine whether, or not Manitoba has any chance at first, as they host the Huskies in Winnipeg.

Bears specialty teams slacking

If there’s one number that points to why Alberta lost both their games against Saskatchewan this past weekend, perhaps it’s the number five. The Bears surrendered five goals both games, but more importantly were -5 in the specialty teams department scoring only one PP marker while giving up six. Saskatchewan went 6-for-15 on the PP against Alberta, including scoring four of their five goals Saturday on the man advantage.

Those numbers don’t bode well for the Bears if they hope to make something happen in the Canada West playoffs, which in all likelihood will end in Saskatoon one way, or another.

Friday – Alberta 2 at Saskatchewan 5
Saturday – Alberta 4 at Saskatchewan 5

Basement dwellers still slumping

While both the Lethbridge Pronghorns and Regina Cougars had solid outings Friday night — the ‘Horns won 3-2 in OT against Calgary and Regina lost a close 4-2 contest to UBC — neither team put up much a fight the following night, both suffering convincing losses.

Lethbridge’s single point to the Cougars zero this past weekend means there is now a three-point gap between the two, with the ‘Horns in the lead for the final playoff spot. The southern Alberta squad should make the postseason, but with six of their final eight games against nationally ranked teams — four of the six are against Alberta — Lethbridge’s road to the playoffs won’t be easy.

Working to the Pronghorns advantage is the fact that they’ll control their destiny playing their other two games against Regina, and the fact that the Cougars still have games against Saskatchewan on the schedule (that being said Regina has played their provincial rivals tough in recent times).

Friday – Regina 2 at UBC 4
Saturday – Regina 0 at UBC 4

Friday – Calgary 2 at Lethbridge 3
Saturday – Lethbridge 1 at Calgary 4

First win continues to evade DeSerres

Rookie netminder Jacob DeSerres can’t catch a break in the Calgary net this season. The Memorial Cup champion hasn’t seen much ice in Cowtown for the Dinos, getting only his third start of the season this past Friday in the loss to Lethbridge. DeSerres wasn’t to blame stopping 35 of 38 shots, but still that’s little consolation for the former junior standout who’s .875 SV% and 3.97 GAA along with his 0-3 record aren’t picturesque.

Two poor performances from the first half of the season are largely to blame for his numbers, but for DeSerres being part of a three-headed goalie monster can’t be good for his game.

Friday – Calgary 2 at Lethbridge 3
Saturday – Lethbridge 1 at Calgary 4

Canada West Men's Basketball: Jan 12-14 Update

2012-01-17T16:13:00.002-05:00

This was the second week of play in the new year, but the first where students were back in class and able to catch some action. UBC climbed two spots in the national CIS rankings after winning on the road twice at Thompson Rivers, while Alberta jumped a pair of spots in RPI with a home sweep against Lethbridge. They're the top team in the country, according to fancy math.

Anyway, there were seven double-header series this week.

Calgary 83 vs. Saskatchewan 79 | Calgary 83 vs. Saskatchewan 90

The Dinos also had a pretty good week, jumping four RPI spots and knocking off the 4th-ranked Huskies at home (who have since fallen to 5th). The Dinos, who got Boris Bakovic back last week, had Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson in the lineup Friday for the first time since November 12. Jackson had a game-high 37 minutes and 21 points, shooting 7-for-17 from the field and hitting two treys.

On Saturday night, Saskatchewan's big-scorer Jamelle Barrett showed up in a way he hadn't in the first half, going 15-for-23 including 4-for-8 for three and scoring a season-high 40 points, also earning 9 assists and 4 steals. The Huskies, after dropping a close decision the night before, rolled over Calgary in the first three quarters. Despite scoring 90 and out-rebounding the Dinos 42-33, not a single member of the Huskies earned a double-double.

Victoria 70 vs. Fraser Valley 79 | Victoria 91 vs. Fraser Valley 67

After losing their first game last week to Saskatchewan, the Vikes split another weekend at home in a pretty good pair of tilts against the UFV Cascades. Joel Friesen and Sam Freeman, as usual, took the bulk of the shots and they were going in, the pair combining for 32 on the night.

Saturday, the tables turned back in the direction of the favourites. Victoria's depth and rebounding prowess shone, as they got 32 points from the bench and out-rebounded the Abbotsford visitors 35-27. Zac Andrus picked up 16. Oddly quiet on the weekend was Ryan Mackinnon, who had been averaging above 20 per game coming into the weekend, putting up just 9 and 15 in the two games.

Thompson Rivers 66 vs. UBC 83 | Thompson Rivers 54 vs. UBC 78

I thought that maybe, at home, TRU could compete in both of these games and perhaps earn a split, but their shooting this weekend was just awful. Not in a "UBC just wasn't giving them any open looks" sort of way, but more of a "everything isn't even going near the hoop" sort of way. The WolfPack shot a total of 30.5% on the weekend. I think I'll blame the gym they were playing in. A high-school wrestling tournament took over the Tournament Capital Centre in Kamloops so we were relegated to watching this game in our downtrodden campus gym, the former home of the University College of the Cariboo Sun Demons.

On Friday, Doug Plumb put down 23 for the Thunderbirds, whose own shooting misfortunes in the first half kept this game somewhat close, but they eventually pulled away thanks to a couple of daggers from long-range from Malcolm Williams and cruised in the second half. Notable: TRU didn't score a point until there was 4:29 left in the first quarter.

Saturday night's affair was less close. UBC's speed on defense kept the 'Pack from moving the ball. Even worse for the WolfPack is they were without leading scorer Justin King, who appeared to bang his hand (that was already taped up) in Friday's contest. Tommy Nixon had game highs in points (22) rebounds (13) and led the T-Birds to an easier win this time over TRU, leading by 15 points at the half.

Alberta 91 vs. Lethbridge 83 | Alberta 85 vs. Lethbridge 77

Probably two closer games than Alberta would have liked, especially at home, but the Golden Bears earned the sweep despite two more good performances from Dominyc Coward and Daryl Cooper. Coward had 23 points and 12 boards Friday and Cooper had a team-high 24 on Saturday.

Alberta, up by just 3 at the end of the third quarter on Friday, got two early buckets from Lyndon Taylor and Jordan Baker, who had 25 on the night, sealed it with a jumper to put the Bears up by 10 with 2:40 remaining.

Saturday, the score line was closer than the game was, and it was Daniel Ferguson leading the way for the Bears with 26 points, capitalizing on some good team ball-movement allowing Alberta to run over the Pronghorns' suspect defense.

UBC-Okanagan 77 vs. Trinity Western 83 | UBC-Okanagan 56 vs. Trinity Western 83

Also, closer than Trinity would have liked, particularly for a team so dry of wins in the first half of the season. Trinity improved to 6-6 on the year, inching them into a playoff spot, surviving a furious comeback Friday in Kelowna. After leading by 15 with 30 seconds left in the third quarter, UBC-O, led by Simon Pelland and Yassine Ghomari, tied it up with 2:06 remaining. Kyle Coston and Tristan Smith hit foul shots to restore a lead, as the team saw some stingy defense and rebounding from that point on.

Saturday went as Saturday is expected. Fresh off the hotel breakfast, the Langley visitors got 17 from Sean Peter and rebounding down the lineup, using a lot of bench players and, well, taking advantage of the fact that the Heat are a first year team in over their heads against a pretty good Spartans team, apparently.

Brandon 70 vs. Winnipeg 56 | Winnipeg 66 vs. Brandon 61

Brandon had a good chance here to move back to .500 and put themselves in good playoff standing, but provincial rival Wesmen spoiled the party on Saturday with an excellent fourth quarter performance from Brayden Duff, who had 5 points, 2 rebounds, a block and a steal. It was Mark McNee carrying the Wesmen the rest of the way, who won on late free throws (exciting!) after the game was tied late.

On Friday, Brandon got double-doubles from Ali Mounir and Donovan Gayle and rolled with a six-deep bench. Neither team shot particularly well (both under 36%) but the Bobcats took it thanks to eight three-pointers, and the fact that Winnipeg had 19 turnovers.

Manitoba 116 vs. Regina 89 | Manitoba 94 vs. Regina 83

Manitoba's above-average offense turned into an elite offense, and both teams are now at opposite ends of the table in respective "points" and "points allowed" rankings. It's not even that Manitoba shot an outrageously high percentage (53%) on Friday, but they did take an awesome amount of three-point shots (30, scoring on 13 of them). Keith Oliver hit five of those and finished with a game-high 23 points on Friday.

Saturday, Manitoba "only" scored 94 but Oliver again was on his game, hitting four from long-range and racking up 24 points. Now 8-4 and boasting the top offense in the country, having won six straight, are they a contending team? They're 14th in RPI in the nation and 6th in the conference.

Hockey: AUS Weekly Update

2012-01-17T13:13:00.002-05:00

If there are any doubters still out there, this weekend should have shown that the AUS is very competitive, and it is not just UNB and everyone else. The first place Varsity Reds only came away with one point on their weekend in Nova Scotia. Saint Mary’s picked up two wins against teams that beat them last week and now find themselves back in second place, tied with Acadia who split their weekend. Moncton also split to stay one point back in fourth place, as did UPEI in fifth place. StFX got one win and are just four points of surging Dalhousie for the last playoff spot. It was a tough weekend for STU, who might have seen their faint hopes for a playoff spot quashed with two losses.

How and when is UNB going to fix their broken power play?

It is mind boggling that a team as deep and skilled as the Varsity Reds saw their power play go 0-for-the-weekend (not for the first time) and slide below Dal’s as the least productive in the AUS with an 11.5% success rate. While they lead the conference in shorthanded goals with 9, UNB has only scored 10 with the man advantage. Sixth place StFX leads the pack with 26 PP goals. Saint Mary’s won a tight game Friday with a third-period power play goal. StFX had a lead after the first period Saturday thanks to two power play goals. Even strength UNB had the edge in large parts of those games. Teams take liberties, and resulting penalties, against the reigning CIS champs now with impunity. And while we’re piling on, it is also a bit of a surprise that UNB is 0-for-2 in overtime shootouts this season, and has yet to score a goal in those mano-a-mano situations. I know the V-Reds are a high tempo, puck possession, puck pursuit, defence focused team, but maybe they might want to focus practice some of those skillsy things too, like the power play and the shootout.

There were a couple of positives for UNB in the StFX game. Newcomer Shayne Wiebe picked up his first-ever and second UNB goals, and defencemen Chad Denny got his first-ever goal on a bullet shot in front of lots of family and friends from the Eskasoni First Nation at the game. And UNB did come back from a 4-1 deficit to salvage an all-important point in the standings.

Friday – UNB 1 @ SMU 2
Saturday – UNB 4 @ StFX 5 OT-SO

Saint Mary’s back in hunt for playoff bye

SMU head coach Trevor Stienburg was not happy with his team after their previous weekend. They performed better and got the preferred results against the same two opponents this past weekend at home. They look more like the CIS champions of two seasons ago with their relentless forecheck. Sure, they might have got some help from a wonky net peg several times in the second period Friday, but they controlled the early part of the third period and then took advantage of a long man-advantage situation to get the winner. It doesn’t hurt that Neil Conway is playing a lot better in nets. Saturday they responded to a UPEI goal with four of their own, two of them from Patrick O’Keefe, and held on for the win this time against the Panthers.

Friday – UNB 1 @ SMU 2
Saturday – UPEI 3 @ SMU 5

Acadia is not going away

The Axemen score goals. Only the V-Reds score more. Friday they traded goals with Moncton until les Aigles Bleus scored three in the third period to break the game open. Saturday Acadia scored two in the first period, but only Spencer Jezegou managed to score for the team in red and blue on the first of eight power play opportunities against the Tommies in the second period. The heavy-handed ref gave them two more chances in the third period. Acadia was 1-for-10 on the PP in the game, while STU went 0-for-6.

Friday – Acadia 3 @ UdeM 6
Saturday – Acadia 3 @ STU 1

And neither is Moncton

That win over Acadia was big for UdeM, as it had temporarily moved them ahead of the Axemen in the standings. Then Saturday the Tigers were in town and perhaps les Aigles took them lightly? Dal scored twice in the first, twice in the second and added another in the third before Moncton got on the scoresheet. Lost opportunity for the home team. Oh, and Christian Gaudet, who just got back into the Moncton line-up is reportedly now out 4-6 weeks with a broken foot. I did discover one interesting stat after the weekend: While UNB dominates the AUS plus/minus stats, the four non V-Reds in the top 15 +/- all play for Moncton.

Friday – Acadia 3 @ UdeM 6
Saturday – Dal 5 @ UdeM 1

Panthers keep pace Friday

UPEI stretched their win streak to three games when they exploded for seven goals from seven different players and chased X-Men goalie Joey Perricone after just one period. Saturday it was the Huskies getting the goals in bunches, with Panther Jared Gomes scoring twice in the third period to get them in the game a little late, but SMU captain Colby Pridham slammed the door with an empy-netter with four seconds to go.

Friday – UPEI 7 @ StFX 3
Saturday – UPEI 3 @ SMU 5

X-Men hanging onto playoff spot

Not even a year after playing in the University Cup final-six, the X-Men are in danger of missing the AUS playoffs. Who saw that coming? That hammering by UPEI Friday made it four losses in a row, which made the Saturday win against UNB all-important. The X-Men blew a 4-1 second period lead against the V-Reds, and their four minutes of power play time in the ten-minute overtime certainly helped keep the UNB attackers at bay. First year forward Michael Kirkpatrick picked up StFX male athlete-of-the-week honours for his two power play goals in the first period and his stylish shootout goal.

Friday – UPEI 7 @ StFX 3
Saturday – UNB 4 @ StFX 5 OT-SO

Dal wins two in a row, and three of their last four

The Tigers are hot. New coach. Healthier players. Goalies on their game. Former assistant coach Chris Donnelly is now 3-1 since taking over behind the Dal bench during the Christmas break when Pete Belliveau moved into the “front office” as general manager. After squeaking out a 1-0 win over STU last week, Dal pumped seven goals past Charles Lavigne Friday. Then five goals on Moncton’s Andre-Michel Guay on Saturday. David MacDonald, an AUS all-star defenceman when he played for the Huskies, had two goals and an assist against the Tommies and was named Dal’s male athlete-of-the-week.

Friday – Dal 7 @ STU
Saturday – Dal 5 @ UdeM 1

Tough, tough weekend for the Tommies

STU lost two close ones on the road the previous weekend. The rebuilding Tommies then got lit up by Dal at home on Friday, a team they HAVE to beat for any hope at the playoffs. Saturday they got into penalty trouble, or referee trouble, depending who you talk to. Acadia cruises to a 3-1 win and now STU has lost eight in a row. And they host UNB on Wednesday. Fun. Well somebody’s losing streak will end, and most people’s money will be on the Fredericton team in red and black.

This week

There are three games Wednesday: the 3rd edition of the Battle of the Hill in Fredericton; Acadia at Dal; Moncton at UPEI in the Fixed Link Fixture. Friday we’ve got UNB at UdeM in a classic Fredericton-Moncton rivalry, UPEI at STU, StFX at Acadia and SMU at Dal in the Battle of Halifax. Saturday sees UNB host UPEI, STU at Moncton (no love lost there), Dal at SMU to continue the Battle of Halifax and Acadia at StFX.

* Photo courtesy of Brian Smith

Men's Basketball: OUA West Weekly Roundup

2012-01-17T12:27:00.002-05:00

We’re nearing the playoffs and the OUA West is starting to thin out a bit, but there are four teams still challenging for top spot. Windsor and McMaster have kept up with one another and are tied for third, while Lakehead and Laurier went head-to-head this past week for top spot in the West with neither team able to gain ground on the other. In the top ten post from last weekend, Rob briefly covered the Lakehead (No. 3) and Laurier (No. 7) series. He also has some fun facts and stats that are worth a read.

Games In-Depth

Friday, January 13
Lakehead 88, Laurier 83
Games with hype don’t usually live up to it. The Lakehead-Laurier weekend lived up to the expectation and so much more. On Friday night Lakehead went point-for-point with Laurier, which most would agree have the best offence in the West. Both Lakehead and Laurier finished with four players in double digits in a game where defence was at a premium. The Thunderwolves' Venzal Russell tied a game high 24 points, but also a less than impressive 9-28 from the field and 0-6 on threes. Yoosrie Salhia had a game high 11 rebounds and was a defensive frustration for Laurier inside the paint all night long. Laurier's Kale Harrison ended the night with 24 points and 7 rebounds — all defensive. Throughout the game neither team was able to run away with it, with the game coming right down to the end. Laurier was within three points for the last three minutes before Lakehead put it away with a pair of free throws by Russell.

Saturday, January 14
Lakehead 89 vs. Laurier 92
Both teams picked up right where they left off from the night before. Lakehead had six players in double digits to Laurier’s four. On Saturday, though, it wasn’t all up to Harrison since he had some help from Conor Meschino and Matt Buckley, who finished with 16 and 14 points respectively. Laurier jumped off to the quick lead after the first quarter ahead 24-18, but Lakehead slowly nicked away at that. One of the key factors was Laurier’s bench, who put up 34 points to 15 by Lakehead. Even though all of the Thunderwolves starters hit double digits, you need better contribution from the bench.

Other Scores

Wednesday, January 11
McMaster 103 vs. Brock 91
Something lit a fire under Victor Raso coming into this game. With 29 points and 5 rebounds, he led the way for McMaster in a high-scoring affair against Brock, while Adam Presutti had 18 points for the Marauders. Tshing Kasamba came off the bench for 19 points and 6 defensive boards. This was the start for another bad week for Brock, who lost again and stumbled further down the standings in the West.

Saturday, January 14
Windsor 78, McMaster 74
The first half killed McMaster in this one. Windsor went into the half leading 48-31, with the Lancers up by 20 at one point. Six Windsor players had 10 or more points and Enrico Di Loreto finished with 17 points going 5-8 on field goals and an impressive 4-6 on threes. Although, you expect good numbers from the fifth best scorer in the CIS. More importantly, it helped Windsor keep pace in the West and remain tied for third with a 9-3 record. Presutti finished with a game high 20 points for the Marauders.

Saturday, January 14
Western 101 vs. Brock 93
Western has one of the youngest teams in the CIS and they grew up in a big way with this game. Five players finished with 13 or more points with Ryan Barbeau and Quinn Henderson each getting 21. This could be a sign of things to come for Western, who look to be building chemistry as a team. Although their season will finish soon, I imagine teams are going to be more cautious with Western looking to play the role of spoiler. Kasamba had 19 points and six steals for Brock. The Badgers have had a tough start to the year going 1-3 and falling out of contention for the West. Though they’re still 7-5, it’s going to be hard to gain ground on Lakehead and Laurier.

Player of the Week
Ryan Barbeau - Western Mustangs
Barbeau has been lights out for Western all year. He’s ranked sixth in the CIS with 20.7 ppg and has been the best player for Western this year, by far. On Wednesday night against Guelph, he put up 31 points to go with 3 rebounds and 3 assists. The next highest scorer for Western that game? Well, it was Charlie Drouin with 8 points. That pretty much sums up Western this year. On Saturday against Brock, Barbeau actually had some offensive help from his teammates as he finished with 21 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists. Western may be building for the future, but the young players have benefitted from watching Barbeau all season long.

Upcoming Game of the Week
Friday, January 20 and Saturday, January 21
McMaster at Lakehead
Thanks to the split between Laurier and Lakehead, McMaster is only one game behind both teams in the West. McMaster, though, went 1-1 themselves last weekend, beating Brock but falling to Windsor (who they’re tied with). If Mac hopes to keep pace and challenge for top in the West, they’ll have to get at least a split in Lakehead. That’s easier said than done with Lakehead being 5-1 at home this year, 23-5 the last three years, and eager to keep their top spot. I wouldn’t be surprised for two close games, but I think a Lakehead sweep will put McMaster in a battle for third with only a few weeks left in the regular season.

Football: Sumarah a nice hire for Carleton, but instant success isn't sure

2012-01-16T20:45:00.005-05:00

The Carleton Ravens may not be fielding a CIS football team in 2012, but they still made some of the most memorable news of the offseason by hiring Steve Sumarah Monday. Sumarah, of course, had incredible success with Saint Mary's as both an offensive coordinator (six straight AUS titles, trips to four Vanier Cups, two national championships) and a head coach (35-12 in the regular season,four straight AUS titles and a Vanier Cup trip) before his contract wasn't renewed this offseason. He's very likely the best-qualified candidate on the coaching market this year, so given the many vacancies that were/still are out there, it's quite remarkable that a team that's starting from the ground up in 2013 was able to land him. He should be a great addition for the Ravens, and he could help turn them into a contender quickly.

Despite landing an excellent coach in Sumarah, Carleton's success isn't a sure thing, though, especially at first. Keep in mind that coaching in Ontario's going to be quite a change for Sumarah; he's coming from Saint Mary's, which has used its status as the traditional AUS powerhouse to grab the best recruits from out East as well as many from across the country. The Ravens won't have that kind of profile to start, and they'll be competing with many long-established recruiting powerhouses, such as Western, Queen's, Laurier and McMaster. Even though Carleton has announced plans to follow the Laval model of heavy (alumni- and booster-led) financing for coaches and facilities, they may have a tough time duplicating the Rouge et Or's record of joining CIS in 1996 and winning a Vanier Cup in their fourth season. Laval came in during a bit of a power vacuum in the old OQIFC, making their ascension much easier. Carleton's going to have to fight tooth and nail to establish themselves in a conference that already has plenty of top programs, and even a top coach may not be enough for instant success.

Still, Sumarah seems like the best candidate Carleton could have grabbed right now, and hiring him at this point has the advantage of providing plenty of lead time. The Ravens have made one of their biggest moves in preparation for returning to the CIS gridiron, and it looks like they got it right. With Sumarah in place, they should be ready to hit the ground running in 2013. The question that remains is how far they'll get after that.

Men's basketball: Top 10 tracker: X-Men drop both, Lakehead/Laurier split

2012-01-15T23:26:00.000-05:00

This week's results for the top 10 teams. Records and rankings are entering this week.

Carleton (10-0, RPI: #4, SRS: +24.8) — W 87-56 at Ryerson, W 98-64 at Toronto

Only won by 31 on Friday. Probably because, according to the boxscore, that was the "Carelton Ravens", the lovable collection of similarly-named alter-egos Dave Smart runs out there now and then to amuse himself and give the boys a day off (you know, Tysin Honz, Coel Hobin, all those dudes). Ryerson didn't take advantage of this alternate universe and, of course, shot 34%, their worst of the year so far.

Saturday, they won by 34 to finish their Toronto trip with much success. Varsity shot an effective 40%, one of the best performances against the Ravens anyone's had this year. Still, Carleton had no problem. Thomas Scrubb went 8/11 for 21 points, one behind his brother Phillip. Rebounds were 13 to 19 on Carleton's offensive glass, and 39 to 5 at the other end. 39 to 5!
StFX (7-0, RPI: #1, SRS: +13.4) — L 88-101 at Cape Breton, L 76-100 at UPEI

Yes, Wednesday night saw the first loss for X this year, but it's worth pointing out that they've been close to an L before. Against Acadia, they were outshot 55% to 48% on effective field-goal percentage, and outrebounded, and of course went to OT; against Dalhousie, same deal, minus the extra period; against SMU, again. Granted, you can find close wins with every team (that doesn't play OUA East teams for the entire 2012 portion of the schedule) but the X-Men seem a tad overdue.

And hey, what do you know, they lost to UPEI too, who went 14/30 on threes. This loss (by 24 points? really?) was enough to move St. F-X out of the top spot in our RPI, now enjoyed by Alberta. Only seven X-Men got into this game, not including Bol Kong, who played just eight in Wednesday's loss to CBU. We are assuming an injury. (UPDATE: Mark Wacyk has written that the seven players who did not play were "serving a team-imposed, one-game suspension for violation of team rules.")
Lakehead (9-1, RPI: #14, SRS: +11.4) — W 88-83 at Laurier, L 89-92 at Laurier

Meant to watch this one, since with how the OUA playoffs are set up now, Laurier and Lakehead may not meet again after this weekend. Also note that the RPI rankings of the OUA West teams are deflated right now because they haven't played each other yet, so 14th will not be 14th in the end for the Great Group of Teammates.

Lakehead took a close one here, with a second-half comeback surged by [ERROR: INFORMATION NOT AVAILABLE; NO SECOND-HALF BOXSCORE EXISTS] along with [SORRY, YOU'LL HAVE TO ADD UP THE TOTALS YOURSELVES]. Yoosrie Salhia's 11 rebounds couldn't have helped his MUBL owner (who started what turned out to be Victor Raso's 29 Wednesday night points instead) but the 9 of 28 shooting wouldn't have helped anyway.

Saturday, it was an even better game I did not watch. The 'Wolves ran a short bench out there both days (their starters played 75-80% of the game both times) but it seems like they had to rely more on the top guys Saturday.

Gratuitous joke: Lakehead averaged one shot per 29.6 seconds on Friday, including the time they didn't have possession. In the NCAA, teams are just about starting to formulate a plan after 29.6 seconds of possession, and might actually commit an act of basketball at some point soon.
Saskatchewan (6-3, RPI: #3, SRS: +13.2) — L 83-79 at Calgary, W 90-83 at Calgary

Jamelle Barrett's mission to take over and successfully run Saskatoon has hit another snag (no wonder he brought in reinforcements). The Huskies lost to Calgary and Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson, who may be able to help bring the Dinos out of the lower tier of the Smythe Division, or whatever they're calling it this year. Barrett was merely 4 of 11, and as we can learn from the Department of Obvious Correlations, Sasky are 4-0 when Barrett shoots above 50% and 0-4 when he doesn't. Wayne Thomas said it was strange that Michael Lieffers has never been named a Canada West all-star, and it's hard to disagree. 18 points on 13 shots, seven offensive rebounds, and seven assists for him that night.

Or not. The mission is advancing apace, as Barrett scored 40 on Saturday, along with nine assists and four steals.
UBC (6-2, RPI: #7, SRS: +12.9) — W 83-66 at TRU, W 78-54 at TRU

"Well, TRU aren't shooting very well, but at least they're compounding it by not passing the ball very well." — C. Charron.
Victoria (9-1, RPI: #5, SRS: +10.6) — L 79-70 vs. UFV, W 91-67 vs. UFV

One hopes that a certain national basketball editor who happens to be in a certain city this weekend stopped by a certain gym to watch a certain team get upset by a certain other team. Outscored in every quarter except the first, and after having Ryan MacKinnon shoot an effective 14% (ineffective, I suppose), the Vikes will drop in the eyes of some, but perhaps in hindsight (i.e., if the Cascades keep it going all year) this loss won't look so bad.

The next game, MacKinnon played less and shot less, but with a 12-point lead after one it hardly seems necessary.
Laurier (9-1, RPI: #8, SRS: +11.2) — L 88-83 vs. Lakehead, W 92-89 vs. Lakehead

I already said I didn't watch this game, but I'm just going to go ahead and infer an change in the Hawks' offensive strategy based on the following:
- First quarter: 1/6 on three-pointers
- Second quarter: attempted only one three, and it was with zeroes on the clock
Overall, they attempted just 14 threes (down from their average of about 26) and even worse, they missed 12 of them. A team that usually shoots 40% will go 2 for 14 (or worse) once every 600 games, so it's not quite random variation. And clearly — again, said tongue-in-cheek due to that whole not-having-seen-the-game thing — the coach noticed something and made a change.

With the same teams playing again the next day, you'd think a reporter whose beat is university sports would maybe explore this angle (losing by five after having no three-point game). You know, see whether Peter Campbell has anything to say, maybe about Lakehead forcing them to take bad shots from outside. Or any angle, really. But if you're working for The Record, you'll probably just punch out 60 words on the men's game and head for the parking lot.

And look, in Saturday's game WLU continued their "shoot-fewer-threes" thing, if it is indeed a thing, except this time they earned the split, a not-unexpected outcome of this weekend. (If both games were in Thunder Bay I might have predicted a Lakehead sweep.)
Alberta (6-4, RPI: #2, SRS: +9.9) — W 91-83 vs. Lethbridge, W 85-77 vs. Lethbridge

23 and 12 out of Dominyc Coward wasn't enough to put the Pronghorns over the Bears; Jordan Baker countered with 25 and 10, and Alberta turned it over only half as often as their opponents to the south. The 'Horns got 39 combined from Coward and Morgan Duce, two of several players identified here previously as CCAA standouts who could make the jump.

Daniel Ferguson scored 26 on 15 shots to pace Alberta on Saturday, tying a season high for him. He's also leading the country in minutes per game.
Concordia (4-0, RPI: #9, SRS: +6.7) — W 68-63 vs. UQAM

Undefeated despite shooting 42.7%, putting them in august company such as Guelph, York, and UBC-O, who are decidely not undefeated. It is only four games, though. They shot 42.5% in this game, with Kyle Desmarais making just one field goal. This may not be sustainable.
UFV (6-4, RPI: #15, SRS: +5.4) — W 79-70 at Victoria, L 67-91 at Victoria.

This isn't the upset of the week but the Cascades' season has been up and down so far and so this was mildly unexpected. They, and Kyle Grewal in particular, took advantage of UVic's lack of capitalization on second chances and came away with the nine-point win. Grewal, Joel Friesen, and Sam Freeman all topped 15.

The loss certainly isn't going to have long-term effects, given the authority with which the Vikes came back on Saturday. That result also may keep Fraser Valley out of the top 10 for a little while longer.

Hockey: AUS Weekly Update

2012-01-12T14:11:00.003-05:00

After a few post-Christmas exhibition games the AUS men’s hockey conference got back at ‘er this past weekend. First place UNB had a big second half opener against their two big playoff rivals while Acadia kept pace and climbed into second place. Third place Moncton split and Saint Mary’s lost two close ones to slide into fourth place. UPEI won two home games to draw within a point of SMU while StFX fell back even further after a tough weekend. STU dropped two close games of their own and Dal finally ended their losing streak.

What UNB goalie problem and who’s on first?

There’s only two points of drama this season with the powerhouse V-Reds. One is the health of their goaltenders, and the other is a problem probably every other coach would like to have: who are going to be the healthy scratches? Veteran netminder Travis Fullerton, undefeated this season, returned from that Nov. 4 emergency appendicitis operation with a win against STU in the last game of the first half. He looked especially good in the first two periods in the Pete Kelly Cup game against uOttawa on Jan. 30, a 7-4 win. However he “tweaked something” in the game and hasn’t played since. Short time NHLer (3 games) Dan LaCosta, who battled a groin injury much of the first half, didn’t look especially sharp in the second game against the Gee-Gees, a matinee game on New Year’s Eve which saw UNB win 8-4 and uOttawa’s Russell Abbott get the tourney goaltender award with a 48 save performance. However this past weekend LaCosta looked very good, especially in UNB’s close win over Saint Mary’s.

UNB added two highly-touted forwards over the break. Abbotsford native Geordie Wudrick played five years in the WHL, and had 43 goals in 71 games with Kelowna last season. He was linked to UNB over the summer, but opted to try pro hockey in Germany in the first half. He played the two holiday exhibition games against uOttawa, and picked up his first V-Reds assist against StFX and first goal against SMU. Shayne Wiebe was captain of his hometown Brandon Wheat Kings last season, where he scored 44 goals in 72 games. Wiebe played for the Winnipeg Jets’ new AHL team in St. John’s in the first half, where he managed four assists in 12 games. His first game was Friday, and Wiebe was assigned Hunter Tremblay’s (now with Edmonton’s AHL team) old spot on the first line to the right side of Chris Culligan, who by the way looked better against Ottawa than he looked all first half.

The dilemma, drama and debate for UNB fans now is about who should be on the ice. Sans Tremblay, this is probably the deepest ever V-Reds team. Opposing coaches agree with me that UNB’s healthy scratches would probably be regulars on the other teams in the conference. With good players, and fan favourites, in the stands, many V-Reds diehards now act like beat writers with the Habs – constantly dissecting imperfect shifts by players on the ice and opining who REALLY should be in the line-up instead of those that coach Gardiner MacDougall selects. A nice problem to have I guess.

Friday – StFX 2 @ UNB 5
Saturday – SMU 2 @ UNB 3

Axemen on the hunt.

Acadia had two exhibition wins over the holidays – 4-2 vs. STU on Dec. 30 and 4-0 over StFX on Jan. 2, a game played in Berwick, the Apple Capital of Nova Scotia. Friday, the AUS’s leading scorer, Andrew Clark, led the Axemen with two goals and an assist in the convincing 5-2 win against Moncton. Jonathan Laberge also has a pair of goals. Chris Moulson, brother of the NHL Islanders’ Matt, made his debut for Acadia and picked up two assists. Saturday night they dominated the Tommies in shots (41-23) but only squeaked out a win thanks to a third period power play goal from Spencer Jezegou, and another assist to Moulson.

Friday – UdeM 2 @ Acadia 5
Saturday – STU 2 @ Acadia 3

Aigles Bleus not going away.

UdeM split their holiday exhibition games, both on the road: a 4-3 loss to UPEI and a 3-2 win over STU. While they didn’t have a great game Friday against Acadia, Moncton did bounce back with a convincing win over Dalhousie (okay, it’s Dal …). Francis Rochon had a hat-trick for le bleu et or. You gotta wonder what a difference Christian Gaudet would make to this line-up. The former pro hasn’t played since getting concussed eight games into the season, and he was leading the team in points most of that time.

Friday – UdeM 2 @ Acadia 5
Saturday – UdeM 5 @ Dal 1

Tough weekend for the Huskies.

On Dec. 30 Saint Mary’s played a neutral-site exhibition game against StFX in Truro, NS. The game went to an overtime shoot-out that X won 5-4, but maybe more importantly the game raised $10,000 for the local minor hockey association, the same amount as last year.

Friday night on the Island the Huskies battled back from a two-goal deficit to tie the game in the second period. UPEI retakes the lead 14 seconds later. Early in the third SMU on the power play ties it up again, only to see the Panthers get their own PP goal to take the lead back for the final time, and then add an insurance empty net goal. Saturday in Fredericton the Huskies played the V-Reds tough with an aggressive forecheck. However SMU squandered a long 5-on-3 in the second period and several PP’s in the third as opportunities to build on a one-goal lead. UNB’s d-man Jonathan Harty had a crappy game until a great shift midway in the third when he saved a goal at one end of the ice and then went up ice to score and tie the game. UNB’s power play, which was 0-for-the-weekend, finally connected with 19 seconds left in the game when captain Kyle Bailey redirected a Harty slap-pass. UNB’s LaCosta was tested all game in nets, especially by Cory Tanaka, who was probably the best forward on the ice and did beat him once on the power play. So close games and no points on the weekend cause the Huskies to drop from second into fourth place.

Friday – SMU 3 @ UPEI 5
Saturday – SMU 2 @ UNB 3

Panthers keep pace.

Two games and two wins didn’t change UPEI’s position in the standings, but they did draw closer to some of the teams ahead of them. Saturday night the Panthers used a third period power play to win a close game for the second time in two nights. Actually all of the goals in the game against StFX were on the power play.

Friday – SMU 3 @ UPEI 5
Saturday – StFX 1 @ UPEI 2

Is StFX officially struggling, or just their star goalie?

Last season the X-Men rode goalie Joey Perricone all the way to the University Cup. This season the California native and AUS 2nd team all-star is 3-8-2, and has lost the last three straight games. He’s got a 3.86 GAA and .864 save percentage. Last season? 14-4-0 with 2.37 GAA and .925 save percentage. AUS playoffs? 7-5-0, 2.48 GAA and .912. You can’t put it all on the goalies (four of the teams ahead of them in the standings have scored more goals, and UPEI just one less), but only Dalhousie have given up more goals than the X-Men so far this season.

Friday – StFX 2 @ UNB 5
Saturday – StFX 1 @ UPEI 2

Improving Tommies lose ground.

In sort of a must-win on Friday, STU lose a goaltending duel to Dalhousie thanks to a third period power play. The good news is that rookie d-man Chris Van Laren has finally finished his lengthy suspension for that first half high hit on Moncton’s Gaudet, and former pro Sebastien Bernier is now finished red-shirting and was eligible to play defence Friday. Saturday night goalie Charles Lavigne kept them in the game as Acadia outshot STU 41-23, yet needed a third period power play to get the winning goal.

Friday – STU 0 @ Dal 1
Saturday – STU 2 @ Acadia 3

Dal wins! Dal wins! Dal wins!

Sure, it was only one win on the weekend, but a now-healthy Bobby Nadeau battled Lavigne Friday night and came away with the shutout to end an eleven game Tigers losing streak. Saturday night the Dal male-athlete-of-the-week couldn’t be quite as masterful as they got predictably shelled by Moncton.

Friday – STU 0 @ Dal 1
Saturday – UdeM 5 @ Dal 1

Coming Up

Everyone has the same dance partners as last week but in the other team’s barn. Thus a lot of pressure on the Three Saints to have big home stands.

Photo courtesy of Brian Smith.

Basketball: OUA West First Week After the Break

2012-01-10T23:34:00.004-05:00

Well, coming back from the Christmas break the first set of games in the OUA West were interesting. Heading into Christmas there had been a log jam of teams, with six of the eight teams having winning records. Something had to give and at some point one of those teams were going to begin to run away with it. I’ve believed all year that it’s Lakehead’s to lose, but not without a fight from Laurier.

Laurier started the year by utterly decimating Waterloo 110 - 60. They ended up with five players in double digits and continued their torrid offensive pace. When they went up against Brock on Saturday they decided to only score 93 points. Lakehead remained tied for first by sweeping the weekend series against Western. Although, much credit to Western. The Lakehead weekend is always tough and the fact Western has one of the youngest teams in the OUA doesn’t make things easier. They were able to keep pace with Lakehead for awhile in both games, but it’s hard to go basket for basket with the depth that Lakehead has.

McMaster started out with a surprising loss at Windsor, but came back with a win against Waterloo at home to remain third. McMaster had a tough night shooting in Windsor with a 33.8% effort from the field, a rarity for Mac, which stopped them from really challenging Windsor. Brock squeezed out a win against Guelph at home, but not without some struggles. Both teams are fairly equally matched and the 77-74 final shows close they are.

Of the middle ranked teams in the West, Windsor by far had the best weekend. They earned victories against McMaster and Guelph to move up slightly in the standings and have a 7-3 record. They took advantage of playing at home against two strong teams and began to distance themselves a bit from the pack. By far, Guelph had the toughest weekend in the West. With loses to Brock and Windsor they fell to sixth and make things harder for themselves with a rough start to the second half of the season.

Upcoming Games to watch
Lakehead at Laurier (Jan. 13 and Jan. 14)
I have absolutely no idea what to expect from these games. They could either be blowouts with both teams capable of putting up 100 points easily. Or, Lakehead’s defence could step-up and expose a weakness in Laurier’s overpowering offence. I don’t really know, but these will be games everyone in the OUA will be paying attention to. Everyone wants to know how to beat these teams and something has to give at the top of the West. Both teams know what the standings look like and have been waiting for a chance to pull ahead. I can’t wait until the dust settles on Saturday night in Waterloo.

Hockey: Canada West weekly roundup

2012-01-10T18:26:00.003-05:00

It’s been a while since our last look at the Canada West men’s hockey picture, but with the second half of the season officially underway it’s time for our first roundup of 2012.

Bears add a friend of the Nuge

Alberta got out of the gate fast this past weekend with a pair of wins over the disappointing Calgary Dinos in a home-and-home series. In the lineup for the Bears both nights was midseason addition Brett Ferguson.

The former Red Deer Rebel played the first half of the season with Utah in the ECHL after trying out with the Oilers in September. Despite being held off the scoresheet in his first weekend, Ferguson looked solid for Alberta and will be a key if this team wants to make a trip to Fredericton.

For those of those of you watching Oil Change — the documentary on this year’s Edmonton Oilers season on Sportsnet — you’ll know Ferguson. He’s good friends with Oiler rookie Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. I’ll have more on that this Friday in the Edmonton Journal.

Friday – Alberta 3 at Calgary 2
Saturday – Calgary 4 at Alberta 4

Huskies miss six point chance against Pronghorns

It’s a rarity, but six point weekends every once and a while present themselves in Canada West hockey. Saskatchewan Huskies head coach Dave Adolph touched on that last week in the Star Phoenix, and his team had a chance to pick up half a dozen points this past weekend in Lethbridge.

The Huskies and ‘Horns completed their suspended game from early October that had been put on hold after the Zamboni in Lethbridge sprung a leak after two periods, before playing a full 60-minute contest after. Saskatchewan who led 3-0 when the Zamboni went snafu blew their three-goal advantage before Kyle Ross notched an OT winner to eek out the 4-3 win.

Saskatchewan went on to win the regularly scheduled Friday night game 5-2, setting up a chance Saturday for a six point weekend.

The Pronghorns though found a way to derail the Sled Dogs hopes during the rare weekend that featured a trio of games with points up for grabs, by scoring two third period goals in a 3-2 win. The victory was huge for Lethbridge who now sits in sixth place, one-point up on seventh place Regina, while the loss was equally important at the top of the standings for the U of S.

The Huskies instead of sitting alone in first heading into this weekend are now tied with Alberta for top spot with identical 13-3-2 records, setting up an all important weekend series at the Credit Union Centre in Saskatoon this coming weekend.

Friday – Saskatchewan 4 at Lethbridge 3 OT * Completion of suspended Oct. 1 game
Friday – Saskatchewan 5 at Lethbridge 2
Saturday – Saskatchewan 2 at Lethbridge 3

Dinos still don’t have it

It’s time to stop asking the question will the Calgary Dinos make a push up the standings, and start pondering whether or not this team will even have a home playoff date in the first round.

With a pair of regulation losses over the weekend to the Golden Bears the Dinos couldn’t distance themselves in the standings from the idle UBC Thunderbirds, who are still only two points back of the Dinos.

Not many people — myself included — could have foreseen this Calgary team being as underwhelming as they’ve been this season, but it seems it’s time to accept this edition of the Dinos doesn’t have the same spunk as last year’s team and won't be finding it in time to make it count.

Friday – Alberta 3 at Calgary 2
Saturday – Calgary 2 at Alberta 4

Manitoba sticking around in the race for first

The Herd aren’t going anywhere when it comes to the standings lurking a measly two points back of Alberta and Saskatchewan in the standings. Manitoba’s chances of finished first, or second for that matter, will in all likelihood be determined in two weeks time when they host Saskatchewan.

A bye week this weekend means that head coach Mike Sirant’s team will be well-rested and prepared for their matchup against the Sled Dogs, who won both games at Rutherford Rink between the two teams earlier this season.

Friday – Manitoba 3 at Regina 2
Saturday – Manitoba 4 at Regina 1

Cougars’ playoff hopes a toss-up

A three point weekend by Lethbridge against Saskatchewan has swung the race for the final playoff spot in the Pronghorns favour, but Regina still has life. There are no guarantees with either one of these bottom two teams, meaning it seems 50/50 the Cougars squeak into the watered down Canada West playoffs.

The only way I see that happening is if Lucas Gore and new Cougar Andrew Hayes — via Alaska of the ECHL and before that Cape Breton of the QMJHL — stand on their heads, much like Hayes did in his Regina debut Saturday in which he made 43-saves in the loss.

Friday – Manitoba 3 at Regina 2
Saturday – Manitoba 4 at Regina 1

Evan Daum is The CIS Blog's national hockey editor. Contact him at evandaum@gmail.com

Basketball: OUA East Men: Rams, Blues go 2–0; Lions not so lucky

2012-01-08T15:08:00.004-05:00

Good teams taking advantage of the weak teams in their schedule should be the least of a team’s expectations, even if they do not admit it. For two of the three Toronto-based hoops squads, who have been feeling the burn of a sub-.500 season, those expectations were in play as they went 2–0 this weekend.

The Toronto Varsity Blues and Ryerson Rams (both 5–5) are keeping pace with each other, each defeating the RMC Paladins and Queen’s Gaels (both 0–10) to keep pace with each other.

The Blues really needed this, after letting the OUA West toss them around like rag dolls in November, who had a relatively slow 3–5 start this fall, put the RMC Paladins and Queen’s Gaels away 92–36 and 69–56 respectively. The games weren’t close, as the Blues kept the Paladins at bay with five players scoring double digit points—and three double digit players against the Gaels. Blues G Justin Holmes made the most of his playing time this weekend, with 10 and 21 points in each game.

While beating the Paladins and Gaels were a given, the Blues very much needed to keep pace with their downtown Toronto rivals. The Rams, tied with Toronto for third in a loose OUA East, put Queen’s and RMC in their place. Their 78–50 win over Queen’s was a tremendous defensive effort. The Rams allowed 16 points in the second and third quarters, forcing 26 turnovers from the Queen’s squad. Their 92–19 win over RMC is almost comical, really, but on the surface of it, the Rams seem to have it together. I could actually see them defeating Toronto down the road, shutting down a Blues squad trying to figure out its identity as an offense and defense. They will have a chance Jan. 18 to show their mettle.

By the way, the York Lions, that third Toronto squad, are having a nightmarish season, and this weekend was only a small sample of their woes. The Lions hit the Ottawa-Carleton iceberg this weekend, losing to the Ravens and Gee-Gees 90–54 and 92–71 respectively. It is this very iceberg that Toronto and Ryerson will have to navigate next weekend.

Men's Basketball: Five storylines to watch in 2012

2012-01-05T14:42:00.004-05:00

With the Christmas break over and classes back in session, it's time to get focused back on one thing - CIS basketball! The CIS Blog's hoops guy Brian Decker gets you set up with five storylines to follow in the seasons's second half.

1. Can Boris Bakovic turn Calgary's season around?

Perhaps the biggest offeason storyline in all of CIS basketball was Boris Bakovic’s decision to join the Calgary Dinos for his fifth and final season. That took a turn for the worse, however, when Bakovic went down with a preseason knee injury — one many feared would be season/career-ending.

Thankfully, Bakovic has recovered enough that he’ll make his season debut this weekend against UFV. Bakovic, simply one of the best offensive players in CIS basketball history, should help a Calgary offence that has been struggling to keep up this year.

Sitting at 3-5 and 37th in the RPI, the Dinos have shot under 42 per cent from the field nearly twice as often as they’ve shot above it. Based on my amateur calculations, they’re averaging 94.1 points per 100 possessions, a number that Bakovic could certainly help (for reference, Carleton, arguably the best team, is averaging 121.9/100, while RMC, arguably the worst team is averaging 68.4/100).

Bakovic is a superbly efficient player on offence, especially when he’s the centerpiece of a halfcourt attack. He’s a good facilitator, can create his own shot and gets to the free throw line as well as anyone in the league.

It’ll be interesting to see if Bakovic’s boost on offence can turn Calgary’s season around.

2. Will Justin King's monster numbers get him some MVP consideration?

One of the best turnaround stories in the CIS this season has been in Kamloops, where the Thompson Rivers WolfPack have already matched their win total from 2010-11. After going 4-20 last year, they’re 4-4, with two of those losses coming in close games at undefeated Victoria.

Right at the centre of the turnaround has been the production of transfer Justin King. After coming up from Skagit Valley Junior College, King has absolutely torched his CIS competition, averaging 26.9 points a contest on 58.1 per cent shooting and posting better than 10 rebounds a game.

He’s making noise as a legitimate MVP candidate.

Based on statistical production alone, no one has been better than King this season. Does that mean he’s more valuable than Tyson Hinz or Jamelle Barret? Maybe not, but if he keeps putting up these numbers and TRU keeps winning you could probably make a case for him as MVP.

If TRU continues their massive turnaround, you’ll start to hear Justin King’s name a bit more often.

3. Who will break free from the pack in the OUA West?

If you could make one conclusion about the first half of the OUA season, it’s that apart from Carleton and maybe Ottawa, the OUA East is vastly inferior to its counterpart division in the West.

The West dominated the interlock schedule, with everyone but Western posting a record above .500. Three teams (Lakehead, Laurier and McMaster) went 7-1, and after last night’s games (where Laurier trounced Waterloo, Windsor beat Mac and Brock beat Guelph), five teams have 6 wins or more.

Once again, it’s going to be a dogfight for playoff positioning in the OUA West.

As the defending OUA champs and the most experienced team, Lakehead has be considered the favourite, while Laurier’s duo of Max Allin and Kale Harrison should make them a legitimate challenger. But other than that, each team has some question marks.

Brock and McMaster are extremely talented but still gelling. Windsor and Guelph have shown flashes, but are still competing with very different teams from past seasons.

The rest of the regular season has less than two months left. With the parity in this division, seeing what teams separate themselves – if that happens at all – from the pack should be a heck of a show.

4. Is Concordia head and shoulders above the rest of the QUBL?

Coming off a nice showing at the Rod Shoveller tournament, Concordia is once again the team to beat in the QUBL.

In addition to the Kyle Desmarais show, Decee Krah and Evens Laroche are finally giving the Stingers some consistency on the perimeter, giving Concordia some semblance of a ‘big three.’

Of course, they've only played three conference games, so it’s tough to make any legitimate predictions about how things are shaping up for Concordia. But the Stingers have beaten McGill and Laval, their two closest rivals, and should be the team to catch from here on out.

With the crazy Q schedule coming up — you get to play opponents approximately 4,500 times per season in a 5-team league — we should get a better idea of whether Concordia truly is the favourite in that conference.

5. Will UPEI's wild turnaround continue?

Another team that’s almost matched its win total from last season already is UPEI, who sit undefeated at 6-0.

Thanks to the three-headed monster of Jonathan Cooper, Donathan Moss and Manock Lual, who are averaging nearly 60 points per game between them, UPEI has become one of the feel-good stories in the AUS, if not all of CIS.

There’s a caveat, however, in that the Panthers have played their games against three teams with a combined record of 5-13 and have yet to face off with Cape Breton or St. FX, the two established contenders in the conference.

People who are probably a lot smarter than me say the Panthers are for real this year, thanks to a solid starting five and a tricky defence. They're also 7th nationwide in our RPI. But personally, I’d like to see a bit more against the top teams before I’m convinced.

UPEI’s rise from mediocrity to contention will be another storyline to watch.

Calculated Reactions: New Year's Evolutions, 2012 edition

2011-12-19T07:00:00.000-05:00

This time last year, we took a look at six teams who we figured were going to improve in the second half, at least in terms of win-loss record. We'll do the same thing this year.

Before we get started with this year's teams, let's take a quick look at last year. Did those teams end up improving after all?

UFV, men's basketball: Expected to go from 4-8 (10th) to 10-14 or 11-13 (8th). Actual final record: 10-14 (7th).
Not bad.
Acadia, men's basketball: Expected to go from 6 points (tied for 4th) to 27 (4th alone). Actual final record: 22 points (4th).
They did worse we expected in the regular season, but ironically made the Final 8 anyway.
McMaster, men's basketball: Expected to go from 3-5 (t-7th) to 10-12 (6th). Actual final record: 11-11 (4th).
Also not bad. The OUA West after the top three teams was a little screwy last year with everyone at 11-11 or 9-13.
Guelph, men's hockey: Expected to go from 18 points (t-6th) to 31 (5th). Actual final record: 33 points (4th).
An up-and-down 2011, but the Gryphs nonetheless finished about where we expected.
Nipissing, men's hockey: Expected to go from 19 points (t-5th) to 31 (4th). Actual final record: 37 points (4th).
They certainly improved, even if I didn't have them winning every second-half game but two.
RMC, women's volleyball: Expected to go from 2-5 (t-5th) to 7-12 or 8-11 (4th). Actual final record: 7-12 (4th).
This one made me look smart.

So that's six teams, four of which finished within a game of their predicted records. I'll take that.

**

And now, this year's teams, in men's and women's basketball and men's hockey and volleyball, who might surprise in the second half. (That is, they would surprise you if you didn't read this first...)

MEN'S VOLLEYBALL

UBC Okanagan
Now: 3-7, 9th place in Canada West
Expected: 8-12, 7th place
Swing games: Jan. 13/14 at Brandon, Feb. 3/4 at Saskatchewan, Feb. 10/11 vs. Thompson Rivers (last games of season)

Seventh isn't high, but it's high enough to make the playoffs in Canada West (7 of 11 qualify, with the No. 1 seed receiving a bye to the Final Four) and the Heat might just get there. They've played the toughest schedule in all of CIS so far, and while they haven't had the success of an Alberta (2nd-toughest schedule, 13-7 overall) or Manitoba (third-toughest, 17-3), their 7-15 record is somewhat deceptive.

Now, of course, the problem is that they've won merely one of their last 22 sets. But, again, those games were against the top seeds — Manitoba, TWU, Calgary, UBC, and so on. And while Alberta and Brandon remain on their schedule, so do 4-8 Regina, 2-10 TRU, and 1-9 Saskatchewan.

They have ten games left, and at least four are very winnable.

MEN'S HOCKEY

Toronto
Now: 8-5-3 (19 points), 7th in OUA East
Expected: 13-7-8 (34 points), 4th or 5th
Swing games: Jan. 8 at Ottawa, Feb. 4 at Nipissing, any game vs. Ryerson

The Blues are this year's team who'll benefit from a second-half schedule loaded with RMC. (Last year it was Nipissing.)

They're just a point behind each of Carleton and Concordia, with two games in hand over the Stingers, so moving up to fifth isn't a problem. Overtaking Ottawa might be more difficult, but maybe it won't be: the Blues have a cupcake schedule (10 games against RMC, Queen's, and Ryerson) whereas the Gee-Gees do not (zero games against those teams).

Ultimately, it won't matter much, since both U of T and Ottawa will make the playoffs anyway, and they might even play each other.

MEN'S BASKETBALL

Winnipeg
Now: 2-6, tied for 8th
Expected: 7-13, 5th
Swing games: Jan. 12 at Brandon, Jan. 27/28 at Regina, Feb. 10/11 at Calgary

This isn't the first time we've been somewhat high on the Wesmen ... hopefully this time we're more accurate in our optimism.

David Larkins (of The Feed and the Winnipeg Sun) was not high on this team in his season preview and we've asked him via e-mail for his thoughts on whether they can make a run at a playoff spot.

"Winnipeg's depth is better this year but I would have figured they'd struggle to get to .500 coming into this season.

"To me the biggest thing needed in a turnaround is a better defensive presence, more physicality on that end and in rebounding, and a PG to help get easier shots. I don't personally see that happening, but that's the ideal situation."

Andrew Cunningham, out of Toronto's Eastern Commerce by way of Oklahoma's Redlands Community College and sidelined so far with a broken foot, was supposed to help out with "depth and scoring ability", per Larkins, but the injury made that impossible in the first half.

"Cunningham's return is critical because the Wesmen are completely exposed at the PG," he continued. "Craig Sharpe is a battler and a good kid, but he's not a weapon on either end. Teams lay off him when he's on the perimeter, he's turnover-prone and he's defensively suspect.

"The Wesmen knew they'd have to have a strong defensive team this season and I just don't think it's happened. They struggle to score (again Cunningham will assist this greatly), and that's put an even greater pressure on their defence."

Even if it's unlikely that the Wesmen qualify for the playoffs, it's worth pointing out that UBC's not in a great position: they're two losses behind UVic and are ahead of UFV only on percentage points. They play the same teams as UVic, plus two against TRU, so they can certainly make up that deficit. But UFV doesn't have a game left against a team currently above .500.

Windsor
Now: 5-3, tied for 5th
Expected: 13-9, 4th
Swing games: Jan. 4 vs. McMaster, Jan. 27/28 vs. Lakehead, Feb. 4 at Guelph

A 5-2 record against the non-Carleton OUA East teams is not perfect, obviously, but it's not the end of the season either.

In his OUA West first-half review, our Greg Colgan mentioned that he might have been too generous calling a third-place finish for the Lancers, but maybe it's not so optimistic. He still expects them to improve, riding Enrico Di Loreto, Josh Collins, and Lien Phillip "as far as they can take them."

Including Windsor here also gives us an excuse to run another edition of This Week In Chris Oliver: "A big step in life is when you realize other people can help you do a better job than you would do alone."

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

St. F-X
Now: 2-3, 4 points, 6th place
Expected: 28 or 30 points, 4th place
Swing games: Jan. 11 at CBU, Jan. 21 vs. CBU, Jan. 29 at Dalhousie, Feb. 15 at CBU, Feb. 18/19 at Memorial, Feb. 25 vs. Saint Mary's (last game of season)

The Capers are themselves another team who could improve, and obviously with three games left against each other, they and the X-Women will be battling more than these natural rivals usually do.

For X, though, it's one of those things that seems like it could go either way. They're 2-3 in AUS play and 6-5 overall against a slightly weak schedule, so 28 points* could be a little too optimistic. We'll see.

* I suppose I could tell you what 28 points translates to in wins and losses, but given the points system in the AUS, that would pretty much require me to run the extended Euclidean algorithm, something I told myself I would never do again.

Saskatchewan
Now: 4-3, 4th place
Expected: 14-6, 2nd place
Swing game: Jan. 7 at UBC

10-3 is quite the second-half record. But "4-3" is misleading, as this Huskies team is 10-4 overall. So 10-3 is certainly doable.

Manitoba and Brandon will likely help them with four of those wins, not to mention TRU and UBC-O and Winnipeg. But they're favoured in so many games, by at least a 70:30 margin, that there's really only one swing game we will mention here — their second game back, in Vancouver.

Finishing second rather than fourth means a home playoff series, but their opponent in either case will likely be from the UFV/UVic/UBC set, each of which is top 15 in RPI nationwide. Of course, those B.C. teams will probably have to play someone in the top 6 (Regina/Saskatchewan/Alberta), so either way you look at it, it's a tough order.

Men's basketball: First half AUS roundup

2011-12-17T00:45:00.000-05:00

Men's basketball: First half Canada West roundup

2011-12-16T17:30:00.001-05:00

With exams coming to a close and the winter break upon us, it won't be long before many CIS teams are playing in mid-season tournaments and preparing for the stretch drive of the second semester season. But before we start looking ahead to the holiday tournaments and second half games, it's time to make like professors and TAs and start dishing out the first-half grades. How have the teams done in their pursuit of athletic excellence?

Cam Charron takes us through the wild, wild Canada West University Athletic Association.

There's been a surprising bit of parity in Canada West this season, with a fair number of upsets and teams that probably don't deserve to be hanging around a playoff race hanging around a playoff race.

ALBERTA GOLDEN BEARS
6-2, 1st East Division, Ranked #6 Nationwide
RPI: #1 (Canada West), #3 (Nationwide)
+9.8 Point differential, 4th Pythagorean

The first-half winners are the Golden Bears, who lead their division thanks to a pair of wins over Saskatchewan and boast the second-highest scorer (21.5 ppg) in the Conference in Jordan Baker, who also leads in rebounds (10.8) and is second in steals (2.8). They also lead in RPI thanks to a slightly higher strength of schedule than Saskatchewan, and the two remain pretty close in talent level overall. Alberta, despite having trouble putting the ball in the basket compared to some of the other top teams, lead the Canada West conference in team defense. Daniel Ferguson has also become a huge part of the offense, scoring 19.1 points per game, also carrying the load in minutes.

Their keys going into the second half are finding more scoring depth and rebounding, but the defensive system in place thanks to Greg Francis has really helped keeping opponents off the board and shooting below 40%. The biggest of tests face the Golden Bears when the return to classes, as they'll play UBC at War Memorial. That should be an excellent game, pitting a top offense against a top defense.

SASKATCHEWAN HUSKIES
5-2, 2nd East Division, Ranked #4 Nationwide
RPI: #2 (Canada West), #4 (Nationwide)
+21.1 Point differential, 3rd Pythagorean

The big story with the Huskies has been the play of Jamelle Barrett, who sat out some time to injury and only in the last two games has showed the form he displayed as arguably the nation's top player last season. He's put up 17.2 points per game in just over 30 minutes, with much of the scoring load being dished off to Duncan Jones, Peter Lomuro and Michael Lieffers. The Huskies are the conference's top shooting team and are strong on both sides of the ball (3rd in both offense and defense) in the team's second season under Barry Rawlyk.

Keeping Barrett healthy and going is important going into the second half, but what I like about this team is that they have the depth that Alberta and UBC don't have, particularly on offense. They have 8 players with at least 5 points per game and can beat you with their bench and a number of very good field goal percentage guys (Lieffers is 31-51, Evan Ostertag 15-23 and Chris Unsworth 18-31).

VICTORIA VIKES
8-0, 1st West Division, Ranked #5 Nationwide
RPI: #3 (CW), #5 (Nationwide)
+13.5 Point differential, 2nd Pythagorean

The only thing keeping Victoria from being higher is their pretty flimsy schedule so far, having only beaten Trinity Western as a team of any sort of national aspirations, but they've done everything the schedule-makers have asked them to, and are .2 points per game back of Alberta for the best first-half defense. They recently held a high-flying Thompson Rivers offense to below 80 points twice, Lethbridge to 59 (severely cutting that team's offensive ranking) and have won six games by a double-digit margin.

Ryan MacKinnon is third in the conference in scoring, and the speedy point guard has really taken over every game the Vikes have played this season, with a game-high in points in every one. Victoria also repeatedly beat their opponents under the basket. The team is second in rebounding percentage, but the responsibility is spread around: Mike Berg and Zac Andrus have each averaged more than five per game, which is exceptional when you consider that Victoria is good at sinking their own shots (49.9%) and their defense ranges more on preventing shots than forcing their opponents to bad shots (they're 7th in shooting defense).

This is a very good team. They get to play Saskatchewan in their first game back, and if they can carry their record to 9-0, they should earn an extra spot in RPI. They're a team that impressed on the weak half of their schedule. It's time to see if they can keep it up playing against the big boys.

UBC THUNDERBIRDS
4-2, 3rd West Division, Ranked #7 Nationwide
RPI: #8 (CW) #18 (Nationwide)
+18.3 Point differential, 1st Pythagorean

Despite the gaudy RPI rank, I couldn't keep the Thunderbirds off this list very long, simply by virtue of them crushing every opponent they've faced, minus the two they faced in their recent Alberta road trip, dropping consecutive decisions to Lethbridge and Calgary. RPI doesn't factor in Pythagorean expectation, which is excellent to judge how good the quality of a team is. They crushed Trinity Western twice, but the bigger test will be when they start facing some better competition. They've had a cupcake schedule and haven't even come out undefeated.

They average 93.8 points per game, most of that coming from their top-heavy lineup of Nathan Yu, Doug Plumb and Tommy Nixon. We haven't seen a lot of scoring with Kamar Burke, but him and Balraj Bains have been relied upon heavily under the basket, carrying the load in rebounding, particularly off the offensive glass, with the team being the best in the country at offensive rebound percentage.

FRASER VALLEY CASCADES
5-3, 2nd West Division, Ranked #9 Nationwide
RPI: #4 (CW) #7 (Nationwide)
+10.1 Point Differential, 5th Pythagorean

This is a team dominated by its big men. Jasper Moedt and Michael James have been dominating off the glass this season, and, partnered with Kyle Grewal and Joel Friesen on defense, this is not a team that gives up a lot of second chances. They lead the league in defensive rebounding (both raw number and percentages), holding their opponents to 75.4 points per game, fourth in the conference.

They're an aggressive team that like to put the ball in the hands of high-volume shooters Friesen and Sam Freeman. With such strong threats inside, it creates a lot of space for those two to rack up a good number of points. When they're moving it inside, they're a pretty tough team to beat, and it's something I'd like to see them do a little more in the second half. Their record is marred by an OT loss on the road to Saskatchewan, and a grueling trip to Alberta the next day, which is a trip apparently a lot West teams are making this season.

TRU WOLFPACK
4-4, 4th West Division
RPI: #5 (CW) #10 (Nationwide)
+1.4 Point Differential, 7th Pythagorean

After losing big man and inside threat Greg Stewart, one of the top players in the country at his position, 2nd year head coach Scott Clark was left with a roster with not a lot of bright spots. He recruited Las Vegas-born Justin King out of the NWAAC who has become a high-volume shooter, the first mid-range shooting threat in the team's history, and one of the country's best players since arriving.

TRU have played a pretty tough schedule so far, seeing UFV twice, Victoria, and having travelled to Calgary and Lethbridge. That said, they've held a .500 record, which is very suspicious knowing the WolfPack's history. Their outside guys, Kevin Pribilsky and Chas Kok, have swayed between hot and cold this season, and if either of them catch fire in a game against one of the top teams in the second half, there's a chance that the 'Pack could surprise. Certainly those two enjoy the extra space afforded by defenses focusing on the highest-scorer in the country.

They play UBC two weeks into the second half, which should be a battle between the league's two top offenses.

Also...

TRINITY WESTERN SPARTANS
2-6, 5th West Division
RPI #6 (CW) #11 (Nationwide)
-11.8 Point Differential, 12th Pythagorean

An absolutely brutal schedule has kept last season's CIS runners-up out of the rankings since the end of November, coupled with the loss of Jacob Doreksen to graduation. However the Spartans didn't really keep games against top teams close, an unfortunate reality of the season, and it will be real interesting to see if Kyle Coston and Tristan Smith, the team's two best players, can really begin to grab a hold on games.

It starts at home against Lethbridge and Calgary.

LETHBRIDGE PRONGHORNS
4-4, T-3rd East Division
RPI #7 (CW) #12 (Nationwide)
-1.0 Point Differential, 8th Pythagorean

This is a team mostly made up of college recruits, led by Dominyc Coward and Daryl Cooper, really improving the team and keeping them in contention. They're quite a veteran team that's 6th defensively in the league, but their offense is the key. They don't win a lot of low-scoring basketball games, but take a lot of shots, spread the ball around and create turnovers. I'm quite excited to see what they can do in the second half.

MANITOBA BISONS
4-4, T-3rd East Division
RPI #9 (CW) #20 (Nationwide)
-1.4 Point Differential, 9th Pythagorean

A strong start to the season, but the Bisons faltered in the second half last season after a 7-3 start, plummeting to lose 12 of their last 14 games and getting swept out of the playoffs by UBC, so perhaps it's good that they didn't start with just too good of a record this time around. They earned a split in the early going against Alberta and have survived Fraser Valley, so there's one quality win at least going ahead, on the back of Jonar Huertas who has come from being a bench option to a key player for the Bisons.

CALGARY DINOS
3-5, T-5th East Division
RPI #13 (CW) #37 (Nationwide)
+2.0 Point Differential, 6th Pythagorean

Another team that Pythagoras likes but RPI doesn't, Calgary is coming off a good win at home to UBC and is in theoretical playoff contention. Tyler Fidler is having a strong season with 16.3 points and 6.3 rebounds per game as the Dinos' go-to player. Their opening road trip down to the Coast pits them against Trinity and Fraser Valley, and splitting that series puts the Dinos in excellent contention. They'll need a very hot start.

BRANDON BOBCATS
3-5, T-5th East Division
RPI #12 (CW) #26 (Nationwide)
-9.4 Point Differential, 10th Pythagorean

I like Brandon, boasting two of the conference's best rookies in Ali Mounir and Ilarion Bonhomme. Not many Canada West teams go East to find players, but the two are 2 and 3 on the team in scoring and Bonhomme is tied with Nathan Yu of UBC for assists. They're finding their game, having won two of three, and begin with a home-and-home against Regina.

WINNIPEG WESMEN
2-6, 8th East Division
RPI #10 (CW) #21 (Nationwide)
-10.3 Point Differential, 11th Pythagorean

They're 8th in team defense, which I guess is alright, but despite wins over Alberta and Lethbridge, the team has been left wanting, mostly due to their inability to shoot. Leading scorer Dominique Brown is shooting just 33% on the season.

REGINA COUGARS
2-5, 7th East Division
RPI #11 (CW) #23 (Nationwide)
-12.3 Point Differential, 13th Pythagorean

Other than the play of Paul Gareau (18.3 points, 7.7 rebounds) and a pair of wins over Calgary including an overtime game, not a lot to cheer about in Regina, who are clearly the weakest non-"expansion" team in the conference.

UBC-OKANAGAN HEAT
1-5, 6th West Division
RPI #14 (CW) #38 (Nationwide)
-22.2 Point Differential, 14th Pythagorean

A win against Regina salvaged the first half, but the team has had a lot of trouble scoring points. That said, former Kitsilano Blue Demon Yassine Ghomari has been pretty good averaging 19.2 points and the team has seen some good performances from 6'8" rookie big-man Julien Asselstine.

Hockey: Is Belliveau Out at Dalhousie?

2011-12-16T10:59:00.008-05:00

First was the rumour thread on HF Boards yesterday. Today comes the rumour story in the Chronicle-Herald. So while the students are on their Christmas break it looks like Dalhousie Tigers men's hockey head coach Pete Belliveau might indeed be gone from behind the bench, midway through a horrendous 2-11-1 first half. Riding an eleven game losing streak. And your home rink is to be torn down at the end of the season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

In Glenn MacDonald's piece, the reading between the quotes do appear to indicate that Belliveau is done:

Despite speculation making the rounds that Belliveau would be replaced, Dalhousie athletic director John MacDonald would only confirm that he has a meeting with the Tigers coaching staff this morning.

"Coach Belliveau has been asked to a meeting to talk about a few things but there’s nothing that’s coming from my way," MacDonald said Thursday evening.

However, Belliveau said Thursday he wasn’t aware of any meeting.

"If there’s a meeting I won’t be there," Belliveau said.

If Belliveau is gone, I will miss him. While his coaching and managing style (most CIS hockey head coaches are effectively coaches and general managers and are responsible for all hockey operations including recruiting) may be polarizing, he was always open, warm and entertaining with the media.

Belliveau guided Moncton to a national championship in 1995, was the architect for the revival of CIS hockey at Lakehead, and last season finally had Dalhousie back in the playoffs. At the same time he's always been shadowed by whispers about players unhappy with his methods who stop playing for him, or quit. When you're winning these mutterings tend to get ignored, but when you're losing, those whispers get louder, and true or not, might have cost him his job.

UPDATE: Well according to an official release from Dalhousie, and in a move reminiscent of a NHL team, it looks like Belliveau is moving upstairs and he will "delegate on-ice authority to current assistant coach Chris Donnell".

Men's basketball: Quebec first half roundup

2011-12-16T10:13:00.002-05:00

Men's basketball: OUA East 2011-12 - Ballers, freshly graded (Holiday edition)

2011-12-15T23:20:00.001-05:00

OUA West Men's Basketball First-Half Wrap-up

2011-12-15T18:00:00.001-05:00

With exams coming to a close and the winter break upon us, it won't be long before many CIS teams are playing in mid-season tournaments and preparing for the stretch drive of the second semester season. But before we start looking ahead to the holiday tournaments and second half games, it's time to make like professors and TAs and start dishing out the first-half grades. How have the teams done in their pursuit of athletic excellence? We'll start with the OUA West and East today, with Canada West and the AUS to follow tomorrow.

Greg Colgan gets us started with his assessment of the OUA West.

Brock Badgers
Record: 6-2, 12 points; 4th place

Strengths:
Any time you can win on the road, you’ve got a chance of getting a nice playoff spot. They finished with a 4 - 0 record away from St. Catharines, which will keep any coach happy. They’ve also improved in several categories as the year has gone on including more blocks, assists and rebounds, while limiting their fouls and turnovers. This is a hard-working team that is learning to compete, but may end up giving the best in the West a run for their money.

Improvement Needed:
Winning at home has been a problem for Brock and the 84 - 60 trouncing Ryerson gave them on December 2 was embarrassing. Any team that expects to contend should have a better home record than 2 - 2. Better offensive rebounding is likely to be a priority come January. In the first-half of the year they ranked in the bottom 10 with an average of 10 offensive boards per game.

First-half MVP:
Ever since Brock got Jameson Tipping back, they’ve gone 5 - 1. Granted it’s not against the top talent in the OUA, but wins are wins the last time I checked. His 15.7 ppg have helped a lot, as has his 49.2% shooting from the field and 44% from beyond the arc. The combination between Tipping and fellow guard Andrew Kraus, who leads the CIS in assists, is a backcourt most coaches would want.

GRADE: B

Guelph Gryphons
Record: 5-3 loses, 10 points; 5th place

Strengths:
Usually teams want to play at home instead of the road, but Guelph might be asking the OUA to give more road games after the first half. They are 4 - 0 on the road, which, in all fairness, when you play RMC, Queen’s and York, you should have at least 3 road wins. Still, anytime you can go on the road and know you have a chance of winning is a big morale lift.

Improvement Needed:
Simply put, they need to win games at home. If you can win most of your road games it won’t matter if you’ve got a 25% win percentage at home when it comes to making the playoffs. After Kareem Malcolm and Daniel McCarthy, Guelph doesn’t have much to compete with other teams. They get occasional help from other players like Zach Angus and Aron Campbell, but when you’re a two-trick pony, it limits your chances. If they don’t get players stepping up more consistently, that lack of depth will hurt them as the season goes on.

First-half MVP:
It’s pretty much a toss-up between Malcolm and McCarthy, but I’ll give it to Malcolm. He finished 18.1ppg, 50.5% shooting from the field, led his team in minutes and can pull down the odd rebound to go with decent defence.

GRADE: B

Lakehead Thunderwolves (CIS no. 3)
Record: 7-1, 14 points; 1st place

Strengths:
It’s Lakehead, so defence. Next to Mac, they’ve given up the fewest points in the West. This is a good all-round team that only lost to a better Carleton team in what was one of the best games the CIS will see all year. There’s no shame in that loss. Their offence has also been surprisingly high and they’re averaging 89.4 ppg, which is good for fourth highest in the CIS. If they can keep that up, while improving slightly on defence, the OUA could be theirs for the taking.

Improvement Needed:
Despite the fact that I listed defence in the strength category, I can’t help but think that head coach Scott Morrison is a bit concerned that his team gave up 72 or more points in each of the last four games. That includes 95 points to a much weaker Laurentian, who can score, but shouldn’t be able to put up that much against the defending OUA champs.

First-half MVP:
This one is tough. They’ve got such a well-balanced team that five players are averaging double-digit points and Brendan King was only 0.2 ppg away from making it six. Since I have to give it to one of their guys, Greg Carter is much more to this team than his stats show. He’s getting 10 ppg, a little over 4 assists a game, and shooting 49.2%. He’s the team leader and the best defensive player in the West, by far. Fast forward to the three-minute mark from this game against Toronto, as an example. If there’s a guy I want on the court with one minute left and a tie game, it’s Carter.

GRADE: A-

Laurier Golden Hawks (CIS no. 8)
Record: 7-1, 14 points; 2nd place

Strengths:
I said it at the beginning of the year: this team will score. They’ve done just that all year. They’ve hit more than 100 twice and made 98 another game. Their lowest total was 68 against Carleton and Carleton has a habit of making good teams look average. They’re averaging 91.5ppg, which is good for third in the CIS after UBC and Carleton. Pretty good company, I think. Don’t be surprised to see them keep that output up in the second half.

Improvement Needed:
They’ve been pretty flawless all year, but they need to be better at their end of the court if they want to go far. They’ve got the team to challenge for the OUA championship, but when you give up more than 70 against teams like RMC and Laurentian, it’s not a great sign. I think some of that comes from the fact they can put up 100 points on almost any given night. As long as they don’t get complacent, they’ll be looking good in the second half.

First-half MVP:
Kale Harrison is one of the biggest scoring threats in the OUA. He puts up 18.4 ppg and is shooting 47.5%. He’s thrown back 30 points in two games this year, including a season high 31 points against a strong Ottawa team. His 10 points against Carleton are a little alarming, but back-to-back games on the Ottawa road trip are one of the most feared weekends for any West team. This is his last year in the OUA and the best program Laurier has ever put together, so expect an even stronger second half by Harrison.

GRADE: A

McMaster Marauders
Record: 7-1, 14 points; 3rd place

Strengths:
They haven’t faced the strongest schedule, but the opening weekend against Carleton and Ottawa isn’t the best way to start the year and to come out with a split is a good feeling. It’s impressive McMaster finished as high as they did considering they were without Kenan Etale for the first-half of the year. With Etale coming back in January, McMaster has enough depth to make every team jealous. As the season goes on, that depth will pay off big time.

Improvement Needed:
With Etale coming back, McMaster will have no problem moving the ball around. They do need someone to grab those rebounds, and it has largely been by committee this year. When they lost Scott Brittain to concussions, they lost about eight rebounds and two blocks a game, not to mention a guy with experience in the NCAA. They’ll need guys to step up every night, especially when they’re up against teams like Laurier and Lakehead.

First-half MVP:
This is another close one, Victor Raso has come through this year with a shorthanded McMaster roster. Cam Michaud has been strong, but Raso has been better, averaging 12.6 ppg, 5.5 rpg and shooting 50%. Those totals include games against RMC where he got 0 points in 12 minutes and 4 points against Ottawa. He has struggled this year against better teams, but he’s had big shoes to fill in Etale and he’s done an admirable job for a team that’s 7 - 1.

GRADE: A-

Waterloo Warriors
Record: 4-4, 8 points; 7th place

Strengths:
When it comes to shooting threes, Waterloo’s among the best. They’re tied for first with the most threes made, which oddly enough has seven OUA West teams in the top 10. They’re also among the better teams with a 45% field goal percentage, which was higher before they ended the year against Ottawa and Carleton. With one of the highest shooting rates in the CIS, they love to shoot the ball, which helps when you can sink them.

Improvement Needed:
Their defence has hung them out to dry this year. They’ve given up 691 points, the worst in the West, with Western being the next closest at 614. It doesn’t help when you give up 80 plus points in five of your eight games, and ending the year by allowing a combined 221 points in your final two games will leave any coach less than happy. If Waterloo is going to stand a chance at making the playoffs, their defence has to be better.

First-half MVP:
I chose Cam McIntyre, but not without hesitation. He’s got 16 ppg, but that 39% shooting for twos kind of held me up. The big man, Brendan Smith, is averaging 10.8 ppg, but is 15th in the CIS with 58 rebounds to go with his 56.8% shooting percentage. That being said, McIntyre is the go-to guy on Waterloo and he can put up points when he wants to while logging a ton of minutes.

GRADE: B-

Western Mustangs
Record: 3-5, 6 points; 8th place

Strengths:
Umm... Ryan Barbeau. Yeah, that about sums it up. In all honesty, this team hasn’t been as bad as their record may indicate. Full disclosure: I did my undergrad at Western and I loved it so much I’m doing a Master’s there, but what can you say... It’s been a tough year. That being said, this is a team in full rebuild mode with eight rookies and three second years. Anytime a team is in rebuild mode, I give them props for doing so. It takes a lot to dismantle a program and start from the ground up. Head coach Brad Campbell realized he needed a rebuild and if you’re going to do something, you may as well go all in. He’s got his players working hard every game and they lost two games by less than five points that they could’ve won. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that hard work pay off with a surprise win against a high ranked team that takes them to easy.

Improvement Needed:
This will be a good team in two years, but that’s a long way off right now. This is a young team, and they’ll only continue to grow as the season moves on. Granted, it’ll be some painful lessons for the young guys, but as long as they take everything in stride, they’ll continue to improve. However, unless they can bring Andrew Wedemire back from Scotland and give him a sixth year of elgibility, every aspect needs to be improved on for both sides of the court.

First-half MVP:
Finally! An easy choice. Barbeau, by far, has been the best player for UWO. He’s ranked 7th in CIS scoring with 21.6 ppg and plays pretty much every minute of the game while not getting into foul trouble at all this year. Not bad for a guy who always had some people talking that he couldn’t do anything without Wedemire. Anything UWO does this year will be because of Barbeau, but with such a young line-up I have a hard time believing this is how he wanted his last year to be. Still, those are impressive numbers, and hey, give the guy a break, he got his 1000th point in the OUA before the break.

GRADE: C-

Windsor Lancers
Record: 5 wins, 3 loses, 10 points; 6th place

Strengths:
Ok, so I might’ve given Windsor a bit more credit when I had them finishing third in the West. I still expect them to get better, but maybe third was being generous on my part. I may have been blinded by the trio of Enrico Di Loreto, Josh Collins, and Lien Phillip who are just downright menacing when everything’s ticking. Phillip is averaging a double-double every game, Collins has stepped up admirably to replace Isaac Kuon and Di Loreto is nearly unstoppable when shooting. These guys are everything to Windsor and it can’t be understated that Windsor will go as far as they can take them.

Improvement Needed:
As one of the younger teams, Windsor doesn’t have the depth to go head-to-head with teams like Lakehead or Laurier. The bench has contributed 10 or less points in half their games this year, including a pitiful five against Laurentian. Unless some of their bench guys start stepping up and putting up points, Windsor won’t make it too far.

First-half MVP:
Di Loreto is 2nd in the CIS in ppg with 23.7 to go with a 52.5% field goal and 40% from the three line. He missed the last two games of the year, which Windsor won both of, but his presence wasn’t really needed against Ryerson and RMC. If Windsor is going to make some noise, they’ll need him to continue his play in the second half.

GRADE: C+

Women's Hockey - Going Into The Break

2011-12-08T16:02:00.005-05:00

It’s back! Our women’s hockey coverage is back and ready for action. Unfortunately some miscommunication caused a delay in getting back into the swing of things, but we are ready to begin our coverage now at the break, and excited for the second half of the season.

Due to the few games played this past weekend, this opportunity will be used to examine how the seasons of the top 10 teams are looking, and where they should end up.

1. McGill (9-1-0)

The Martlets remain in the top spot in the CIS, a position they are well-accustomed to as they attempt to take their fourth national championship in five years this season. While the Martlets sit atop the standings of the RSEQ, one thing is already different from last year: they’ve lost. Though there won’t be a repeat of the perfect season the Martlets claimed last year, McGill is still poised to be top contenders for this year’s championship.

Suffering a loss to Montreal early in the season, McGill enter the break with a 9-1 record (I’d add an adjective like impressive before that, but for McGill, it’s just become natural), and are riding a seven-game win streak. November was a month much more reminiscent of last year’s dominating season, as McGill outscored opponents 29-5 in the month leading up to the break.

Captain Cathy Chartrand is back on the point for the Martlets, where she’s racked up an impressive 12 points in just 11 games. Leading the offense are Ann-Sophie Bettez and Leslie Oles, with 18 and 17 points, respectively. Between the pipes, Charline Labonte is her regular self, with a GAA of just 1.47 and three shutouts.

All in all, it wouldn’t be surprising if McGill ended up with yet another championship, but the gap between the Martlets and their opponents is much smaller this year, leaving a lot of opportunity for another team to capitalize and seize gold.

2. Laurier (13-0-1)

In OUA action, the Golden Hawks have fiercely bounced back from a disappointing post-season last year. Looking for their eighth OUA title in nine years, Laurier brings a balanced attack to the table this year, evidenced by their largely spread out scoring threats. Abby Rainsberry leads the team in scoring with 15 points, but seven other Golden Hawks are within just four points of the centre. Laura Brooker, the OUA's Rookie of the Year last season, has 11 goals and 14 points, while fifth-year staple Katherine Shirriff has 14 points, as well.

The Hawks are undefeated in regulation play going into the break, and are on pace to finish similarly to last season, in which they finished atop the OUA. Their only loss to this point came against rival Guelph in early November. Since then, Laurier has outscored their opponents 34-6.

A major part of the Golden Hawks' success this year has come defensively, and thanks to the goaltending tandem of freshman Erika Thunder, and Rachel Hamilton, playing in her second year. After much concern (or relief for opponents) over who would be able to fill Liz Knox's shoes, Thunder leads the OUA in goals against average posting a 1.60, while Hamilton is third with a solid 1.71. As the only team in the CIS yet to lose in regulation, everything appears to be on-track in Laurier's redemption year, but Thunder and Hamilton will need to continue their dominant play in nets if Laurier is to win gold come March.

3. Calgary (9-3-0)

The Dinos find themselves ranked third going into the break, despite suffering three losses in the competitive Canada West conference. Led by Elena Lovell and Iya Gavrilova offensively, who sit second and third in scoring, respectively, the Dinos have pieced together a great start to the season.

Playing in arguably the toughest conference in women's hockey, the Dinos have managed to take a series lead over rival Alberta, while splitting their series with Lethbridge. The Dinos have had somewhat of an advantage over opponents in the first half of the season, though. Eight of their 12 games were played on home ice. In the second half of the season, when the top five CW teams (currently separated by four points from first to fifth) will get in the final stretch of battling for just four playoff spots, Calgary will be forced to play eight games on the road, including a tough streak of five in a row.

Amanda Tapp will look to continue her solid play in nets, where she ranks third in Canada West in both goals against average and save percentage among goalies who have played more than five games. At the same time, Calgary hopes they can get more games out of superstar forward Hayley Wickenheiser, who was only able to suit up five times for the Dinos in the first half. While the Dinos look strong, they will need to continue to prove themselves against Lethbridge, Alberta and Saskatchewan if they are to be considered a legitimate threat for national title.

4. St. FX (9-2-0)

Coming off a silver medal at last year's CIS championships, the X-Women looked poised to run the table in the AUS just as last year when they went undefeated through the regular season. Two surprise losses to Moncton threw a wrench in that plan, as the X-Women look to regain their spot atop the conference.

Led by a high-powered offense which has scored five or more goals in eight of their eleven games to this point, the X-Women have made easy work of their opponents, save the Aigles Bleues. A two-pronged attack, second-year forward Alex Normore is averaging a goal a game and more than two points a game with 24 at the holiday break. Meanwhile, Janelle Parent has eight goals and 20 points of her own. Noticeably quiet this year have been Erin Brophy and Nicole Hansom, both of whom are stuck at just six points, despite finishing in the top ten for scoring in the AUS last season.

Katie Garrow and Kristy Greenway have split the duties in net, with Garrow posting an impressive 1.00 GAA in her five games, and Greenway a solid 2.01 in six. Continued strong play from both goalies will be needed in the second-half of the season, but how the team performs in the clutch will determine if its St. FX or Moncton who ultimately end up in Edmonton come March.

5. Moncton (10-1-0)

Hands down, les Aigles Bleues have been the dark horse of this season to date. With wins over St. FX in both games played against the X-Women, it's surprising that Moncton doesn't receive the fourth place spot in the CIS Top 10. Perhaps it was the loss suffered to Mount Allison, or maybe just the traditional placement of St. FX has Moncton sitting fifth, but that is something that few had expected.

Unranked to begin the year, Moncton came out as a defensive force to start the year, holding their opponents to one goal or less in six of their first seven games. Since, the offense has started clicking, scoring 19 goals in their past four games.

Like Laurier, Moncton has been running on a multi-faceted offense that has five players averaging over a point a game going into the break. Leading the way is Genevieve David, followed closely by Marie-Pierre Arsenault and Johannie Thibeault. Meanwhile, Kathy Desjardins has four shutouts in eight games, and has an amazing save percentage of .947.

Ultimately, this season seems to be Moncton's to win, or lose. Regardless what happens in the next half of the regular-season, the conference seems to be a two-horse race between Moncton and St. FX, and whoever comes out to play March 4 should be representing the AUS in Alberta.

6. Guelph (12-3-1)

The Gryphons have consistently been among the top three of the OUA, and this year is no different. With twelve wins in their first sixteen games, the Gryphons will find themselves in familiar territory battling it out for one of the top three sports come season's end. Where Guelph has stumbled has been surprising. They defeated Queen's both times they faced them, as well as the fourth-place Windsor Lancers. Losses for the Gryphons have come to Brock, Waterloo, and UOIT — all teams that are under .500 and hold three of the bottom four spots in the OUA.

Fifth-year center Erin Small has been the main weapon in Guelph's arsenal, not surprisingly, with 12 goals and 12 assists. She's found help from Jessica Pinkerton, who has 11 goals herself. Freshman goalie Stephanie Nehring has emerged as the apparent starter of the future for Guelph, posting a 9-0 record and a 1.78 GAA, while Brooke Siddall, expected to lead the way in net, has struggled, with a 3-4 record and a goals against average of 2.98.

The second half of the season for Guelph should be an interesting one, as the Gryphons have one game against Laurier, Queen's and Windsor each remaining. It might not be those games that matter, though, but instead the matchups with the OUA's weaker teams. Guelph will need to prove they are as good as many believe they are if they are to make it to the CIS championships.

7. Queen's (10-3-2)

Last year the Gaels managed to end Laurier's long run of OUA championship wins, and they hope to begin their own little streak this season. As the break comes upon us, Queen's find themselves third in the OUA, but have struggled against the top two teams. Laurier has defeated the Gaels by 6-3 and 5-2 margins, while Guelph managed to take down Queen's 3-2 and 4-3 (in a shootout). Nevertheless, Queen's has demonstrated yet again that they are not to be taken lightly by any opponent.

The McHaffies have been on fire in the first half, torching goalies across the league. Morgan McHaffie leads the OUA with 29 points, while Brittany is sitting third with 21. They have combined for more than a third of Queen's' goals. Not to be outdone, Alex Cieslowski has 19 points herself, contributing as well to an offense is the second-highest scoring in all of the CIS.

In the second half of the season, Queen's will host both Laurier and Guelph, so they have a good chance to move up the standings with home-ice advantage then. Ultimately, Queen's will make the playoffs, so their fate for Edmonton will depend on those two series. As they showed last year, though, they do not fear the higher seed.

8. Lethbridge (10-4-0)

The Pronghorns will enter the break atop Canada West, boasting a strong 10-4 record. Defense and goaltending has been the major strengths of the Horns throughout the season, as they managed to light the lamp just 34 times through the first half of the season. Crystal Patterson has played in all 14 games for Lethbridge, picking up five shutouts and maintaining a 1.34 goals against average, good enough for second best in the conference. Patterson also has the best save percentage, an astounding .951.

Offensively, points have been spread rather equally across the first two lines for the Horns. Both Shelby Ballendine and Jenna-Marie Durnin have 12 points, while Kirsten Reeves is the other Pronghorn in double digits with 10.

Truth be told, Lethbridge's start to the season is right around what was expected of them. They split series with both Calgary and Manitoba, but the real surprise were losses to UBC (the T-Birds only win this far), and a struggling Regina team. If Lethbridge is going to be successful, they are going to need to play consistent hockey, and eliminate the rusty play that led to the losses against the bottom-feeding teams.

9. Alberta (7-2-5)

The Pandas will return to the CIS championship this year by way of playing host, but that doesn't mean they will not compete to take home the Canada West championship as well. Going into the break, the Pandas are third in CW with an interesting record that includes five overtime and shootout losses.

Alberta dropped six straight (five in OT or SO) midway through the first half of the season, but rebounded since, winning every game except for their final game before the break. For lack of a better word, the Pandas have played on-par with the other top three teams in Canada West, as evidenced by the six one-goal games against those three teams.

Sarah Hilworth is leading the offense with 16 points, while Monika Moskalski has an impressive seven goals going into the break. Kaitlyn Chapman is the conference's second-best goalie heading into the break, posting a goals against average of 1.10 in eight games, and a save percentage of .947.

As noted, the Pandas have a bye into the championships, but don't think that means they won't get caught up in the competition of the Canada West championships. If hosts are to learn anything from Laurier last year, it's that a few weeks off before the championship isn't always a good thing.

10. Montreal (7-3-1)

Les Carabins land a surprising spot in the Top 10 heading into the winter break, beating out CW's second-place Saskatchewan in the process, with seven wins and a second-place spot in the RSEQ. Of course, losses to McGill are to be expected, though the 6-1 and 10-1 blowouts may be an indicator of Montreal's chances (or not) to shine on the national stage. Losses to Concordia and Carleton also question the reasoning of putting Montreal in the Top 10.

Offensively, Cassandra Dupuis and Kim Deschenes sit tied for fourth in the RSEQ with 13 points a piece, nine of those being goals for Dupuis. Four more players sit with between nine and 11 points, showing that like many others in the top ten, Montreal has a balanced scoring attack.

Rachel Ouellette has been given the nod as starting goalie, and boasts a decent 2.66 goals against average. Her save percentage is well below .900, however, indicating that teams that get a lot of shots can pick up wins against the Carabins. Overall, the Carabins will likely fall out of the top ten come the first or second week back, and McGill will have no problem rolling over Montreal in the RSEQ finals, en route to Edmonton.

Predictions for Final Conference Standings

AUS
1. St. FX
2. Moncton
3. Mount Allison
4. UPEI
5. Dalhousie
6. St. Thomas
7. Saint Mary's

Canada West
1. Calgary
2. Saskatchewan
3. Lethbridge
4. Alberta
5. Manitoba
6. Regina
7. UBC

OUA
1. Laurier
2. Guelph
3. Queen's
4. Western
5. Toronto
6. Windsor
7. York
8. Brock
9. Waterloo
10. UOIT
11. Ryerson

RSEQ
1. McGill
2. Montreal
3. Carleton
4. Ottawa
5. Concordia

Football: Our second winner is ...

2011-12-06T18:00:00.000-05:00

We have a winner in part 2 of our predictions contest, and it's Dave Dennis.

Part 1, won by Postmedia's Peter James, was predicting the win-loss records of every team. Part 2 required participants to predict who would win each conference championship, the bowl games, and the Vanier Cup — which may sound easier than Part 1, but picking these teams in August isn't always easy, despite what some say about the league's predictability.

There were a maximum of eight points available in the second round: one for guessing each bowl game participant correctly (4), one for guessing the winners of those games (2), and two more for guessing the correct Vanier Cup champion (2, 8 total).

Nobody was perfect, but one person got seven out of eight points: Dave Dennis. He correctly predicted McMaster over Acadia in the Uteck, Laval to win the Mitchell, and Mac to win the Vanier over Laval. The only team he was incorrect about was Regina, but many of us were wrong about the Rams this year. Dave's son happens to play for McMaster, and he admits, "It was more hope than clairvoyance when selecting McMaster to win the Vanier. It wasn’t until after the mid–season that I believed McMaster was a legitimate contender whereas it was only week 2 when I realized my error in selecting Regina."

As for the consensus among all voters ... only three people chose McMaster to go all the way. The Globe and Mail would no doubt be shocked to learn that, when it came to the Yates Cup, support for McMaster and Western was just about even. Voters were split on Canada West — all teams except UBC received at least one vote, though the only ones with serious support were Saskatchewan and Regina. AUS support was mostly for Saint Mary's, and Laval dominated the Q ballots.

(One brave soul chose Bishop's to win the Q, though this person also picked Guelph over Acadia in the Uteck and then St. F-X to win the Vanier. I still haven't figured that one out.)

Football: Sumarah, SMU part ways

2011-12-06T09:10:00.003-05:00

Our Andrew Bucholtz wrote at 55-Yard Line about Saint Mary's recent decision to not renew head coach Steve Sumarah's contract. Andrew concludes:

The late timing suggests SMU may already have someone else in mind, but there aren't exactly a lot of high-profile established CIS names looking for work at the moment, and there are plenty of other jobs open as well. It's going to be very interesting to see where the Huskies turn, but from this corner, they may have just fired the best man they could get for the job.

Monty Mosher is also on the story, of course.

Related:
CIS Corner: SMU Huskies axe Steve Sumarah [55-Yard Line]
Sumarah dumped as Saint Mary's football coach [The Chronicle-Herald]

Hockey: Canada West weekly roundup

2011-12-05T15:57:00.006-05:00

The final regular season weekend of the first half is in the books and with that it's time to breakdown where all seven teams stand heading into the holiday season. Here's a final look at the Canada West hockey landscape before the New Year.

Huskies head in looking good

A pair of wins over Regina by a combined score of 16-2 means the Saskatchewan Huskies are heading into the break feeling pretty good about themselves. Sitting atop the standing with 24 points (which should be 26 without a Zamboni meltdown in Lethbridge) Saskatchewan has been the class of the conference so far, albeit by a narrow margin.

Regardless, with the conference's three top scorers in Kyle Bortis, Derek Hulak and Kyle Ross, Saskatchewan has shown they have the most offensive firepower of any Canada West team. With 10 more goals than third place Manitoba, the Huskies have found the back of the net more than any other team, and with only 37 goals — tied for second best in the conference behind Alberta's conference low of 34 — against haven't exactly been easily beaten defensively.

This team has looked good so far this season and aside from a sweep at the hands of the Calgary Dinos in the Stampede City have been consistently playing at a level that is good enough to win every night.

Friday - Regina 2 at Saskatchewan 10
Saturday - Regina 0 at Saskatchewan 6

Bears beating who they should

Sitting with 24 points through the first half is nothing to scoff at for Alberta, but upon closer review that number might be misleading. The Bears have taken care of business against the teams you'd expect them to, mainly Lethbridge, Regina and UBC. Alberta is a combined 8-0-0 against those three teams. Against the three other playoff teams from a year ago, however, the Bears are only 3-3-2.

That rather average rate of success against the conference's upper teams could be a worry for head coach Stan Marple and company come playoff time. Then again only Manitoba, who sports a 6-2-2 record against Alberta, Calgary and Saskatchewan, have been all that good against the conference's best teams.

Friday - Alberta 2 at Manitoba 3
Saturday - Alberta 4 at Manitoba 3

Bisons better than expected

We all expected Manitoba to be a good squad this season, but to be sitting only two points back of first at the break coupled with the fact they've been the best team over the first half against the rest of the conference's elite has to come as a slight surprise. Manitoba's 6-2-2 record as mentioned above is the best in the conference in head-to-head play against last year's playoff teams — by far.

It's been about balance for the Bisons to this point, allowing them to be as good as they have been. Sporting only three scorers inside the top 20 in CW scoring, but with a total of nine inside the top 40, Manitoba has been getting contributions up and down the lineup (Alberta has the second most balance with seven players inside the top 40, while Saskatchewan is third with six).

If Manitoba can keep up their balanced attack and continue to get decent goaltending, safe to say this team will have a pass into the second round of the playoffs.

Friday - Alberta 2 at Manitoba 3
Saturday - Alberta 4 at Manitoba 3

Calgary needs more from Jorgenson

While it's far too early to write off the Dinos season, it's not too soon to call into question the performance of Reid Jorgenson so far this season. After a stellar campaign a year ago the fifth-year forward has been a far cry from the player that finished third in CW scoring in 2010-11.

Jorgenson sits with only nine points in 16 games this season and that lack of production has been a big part of the Dinos disappointing first half of the season that has them only a few points up on UBC for fourth in the conference.

Calgary was idle this week.

T-Birds penalty kill needs to progress

It wasn't a phenomenal first half, nor was it a brutal one for the UBC Thunderbirds. Simply put this team has been OK, but has all but assured themselves a playoff spot baring a huge letdown in the second half. The T-Birds are six points up on sixth place Regina and eight up on last place Lethbridge, so this team will be playoff bound.

As for what will potentially lead the T-Birds to a postseason upset, that has to be their penalty kill. For a team that's supposed to be defensively sound, work hard, and frustrate the opposition it's been far too easy to beat UBC on the powerplay this season — only Lethbridge has been worse on the PK. At 75% this season UBC has some work to do with their penalty kill and then, maybe, they can surprise a team in the playoffs.

Friday - Lethbridge 2 at UBC 5
Saturday - Lethbridge 3 at UBC 7

New season, same story for Cougars

It's the same issue this team has faced for the last decade plus — they can't score. Regina is second last in goals for this season in front of only Lethbridge. The Cougars can't get into track meets with teams and in a conference where Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba and even Calgary (although you wouldn't know it from the numbers) can score in quick succession, the Cougars are in tough.

Given the struggles of Lethbridge more than anything Regina will be a playoff team this season, but without much scoring again this season the Cougars more than any playoff bound team need to play a tight game that has proven ineffective the vast majority of the time. To sum it up, the Cougars aren't as talented as the teams ahead of them in the standings and need to get a little lucky to beat those squads.

Friday - Regina 2 at Saskatchewan 10
Saturday - Regina 0 at Saskatchewan 6

Lonesome at the bottom for Lethbridge

There's nothing positive you can say about the Pronghorns first half, in fact you could make the argument it was one of the worst in program history. Nothing went right for the 'Horns who aren't going to be a playoff team save for another miraculous second half. Perhaps a midseason recruit could save this season for head coach Greg Gatto and company — he's pulled that off before.

It wouldn't surprise me if he brings in one, or possibly two impact players that could help Lethbridge leapfrog Regina. Something tells me Gatto might have something up his sleeve. That being said, if some big additions don't happen this team won't be a playoff squad.

Friday - Lethbridge 2 at UBC 5
Saturday - Lethbridge 3 at UBC 7

One final note... also of note, a Canada West combination team of Pronghorns and Dinos will be taking on the Canadian World Jr. team December 13 in Calgary as the Red and White gear up for their Boxing Day tournament opener. It's the same thing we saw a few years ago when a joint Saskatchewan-Regina team played Team Canada in Regina at the Brandt Centre.

Evan Daum is The CIS Blog's national hockey editor. Contact him at evandaum@gmail.com

Basketball: OUA East, Week 4 - Voyageurs, Blues lose tough, Gee-Gees claim second

2011-12-05T12:00:00.000-05:00

The Toronto Varsity Blues couldn’t have needed the holiday break any more.

With a chance to claim second in the East for their own, they in fact got owned—with losses to the McMaster Marauders and Brock Badgers. The 78–60 loss to Mac Dec. 2 was fairly competitive out of the gates, but 30 turnovers, a mere four 3-pointers, and 20 points by Andrew Wasik, Alex Hill and Drazen Glisic—the veteran leadership on this team—are clear indicators of an offensive shutdown. The pattern seemed almost similar in the 95–55 spanking by Brock, a squad that has the Blues’ number in the last few seasons. A 19–13 first quarter by Toronto was followed up by a 82-point performance by the tricky Badgers. While Wasik had 16 points to follow on a 4-point performance the night before, this is not like the Blues at all. Somehow, they need to get the ball control and offensive personnel sparked up before their next OUA match in January.

The Laurentian Voyageurs also need some kind of spark. This team has a lot going against them, but a lot of heart and can squeak out games if they bring their best stuff. Their luck was absent this weekend, losing by a basket, 79–76, against the Guelph Gryphons, and 99–95 in OT against the powerful Lakehead Thunderwolves in Thunder Bay. A 27–19 third quarter was the difference against Guelph, and while they kept their turnovers down and made 46 per cent of their shots, they could not keep up with the Gryphon starters, who played a cache of minutes. The next night, the home court advantage for the Thunderwolves was a catalyst in the Wolves’ four-point victory. Six Thunderwolves, lead by G Joseph Jones, had double digit points. An 0–2 weekend is a bitter pill to swallow, but the Voys have glimpses of good things coming. G Alex Ratte is quietly becoming a leader on the floor for Laurentian—if his 28 points against the Wolves were any indication. This team may need to work on defensive issues, especially with rebounds and such, but they could upset an Ottawa or Toronto.

The rest of the OUA East had a so-so weekend. While a 0–4 showing by RMC and Queen’s and a 2–0 weekend by Carleton are pretty much destined to occur, the Gee-Gees have landed second in the division. Their 77–76 victory was a sweet one, as the squad was trailing after three quarters. G Kale Harrison left it out on the court, putting up 31 points for the game. That game became the wake up call the Gee-Gees have been waiting for, as they buried the Waterloo Warriors 119–76 the next night. Five Gee-Gee players had double-digit scoring, and two—Warren Ward and Vikas Gill—had at least 20 points.

Hockey: AUS Weekly Update

2011-12-05T10:18:00.005-05:00

The final week of the first half in AUS men’s hockey saw the Varsity Reds stay in first place, and Saint Mary’s leapfrog Moncton and Acadia into second place. As was discussed last week, SMU has played two more games than UNB and UdeM and one more than Acadia, so appearances are a bit deceiving. UPEI is solidly in fifth place and StFX in sixth. STU is now just five points back of X with a game in hand and Dalhousie three more points back. In other words eight points out of the playoffs in their annus horribilis.

V-Reds survive a hot goalie and disobliging referee

The biggest crowd of the season thus far in the AUS, 3123, came out Friday to the AUC to see if STU could knock off UNB. They came close, thanks to stellar goaltending once again from Charlie Lavigne and a disproportionate number of power plays in the third period, including a dribbling power play puck that did NOT cross the goal line before being stopped by defenceman Jonathan Harty in the view of the goal judge, the media in the press box, and hundreds of fans who had a better view of the puck than the referee. However he decided it was in. To tie the game for STU. There is no photo or video replay in the AUS so the ref couldn’t be overruled. UNB dominated OT and came away with the win, but STU did steal a point thanks to Lavigne and their 7 momentum-killing power plays in the third period (and 11 in the game). Shots were 43-16 for UNB who were 0-for-5 on the PP.

Friday – STU 2 @ UNB 3 OT

Interesting week for Saint Mary’s

Wednesday the Huskies came back from a 4-goal first period deficit to beat StFX 6-5. This was a very chippy game with 67 PIM for StFX and 74 PIM for SMU. The PIM winner was Mark Louis who laid out SMU rookie Stephen Johnston with a thunderous open-ice hit. The big StFX d-man was given a 5-minute major for contact to the head and a match penalty (which probably means at least a 4-game suspension) while Johnston was prone on the ice for several worrying minutes.

Friday night Saint Mary’s was in Wolfville and they had a better start, as they scored first and were never behind in the game. Special teams were a factor as SMU was 2-for-6 on the PP while Acadia went 0-for-4.

Wednesday– StFX 5 @ SMU 6
Friday – SMU 4 @ Acadia 2

Aigles Bleus take rematch against Panthers

After blowing a 3-goal lead and losing at home to UPEI the previous week, UdeM rebounded on the Island. Like SMU, Moncton scored first and were never behind. Lots of chippy penalties in this one as well.

Friday – UdeM 3 @ UPEI 2

Acadia loses 4-point game

The Axemen had a great opportunity at home Friday. Win against SMU and they would finish the first half in second place and the Huskies would be in fourth. Lose and the opposite would happen. Which is what happened. Still Acadia is only four points back of first place UNB (who have played one less game). For the poolies Andrew Clark picked up a goal and an assist in the loss to keep him at the top of the leader board with 24 points in the first half, two more than UPEI’s Matt Carter.

Friday – SMU 4 @ Acadia 2

Panthers winning streak over

UPEI had a nice little 4-game winning streak going that was keeping them in contact with the top third in the AUS. Friday Moncton didn’t do them the repeat favour of sitting on their lead and taking bad penalties. They did outshoot UdeM 34-27 in the loss.

Friday – UdeM 3 @ UPEI 2

StFX losing the close ones

One difference between this season and last is that StFX is coming out on the wrong end of close games. Wednesday against SMU was different. Tweet of the week goes to UdeM’s online presence Phillip Poirier: “Blown 3 goal leads are so last week, blowing 4 goal leads is where it's at this week.” However many games Mark Louis gets suspended is going to hurt the X-men for sure early in the second half.

Wednesday– StFX 5 @ SMU 6

Tommies steal a point

Rebuilding STU doesn’t have the depth to match lines with UNB and go end to end. They do have a goaltender in Lavigne who can keep them in games, especially when his teammates collapse back in front of him to congest shooting and passing lanes and win battles for rebounds. They have opportunistic scorers. This week they had seven power plays in the third period and didn’t give up a shorthanded goal, a big improvement. (I know … snark). However, they did give up a shortie to UNB d-man Bretton Stamler in the second period, who also got the winner in OT. I’m not going to predict that the Tommies will make the playoffs, but StFX sure better sure not go into another extended slump.

Friday – STU 2 @ UNB 3 OT

No losses for Dal this week

They finished their first half of play last week.

Good luck to all of the student-athletes on their exams and Merry Christmas.

Men's Basketball: Top 10 tracker: Ravens, Golden Hawks win in Ottawa, other teams catch up on homework

2011-12-03T13:39:00.004-05:00

Highlights of the week so far for top 10 teams: Carleton continues to dominate opponents using their end-of-benchers, Lakehead gets a 'royal' breakout game from a bench forward and Laurier gets bailed out by their fifth-year leader.

RPI available here. This post will be updated as results come in.

1. Carleton (No. 2 RPI, SRS +25.2) 102-53 win vs. Waterloo (no. 34 RPI), 84-68 win over Laurier (no. 13 RPI).

To follow up last week’s barnburner vs. Lakehead, we had… well, whatever this was. A 22-point lead after one quarter for the Carletons is a good way to make sure nothing interesting happens all night.

One funny thing about Carleton crushing teams so badly is that their starters rarely have to play much in the second half. That lets a guy like Cole Hobin, who could probably fit in on any lineup and score 15 if he was asked to, average 4.6 points per game. That also means you get a chance to see guys like Dan ‘Fred’ Penner lead all scorers with 22 (including five threes).

I think anyone expecting a major showdown between the Ravens and Golden Hawks was probably expecting a bit too much. Yes, Laurier was undefeated, but they've been feasting on overmatched OUA East opponents, three of which went winless against the OUA West in the crossover portion of the schedule. Not to sound like a drive-by "HOLY COW LET'S JUST GIVE CARLETON THE TITLE NOW" analyst, but do the Ravens really need to play the second semester of the regular season? Unless Ottawa surprises everyone and wins the Capital Hoops Classic, or if Tyson Hinz accidentally breaks his elbow on Phil Scrubb's face in practice and they're both out for the year, the loss column should be a goose egg for the Ravens heading into the playoffs.

To play Devil's advocate, It's worth pointing out, as Wayne Kondro did here, that Carleton played the best West teams - Lakehead, Laurier and Windsor - on the second night of back-to-backs, and that they really haven't faced still competition yet. But yeah, the East is that bad.

2. St. FX X-Men (No. 1 RPI, SRS +13.4), off for holidays.

Off until the Rod Shoveller Tourny. Until then, they’ll work on not having to bail themselves out of late games against lesser foes. Also, cue the ‘good teams find a way to win’ argument.

3. Lakehead Thunderwolves (No. 12 RPI, SRS +7.6), 91-76 win at York (No. 43 RPI, also known as DFL), 99-95 win over Laurentian (no. 29 in RPI).

Overcame a sluggish start to pull away late from the Lions in Toronto.

The best part about this game (apart from the appearance of Ben Johnson’s increasingly robust afro) was Brendan King’s career night of 21 points on 9 of 13 shooting. King is a guy loaded with potential who has played most of the past two years behind Yoosrie Salhia and Ryan Thompson. His low-post scoring game, which should be complementary to his frontcourt mates’, is another weapon Lakehead can use to do one of the things they do best: create mismatches on offence.

In the Saturday nightcap, it looks like everyone but Greg Carter forgot to play defence, and the GGODs' solid execution down the stretch saved them from an upset loss to the Voyageurs. In the category of 'sweet,' Joe Jones hit every one of his 12 shots (including five free throws) he took inside the arc, while Jones and King combined for 46 points and exactly zero rebounds and zero assists. Just shoot, baby.

4. Saskatchewan Huskies (No. 3 RPI, SRS +14.6), off for holidays.

According to Jamelle Barrett, Ibuprofen can cure broken bones.

5. Victoria Vikes (No. 6 RPI, SRS +9.6), off for holidays.

Thank ‘gang rebounding’ and stingy defence for the Vikes’ surge to an undefeated season so far.

6. Alberta Golden Bears (No. 4 RPI, SRS +12.5), off for holidays.

The Gateway has a cool website, but it could do to show Jordan Baker, Daniel Ferguson and the fellas some love.

7. UBC Thunderbirds (No. 17 RPI, SRS +9.0), off for holidays.

They might still be steaming from their two losses last weekend, but at least the T-Birds have some pretty sweet jerseys this year.

8. Wilfrid Laurier, (No. 13 RPI, SRS +7.6) 77-76 win at Ottawa (no. 16 in RPI).

The moppy-haired superstar from Stratford is at it again - that’s right, folks, Kale Harrison nailed a three pointer with 8.6 seconds to go to let Laurier escape Montpetit Hall with a victory over the Ottawa Gee-Gees. Also, 'Worldwide' Warren Ward is apparently such a star in the nation’s capital that it’s cool just to refer to him on a first name basis in the third graf of a gamer.

Hard to put much stock into losing to Carleton a night after the Hawks spilled their guts on the floor against Ottawa. A 7-1 record heading into the break is all this team could realistically hope for, and they're in good position to challenge Lakehead for the West title in January and February.

9. Fraser Valley (No. 7 RPI, SRS +7.9), off for holidays.

The Cascades get remarkably little love in the world of CIS hoops media, so here’s a picture of a kitty.

10. Concordia Stingers (No. 8 RPI, SRS +7.5), off for holidays.

If the Stingers want to return to the Final 8 this year, they’ll need to work on closing out games better and play with more intensity, says Stingers guard Evens Laroche.

Basketball: OUA East - Week 3: Blues, Ravens go 2–0, Gee-Gees break road losing streak

2011-11-30T20:30:00.003-05:00

Quietly observing the OUA East in the last couple weeks has been a quiet frustration, on my part. With most of these squads bringing back experienced rosters from last season, I was expecting a few teams—besides the Carleton Ravens—to march onward in the division very quickly. The reality is that the cobwebs are still hanging around. The Ravens are the only undefeated squad in the division, with the Toronto Varsity Blues and Ottawa Gee-Gees (both 3–3) both three full games behind them.

The Blues and Gee-Gees should be wary, the Ravens are beyond parity or any of these losing slumps at this point, but I think both squads are slowly getting their court feet back. The OUA East faced the West in interdivisional play this weekend, and the Blues and GeeGees went 3–1. The rest of the division went 2–8 in their contests combined.

While the Ravens shrugged off the Guelph Gryphons and Lakehead Thunderwolves (98–55 and 88–85 respectively), the Blues kept pace with tough road wins against the Western Mustangs and Windsor Lancers. Their 83–79 win against Western was a doozy, 58–55 after three quarters. The Blues’ ball control (winning the rebound game 42–27) proved to help control the flow of an evenly matched fourth quarter. Veteran C Andrew Wasik had 20 points in the win. The Blues took advantage of the roadtrip momentum, and had five double digit scorers in their 86–81 win over Windsor. Kudos goes to F Alex Hill’s three 3-pointers in the clutch.

Even though Gee-Gees went 1–1 this weekend—interpretively a shaky start for a team with high expectations—the squad has played four road games. They nipped a potential albatross in the bud by winning their first road game against the Gryphons 83–77. Ottawa had control from the get-go in this one, shooting 46 per cent from the floor. Guard play was much better, with G Warren Ward scoring 28 points, and G Mike L’Africain scoring 16 off the bench. This team has the personnel to go out there and get it done. When this squad scores often, their defence has a better shot down the stretch. Even though they lost to Lakehead 78–72, being outrebounded and turning it over 23 times, they somehow kept it close with their baskets. They will have much to mull over this week.

With six games completed by each East squad, there are plenty of questions to be explored. We will not truly know what kind of parity exists until the divisional matchups go into full throttle in the new year. But, we do know that the West continues to look incredibly dominant over the East so far. In the first three weekends, the West is 32–16 (.667) over the East, up from last year's record (39-25, .610), with only one team (Western) below .500. Against everyone but Carleton, the OUA West teams are 32-10.

Men's hockey: Top 10 tracker

2011-11-30T19:12:00.000-05:00

The CIS men's hockey rankings are here, and the RPI is here.

UNB (2nd in RPI): Host St. Thomas on Friday, who will be seeking revenge for 43:33, 47:50, and 49:35 of this game. The Reds are +2.0 in SRS, a step down from their last two years where they've been three goals or more better than the average team. Though that may be because we're now ignoring shootouts country-wide in these rankings, and so what was previously a win or loss is a tie.
McGill (1st in RPI): Survived the third period at Ryerson on Saturday, winning when (guess who) Francis Verreault-Paul put one home at 59:49.

Have just one game left in 2011, a Friday morning school game vs. RMC in Verdun.
Alberta (5th in RPI): As Evan noted, their trip to Manitoba this weekend "will be a good barometer of where this squad is after a relatively easy stretch of games against the conference's bottom three squads." Real Cyr will likely still lead the country in save percentage regardless of what happens, though.
Western (6th in RPI): Host Waterloo and Guelph. The first one will be a bigger test, you'd think. This past weekend, at UOIT and Laurier, was the first one the Mustangs had where they won both games convincingly (by at least three goals), which is notable since they've played the weakest schedule in CIS so far. (Though it's hard to say a 9-3 win and a two-goal win aren't convincing.) (Never mind any of that. I read the wrong weekend off the schedule.)
Moncton (19th in RPI): Play at UPEI Friday. They fell from third to fifth in the CIS rankings after losing to those Panthers, but that home loss (combined with everyone else's results) dropped them seven spots in RPI, to the point where they are technically below average. It's not the first time an above-.500 team with a soft schedule is ranked, and it won't be the last.
Saskatchewan (13th in RPI): Cruised against UBC, as usual. Two games vs. Regina await.
Acadia (12th in RPI): Host SMU Friday.
Lakehead (4th in RPI): ~~Host Waterloo this weekend for two.~~ (Another goof. That would be the next weekend they play a regular season, which is in January, not this weekend.)

Fourth in RPI but four spots below Western? Hmm. The 'Wolves and 'Stangs can settle it on the ice: they play four times between Jan. 20 and Feb. 4.
Manitoba (3rd in RPI): Evan and math are both higher on Manitoba than the voters. Why not, right? They're only 4-0 against Calgary, and they lost by one goal in both games against Saskatchewan, and are 1-1 (or 2-0, depending how you count) against Alberta. What more can they do?

They have two home games against those Bears this weekend, so I suppose we'll see.
UQTR (8th in RPI): Face a much tougher slate this week: Nipissing and Carleton on the road, rather than RMC and Queen's anywhere. (The Gaels' 1-0 win over Carleton a few weeks back will remain an unsolved mystery for years.)

Hockey: Tigers about to be homeless

2011-11-30T11:01:00.009-05:00

Talk about kicking a team when they are down. Well two actually, as this affects both the Dal men's and women's hockey teams. The Halifax Metro News is reporting that the Dalhousie University board of governors voted yesterday to demolish Dalhousie Memorial Arena next spring, rather than spend $3 to $4 million to fix the roof.

The 30-year old arena features a very idiosyncratic wooden roof that I rather like, but I know visiting teams are not fond of the DMA dressing room setups. For media, well, the press box is a just a couple of tables at the top of the concourse and patrons are constantly tripping over your phone and power cords as they take a short cut to the beer serving area, but it does have character!

Sounds like some bigwigs at Dal aren't hockey fans and might be envious of UNB's shiny new Richard J. CURRIE CENTER. From the Metro article quoting Dal spokesman Charles Crosby:

“At this point we’re looking at a new fitness and wellness facility,” he said. The next step is to look for someone who could design the facility.

“The plan is for it to include things like physio, a cardio area, yoga studios and the like,” he said.

The bigger question is where will the Tigers play now? There is not another on-campus rink, so will Dal be sharing the venerable Halifax Forum with Saint Mary's next season? That's going to make boosting your attendance even more challenging. I can see the t-shirt now: Homeless team skating.

P.S. UNB's Aitken University Centre is older than Dal's Memorial Arena and the school spent a million bucks or more two years ago repairing the roof. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

Men's Basketball: Tuesday top-10 tracker

2011-11-29T19:41:00.000-05:00

Each Tuesday, we’ll look at who’s moving up and down, who’s staying put and who’s moving in and out of the CIS Top 10. This week, the top dogs stay put, everyone else moves and we have our first QUBL sighting of the year.

Here are this week's official CIS rankings and RPI. Here's Rob's post from this weekend's results.

MOVING UP:

No. 4 Saskatchewan, up from no. 5: Jamelle Barrett came back just in time for the Huskies to close out their semester with two wins. Though they went 2-0 without him, it’s pretty obvious that Barrett is the straw that stirs the drink for the Dogs. Everyone else in their lineup instantly becomes more valuable when they play complementary roles to his driving, dishing and scoring prowess. His 30-8-6 in an OT win over UFV was one of the best CIS games of the year.

Also, this week in unreported Huskies injuries features forward Nolan Brudehl, who missed both games over the weekend.

No. 5 Victoria, up from no. 6: In case anyone didn’t notice (and it’s likely more than a few didn’t), the Vikes are the only remaining undefeated team out west, likely because they’ve yet to play any of the other ranked CW teams. Still, they’ve done everything they needed to in the first semester, having taken care of business and set themselves up for a good run in January and February.

Ryan McKinnon is shooting 53% and averaging 21.4 points on the year, giving the Vikes enough production to lead a balanced attack. It’s tough to say how that will translate against stiffer competition, but we’ll have to trust the voters’ judgment that this is the fifth-best team in the country (and the RPI, which has them sixth).

No. 6 Alberta, up from no. 7: Their third win over a ranked opponent (a convincing 79-57 victory over UFV) is enough to legitimize their top-six ranking, but there are a few things they could work on: shooting over 50% in a game, for instance. They also got badly beaten on the boards and shot just 41.2% against the Cascades and somehow still won by 22. That means you’re still doing some things right.

No. 8 Wilfrid Laurier, up from no. 9: Still undefeated, and still trying to convince people that that they’re more than just the third-best OUA team. And even when you beat up Laurentian and York, home court wins against overmatched OUA East foes doesn’t get you much credit. They’ll get a chance to prove their worth as they head to Ottawa to take on the Gee-Gees and Ravens next week. Until then, it’s still tough to say exactly how good this team is.

No. 10 Concordia, previously unranked: Just like last year, the Stingers are the best of the QUBL, which is like saying the Cobb Salad is the best item on the healthy menu at McDonald’s. They’re the best among those they compete with, but you move them somewhere else and their success becomes a little more dubious. They play UQAM for their first two games in January, which should give us a better idea of how good these guys actually are.

MOVING DOWN:

No. 7 UBC, down from no. 4: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t think this team has the depth to be the force that Thunderbird teams have been over the past few years. In their loss to Lethbridge, they got a grand total of 12 bench points, Nathan Yu was forced to take on a scoring role (not sure what’s more wild: that he took 16 threes, or that he made eight of them) and foul trouble ate them up. The following night in a loss to Calgary, three starters and a key player (Graham Bath, Balraj Bains, Doug Plumb and Tommy Nixon) fouled out, while Yu and Kamar Burke each had four fouls.

UBC’s top talent is good enough to compete for a title, but they’re going to need to find a way to stay on the court, and that starts with getting more out of their bench.

No. 9 UFV, down from no. 8: Two losses to end the semester after a 5-1 start will leave a sour taste in their mouths, especially after shooting 35% in a loss to Alberta. They still need to play UBC and Victoria twice, so they’ll have some work to do in the second semester. If their resurgence is going to continue, more consistent play will be at the top of their wish list this Christmas.

STAYING PUT:

No. 1 Carleton: A win over the GGODs in the Thunderdome is never easy to achieve, and the first team to challenge the Carletons didn’t make it easy. A three-point victory, probably the closest a team will get to beating the Ravens until the playoffs, is the feather in the Ravens’ cap so far this year.

No. 2 St. FX: Is an undefeated season too much to ask? Yes. Their 81-78 win over Dalhousie was their second nail-biter of the year. I’m just not sold on the rest of the AUS, however (maybe UPEI?!). X is clearly better than all the other teams, and for some reason it seems conceivable that they'll beat everyone this year.

No. 3 Lakehead: No shame in the Thunderwolves losing a classic to the best team in the country. From what I hear about this game, it sounds like a thriller. I’d say I wish I was there, but then I’d be wishing to be in Thunder Bay and no one wants that. I am looking forward to what this team does in the second semester, however.

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK: Nathan Yu, UBC: 36 points, six assists, 8/16 3pt

I don’t care that they lost, that he went 2-for-6 on two-point shots, and that it probably played into Lethbridge’s strategy to make him a scorer. Nathan Yu shooting 16 threes is hilarious, and making eight of them is pretty awesome.

Honourable mention to TRU’s Justin King, who is averaging 32.8 points over his last four games, shooting 61%.

UPPER DECK TOP 10

1. Carleton
2. St. FX
3. Lakehead
4. Saskatchewan
5. Alberta
6. Victoria
7. Wilfrid Laurier
8. UBC
9. Fraser Valley
10. Concordia

THIS WEEK IN @CHRIS__OLIVER: “Discipline means to learn everything that helps us to the maximum performance.”

Canada West Men's Basketball: Week Four Update

2011-11-29T15:01:00.004-05:00

A few storylines to follow this week, namely rookie-squad UBC-O finishing with more wins than their UBC cousins in Vancouver, who got shut out on the weekend. Fraser Valley and Trinity Western, both struggling top-tier clubs in the Pacific Division, faced a road trip from hell against Alberta and Saskatchewan, and an unfamiliar face out of Kamloops becomes the nation's scoring leader.

Thursday

Manitoba 87 @ Winnipeg 70 Not necessarily the marquee game of the week, but Jonar Huertas came off the bench for the Bisons to score 25 in just 26 minutes of play, shooting 9-for-16 in the process. Winnipeg continues to have trouble putting the ball in the basket from the floor, getting outshot 51.5%-30.8%, with only one player, Benny Iko, shooting at more than 50%.

Friday

Fraser Valley 95 @ Saskatchewan 104 It took overtime for the Huskies to finally pull away from the Cascades. Jamelle Barrett was back in the lineup, shooting 10-for-18 with a game-high 33 points, while Michael Lieffers dominated inside, collecting 11 defensive boards. This was vintage Saskatchewan, keeping their big threats to the outside and forcing them to shoot a lot from the outside. The problem? Fraser Valley sunk 16 of their 35 shots from beyond the arc, with Sam Freeman leading the way at 5-for-8 (and 29 points to boot).

Victoria 75 @ Calgary 63 Calgary lost the first game of a tough homestand against the ranked BC teams, dominated off the glass 47-27 (earning just 5 offensive rebounds all game) which was enough to propel Victoria to another road win despite some pretty poor shooting. Just 38% of shots went in, but they took 71 shots to the Dinos 48. It was an otherwise quiet night for Ryan MacKinnon, scoring just 15 in 37 minutes, but Victoria somehow managed to get the job done and improve to 7-0.

Trinity Western 77 @ Alberta 87 Daniel Ferguson has been catching fire for the Golden Bears, and he led them in points again Friday with 26, securing a double-digit win for Alberta over the reeling Spartans, who have seen the hardest schedule in the nation so far. Alberta pulled away with an 8-point advantage at halftime and the teams swapped punches in the second half, but Trinity was never able to mount a big run to pull themselves close, despite an impressive nine-rebound, 25-point night from Kyle Coston.

UBC 80 @ Lethbridge 90 A very impressive win by the Pronghorns, dispatching the number four Thunderbirds for their first of [spoiler alert] two losses this weekend. Lethbridge didn't shoot the lights out of the building or control the glass, but they took advantage of the T-Birds limited depth that has been alluded to (and I ignored last week) by outscoring them off the bench 32-12 (earning 11 points from Alex Fletcher).

Regina 76 @ UBC-Okanagan 78 Well, who would have thought that of the two UBC teams, the one to win on Friday would be the team based in Kelowna over Vancouver? Bret MacDonald hit two free throws with 10 seconds left on the clock in the fourth, and Sterling Nostedt missed a three-pointer at the buzzer which would have tied the game (the score was made to look closer thanks to a free thrown on an ensuing loose ball foul) The Heat pick up their first regular season CIS win, thanks to a couple of extra rebounds and a few more trips to the charity stripe (hint: grit!).

Brandon 84 @ Thompson Rivers 91 There was a time when I thought that I could snag Justin King in the MUBL add/drop period, but that may not be the case, as he rocketed off 36 and 35 points this weekend to become the leading scorer in the entire country. Dude is an absolute delight to watch. Akeem Pierre and Chas Kok each got 14 rebounds for the WolfPack, who dominated the Bobcats in that regard. TRU's offense continues to shine.

Saturday

Fraser Valley 59 @ Alberta 79 You can't really blame the Cascades for this one, a night after going to overtime against Saskatchewan and presumably taking a bus to Edmonton, they just didn't really have their legs and scored just 20 points in the first half. Jordan Baker hit 20 for the Golden Bears. Interestingly, Fraser Valley out-rebounded Alberta 42-27, although earned just six from big-man Jasper Moedt. The loss sends the Cascades to 5-3 into the break which is pretty good considering their tough schedule (and contributes to their No. 7 nationwide RPI ranking).

Victoria 90 @ Lethbridge 59 Perhaps the 'Horns partied a little too hard after stunning UBC, because they came out pretty flat against the Vikes. MacKinnon and Mike Berg caught fire for the Vikes, hitting 13 of their combined 21 shots, while Berg's seven rebounds (five defensive) was the most among starters. Lethrbridge's offense takes a tumble, now just 11th going into the winter break.

UBC 85 @ Calgary 92 Well, that ain't good. Or as Rob wrote in the top 10 post: "That didn't go well" as the Thunderbirds get swept on their two-game Southern Alberta road trip. Tyler Fidler had 25 for the Dinos while Nathan Yu was held to just 8 points, just 2-for-7 from the field in what has to be a season low for shots taken.

Trinity Western 73 @ Saskatchewan 98 The Spartans had to do the Edmonton-to-Saskatoon bus trip after their game in Alberta and obviously didn't stop to chat with Fraser Valley to discuss how to keep the game close against the Huskies. Barrett hit a game-high 23 points, Peter Lomuro had 20, and, behind Trinity's 22 turnovers, Saskatchewan didn't really have a problem dispatching the tired Spartans, hitting the break at just 2-6.

Brandon 81 @ UBC-Okanagan 68 Brandon accomplishes what Regina couldn't, which is pick up a victory over the lone Canada West Pacific squad outside the top 20 in national RPI. Ali Mounir scored 21 for the Bobcats in 23 minutes, while the Heat appeared to have trouble hitting shots. Yassine Ghomari had a game-high 26 points for the home team. Unfortunately for him, he also missed 17 shots from the field (7-for-24), indicative of UBC-O's struggles so far as they hit the break at just 1-5.

Regina 100 @ Thompson Rivers 110 It does feel nice to have a WolfPack team that can shoot the ball, as the WolfPack head into the break with the second best offense in the conference behind just UBC. Regina and TRU both shot pretty well, especially in the fourth quarter, where they combined for 74 points (a 37-37 quarter split). Paul Gareau had 23 points for the Cougars and eight rebounds in 28 minutes of play, but it wasn't enough for Regina as they get swept in their BC interior road trip.

Men's Volleyball: Week 6: Top 10 Weekly Recap

2011-11-28T23:49:00.003-05:00

With another week of volleyball in the books, we take a look at the results for the country's top squads boasting 'Y' chromosomes.

Week 6 of the CIS men's volleyball schedule featured a few marquee matchups out West, but failed to provide much in the way of clarity. Manitoba and Alberta split their weekend matches in Winnipeg, while Calgary and UBC did the same in Vancouver. Meanwhile the Trinity Western war machine continued to flex its collective muscle atop the Canada West standings, and Laval dealt out similar damage in interlock play on the opposite end of the country.

Swing of the Week: Regina (3) vs. Brandon (1) - Nov. 25

This week's quickest and most definitive momentum shift comes to us from Canada's most lazily drawn province. On Friday night, the Regina Cougars led their counterparts from Brandon two sets to one, winning the third by an exhausting 42-40 score, but trailed 25-24 in the fourth. The Bobcats were intent on taking the match to a deciding frame, but with outside Ben Glue serving on set point, the Cougars' influential right-side Andrew Nelson decided to take things into his own hands.

Nelson erased the Bobcats' set point with a kill for 25-all, before reeling off two more clean winners to give the Regina outfit an important home win.

The Cougars began that decisive swing with a 65.6% chance of winning the Friday night match, and notched the victory only three points later.

Recapping the Top 10

#1 Trinity Western Spartans (8-0) and #9 UBCO Heat (3-5)

The Spartans offered another frightening demonstration of their power this past weekend, dropping consecutive bagels on the UBCO Heat. I was interested leading into this series to see how the enigma that is the first-year CIS program would match up against the nation's top team. The short answer is: not well. Trinity Western never really had to get out of first gear in either match, winning without having a single player crack the 15-point threshold. Back to the drawing board for the Heat.

#2 Alberta Golden Bears (7-1) and #3 Manitoba Bisons (9-1)

Alberta faced its toughest test of the young season, and they will likely be happy with having come away with two points after a doubleheader on the road in Winnipeg. Manitoba took the first contest on Friday night after losing the first set, enjoying a fairly efficient night from both of the usual suspects on the outside. Chris Voth was the more prolific hitter (17.5 points on 15 of 39 hitting) while Dane Pischke was the more effective (14.5 points on 14 of 29 hitting).

In the rematch a night later, the two teams traded sets throughout and while Mitch Irvine understandably saw the most of the ball, it was fellow outside Taylor Hunt who paced the Golden Bears to victory on Saturday.

Hunt put up a game-high 25.5 points on an impressive 22 of 42 hitting (.381) to lead the Albertan outfit to a critical road win and put an end to Manitoba's unbeaten season.

#4 Laval Rouge et Or (9-0)

Indulging in a weekend of interlock play, the Rouge et Or won three matches over two days at Memorial. Laval convincingly cleaned out all three members of the AUS without really flexing their attacking muscle at any point. Star outside Karl de Grandpre saw very little of the ball, and it was rookie hitter Tommy Belisle who led the way for the Rouge et Or in his stead. Belisle notched 13 points against Dalhousie on Friday, 20 the next morning against the hosts from Memorial, and 17.5 in the final match of the weekend against UNB. The smooth sailing continues for Laval.

#5 UBC Thunderbirds (6-2) and #6 Calgary Dinos (5-5)
Much like the Alberta-Manitoba match up mentioned earlier, the UBC-Calgary series would result in a split, with UBC notching a victory in the Friday opener on home soil before being blanked the next night. The Dinos would outscore their hosts in both contests, but would pay dearly for their errors in the Friday loss. Calgary gave away 16 free points from the service line and 28 on hitting attempts en route to the four set defeat.

Saturday's rematch saw the Dinos clean up their game and enjoy a much-improved performance from leading outside contributor Allen Meek. Meek would tally 17 points over the course of three sets, converting 15 of 34 hitting attempts in the process.

#7 Western Mustangs (8-0)

The Mustangs added yet another notch to their belt with a fairly routine sweep on Saturday against a struggling Waterloo side. Western spread the attacking love, and were highly efficient as a unit, posting a team hitting percentage of .393 in the victory. Sophomore middle Phil James continued his hot start to the season, converting 12 of 13 hitting attempts with a single error. Another sophomore, outside Garrett May added 12 points of his own on 10 of 12 hitting.

#8 Brandon Bobcats (3-7)

Brandon got all that they could handle from the Regina Cougars this past weekend, and came away with two of a possible four points. After dropping the aforementioned opener over the course of four sets, the Bobcats recovered well to drop the Cougars in straight sets on Saturday night. Where Jonathan Sloane led the attack for the Manitobans in a losing effort, it was fellow middle Dan Boutwell producing in the win. While outside Ben Glue had more points (14), it was Boutwell who was the more efficient hitter, converting 8 of 11 attempts and amassing 11 points overall.

#10 Saskatchewan Huskies (1-7)

The one-win Huskies didn't have an opportunity to improve their record this past weekend, as they enjoyed a bye week. Their season gets back underway on Friday night, when the Huskies open a two-game set on the road in Brandon.

Hockey: AUS Weekly Update

2011-11-28T13:06:00.007-05:00

It was a comparatively quiet weekend in AUS men’s hockey, as the teams ease into the Christmas exam break with most teams only having one game this week and one left next week. There are exceptions, all in Nova Scotia, as Acadia and StFX played twice and Saint Mary’s will play twice next week. As a result of the unbalanced schedule the Huskies will get both Wednesdays off in the second half, while the Axmen and X-Men each get one Wednesday off. You could consider that a bit of an advantage in the push to the playoffs in the second half as SMU gets to avoid completely the 3-games-in-5-nights test that most of their competitors will be involved in. Twice. Including the last week of the AUS regular season.

Unprecedented comeback keeps V-Reds in 1st place

The biggest CIS sports story of Friday night, well until later on when Laval came soclose to coming back and winning after a 23-0 first half deficit in the Vanier Cup, was UNB scoring THREE shorthanded goals in the third period to tie cross-campus rival St. Thomas, getting the winning goal even strength, and then adding ANOTHER shorthanded goal for insurance, albeit into an empty net. Two of those shorties came from defenceman/rover Jonathan Harty, perhaps showing off for his police constable mother who was on-duty at the game in STU’s barn.

This was a much anticipated game, with many in Fredericton, including both Daily Gleaner sports columnists, suggesting that maybe, just maybe, the Tommies might end their 27-game streak of futility against the V-Reds in The Battle of the Hill. For two periods it looked like it might happen, as STU scored twice off practiced plays in the first period and added a power play marker in the second period while being outshot 33-11 in the first 40 minutes. Then came that third period for the ages. You can read all about it here if you like.

There was more good news for UNB. They’ve looked beatable ever since goaltender Travis Fullerton had his emergency appendectomy surgery on November 5. Surprisingly he was in the warm-up Friday night and on the bench for the game. Monday morning the V-Reds announced an early Christmas gift. Geordie Wudrick had committed to UNB over the summer but decided to give pro hockey a try first. After playing the first half season in Germany, the 6’4” sniper will be joining the V-Reds after all for the second half. Now more competition in practice and another forward is going to have to sit in the stands when (if?} veteran Jordan Clendenning returns from his knee injury.

Friday – UNB 5 @ STU 3

Axemen flirted with first place

Coming into the weekend, and sliding under the radar a little bit, Acadia was the hottest team in the AUS with a five-game winning streak and just two points back of UNB. Friday in Antigonish defenceman Chris Owens scored his second goal at 7:09 of overtime for the win against the X-Men. In the rematch in the Axemen’s wide rink on late Sunday afternoon there was no scoring for two periods, and then rookie Nicolas Chouinard scored early in the third on a nice rush.. But then X woke up and scored three straight goals and added an empty netter. Granted Acadia had only four healthy regular defencemen and their fatigue might have been a factor. Next week Acadia hosts SMU, and they will hope for a win and a UNB loss to STU to allow them to go into the break tied for first place.

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

Les agiles déféquèrent le nid

Saturday Moncton was home and up 3-0 after one period to bitter rival UPEI. I won’t get into it, but there’s history there, and it’s not always pretty. Then power plays kick-started the Panthers offence. UEPI scored two goals in 14 seconds in the second period. They added two goals in 35 seconds in the third period. They added another for good measure. Three goals leads were obviously not safe on the weekend. I should add that UdeM and UPEI each scored a shorty.

Saturday – UPEI 5 @ UdeM 3

Remember the Huskies?

Going into that Acadia-StFX game on Sunday, the top five teams in the AUS were all 7-3 in their last 10 games. SMU was one of them. They got to play last place Dalhousie on Friday night, and surprisingly, needed to come back twice to tie the game and overtime to win it. Not something to brag about.

Friday – SMU 4 @ Dal 3 OT

Be careful with big cats

UPEI are deceptive. It seems like they have tentative slow first periods, but maybe that is just the setup for their second period attack – which is the one they have outscored their AUS opponents. Ask UNB. Now ask UdeM. The Panthers have an incredibly dangerous first line who are very opportunistic and dangerous on transition. Bobble the puck or make those long passes in the neutral zone at your peril when Matt Carter, Jordan Knox and Dana Fraser are on the ice.

Saturday – UPEI 5 @ UdeM 3

Have the X-Men finally woken up?

StFX has lost a lot of one-goal games this season when you discount empty netters. Three times now in OT. They split this past weekend, but came away with three big points in the standings. If they start playing 60 minute games in the second half like that last 20 minutes against Acadia the rest of the conference could get nervous.

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

St. Thomas gut wrench at Battle of the Hill

Give STU coach Troy Ryan credit. For their first meeting this season his game plan was to utilize practiced stretch passes and defensive zone faceoff counterattacks to catch UNB off balance plus drag out every whistle and line change to thwart any V-Red shift-to-shift momentum. Done, done and done. For two periods. Too much power play time in the third period apparently gave the Tommies too much time to think (dream?) about the potential outcome and they lost sight of the process. Ryan’s own words. For whatever reason, it was an epic collapse at home and now Friday night they skate into the V-Reds rink and try to do it all over again without the advantage of last line-change. I’ll be interested to see what the Ryan playbook is for this game.

Friday – UNB 5 @ STU 3

A glimmer of hope for Dalhousie

Bad news first. The Tigers losing streak is now 11 games. Good news? They pushed Saint Mary’s to overtime and their last two losses have been by one goal. Third-string rookie goaltender Philip Wright has his GAA down to 4:37 and is save percentage at .877, the same save percentage as injured started Bobby Nadeau. Not great, but not terrible.

Friday – SMU 4 @ Dal 3 OT

Looking ahead on Wednesday, StFX is at SMU (so they don’t have to do it second term?). As mentioned, the UNB-STU rematch is Friday night. SMU will close out the half against Acadia on Friday while Moncton and UPEI get back at it on the Island.

Men's basketball: Top 10 tracker: Pronghorns and Dinos clip 'Birds, Dudes host and fall to Ravens

2011-11-27T12:52:00.000-05:00

Highlights of the week so far for top 10 teams: UBC loses a pair in Alberta, UFV and Saskatchewan go to overtime, Carleton wins a thriller in Thunder Bay.

RPI available here. This post will be updated as results come in.

Carleton (RPI #2, SRS +26.6 entering the weekend): W 98-55 at Guelph (28th, -1.9), W 88-85 at Lakehead (7th, +13.5).

Looks like one night after an all-time classic at B.C. Place, we missed another in the Thunderdome in the first game between Lakehead and Carleton since the OUA final. (Don't feel so bad: the Ottawa Citizen apparently missed it too.) They scored a combined 56 points in the fourth quarter, with very few missed shots from either side down the stretch. Dave Smart was likely not happy that the 'Wolves got two possessions in the last 10 seconds to tie it with a three, thanks to a five-second violation, but there you go.

Before this weekend, the Ravens' opponents so far had been held to 33.0% shooting. Against everyone else, those teams have shot a far more respectable 44.6%. Though all this really proves is that the Carletons are better defenders than their OUA East colleagues, something we probably already knew. (The winter term portion of their schedule is going to feature a lot of garbage time.)

On Friday Guelph continued that trend, shooting 33% themselves in Carleton's 43-point win. The Ravens once again out-rebounded their opponents on the defensive glass alone. Tyson Hinz, Cole Hobin, and Phil Scrubb continued to average around 21 minutes in this one — obviously with a flight to a much tougher opponent in Thunder Bay awaiting them immediately, and an entire season still left to come eventually, there's no need to run them out for 30-35 minutes against the Westerns and Guelphs.
St. F-X (RPI #1, SRS +15.3): W 78-81 vs. Dal (37th, -4.4).

Please note that in AUS men's basketball, a win over Dalhousie is worth 0 points. (I like that joke so much, I'm leaving it in all weekend.) Terry Thomas led the way: 24 points on 8/19 shooting, and 11 rebounds, four offensive. Like Lakehead/Carleton, this was a one-shot game right until the end, with Dal missing their own three-point attempt at the end following a pair of Ellis French frees that extended the X lead and Jeremy Dunn's jumper that gave it to them for good with less than 30 seconds to go.
Lakehead (RPI #7, SRS +13.5): W 78-72 vs. Ottawa (17th, +7.8), L 85-88 vs. Carleton (2nd, +26.6).

We had three undefeated teams before last night and with two of them playing each other, we were guaranteed at least one of them would lose; unfortunately for the Great Group of Dudes [Teammates], it was Lakehead. Moral victories: scoring 85 against and out-rebounding the Carletons. Joseph Jones scored 18 and might have more if he didn't miss 12 shots, seven of which were from long range.

Still not sure what to make of these Gee-Gees. They gave the GGOD[T]s a good run, outshooting if not outboarding or outscoring them. Five Thunderwolves hit double digits in the win. Lakehead found themselves holding off a late Ottawa charge (it was 43-30 at the half and 72-58 with four and a half left in the game), with Warren Ward missing two three-pointers in the last 71 seconds, disappointing himself and his MUBL owner.

Video highlights:
UBC (RPI #9, SRS +14.2): L 80-90 at Lethbridge (22nd, +2.4), L 85-92 at Calgary (41st, -5.9).

That didn't go well.

Wayne Thomas runs down the Dinos' win, giving credit to Tyler Fidler (the game's leading scorer with 25), Josh Wolfram (15 points, 4 rebounds), and Patrick Walker (six boards in 15 minutes off the bench and also "altered several UBC shots through the game").

As for Friday's game, 36 from Nathan Yu wasn't enough to offset 90 from various Pronghorns. "The story of the game was turnovers," according to Kevin Hanson. Hanson also pointed out that there are a lot of older transfers on this Lethbridge squad, quite a few of whom we will be following this year. This win alone will help the 'Horns greatly in the RPI, as they're already up from 22nd to 8th following Thursday and Friday's results. Of course, it is early.

By the time March rolls around, we may have forgotten about this weekend. Four total losses isn't a death sentence for a team hoping to make the Final 8 by any means.
Saskatchewan (RPI #5, SRS +13.1): W 104-95 (OT) vs. UFV (14th, +9.7), W 98-73 vs. TWU (8th, -4.3).

Needed overtime to beat UFV. But they had Jamelle Barrett back to help them beat UFV, and 30 on 10/18 shooting will do that. Michael Lieffers contributed a typical Lieffers night: 16 points, 13 rebounds, a couple of blocks. The next night, it was much less in doubt against the mostly-Kyle Coston-less Spartans, who lost by 25. Coston had two fouls by the five-minute mark, three by the end of the first quarter, and played just 14 minutes total after sitting the entire fourth with Saskatchewan up 74-55. 23 from Barrett and 20 from Peter Lomuro paced the Huskies.

There was no word, literally, on the reasons for Barrett's absence from the Lethbridge games last week, but Cam solved the mystery. The official word from the U of S's Nicole Betker is that Barrett is day-to-day. (Though, really, aren't we all?)
Victoria (RPI #3, SRS +5.8): W 75-63 at Calgary (41st, -5.9), W 90-59 at Lethbridge (22nd, +2.4).

Outscored the Dinos 24-7 in the second, and that was enough. Won despite shooting 38% to Calgary's 42% because they grabbed half the offensive rebounds and 25 of the 30 on Calgary's side. Leading the Dinos in rebounds is ... nobody. They officially* do not have a team leader in rebounds. (*Not actually official.) Ryan MacKinnon led the winners with 15, though Tyler Fidler scored 22 and Andrew McGuinness managed 15 of his own on nine shots.

The Vikes then got their first blowout of the season against Lethbridge, who were down 24 at the half. Will this be enough to put them ahead of UBC in the top 10?
Alberta (RPI #4, SRS +10.1): W 87-77 vs. TWU (8th, -4.3), W 79-57 vs. UFV (14th, +9.7).

This will be the end of the TWU side in the RPI top 10, one would think. Alberta had a 13-point lead at the half Friday but it wasn't that much of a laugher: if more than three of Trinity's 13 three-pointers drop then we have a different game here. Daniel Ferguson scored 26. Jordan Baker may not mind being considered a careless shooter (5/13 from the field, 6/12 from the line) so long as the big red number on the scoreboard is greater than the other team's big red number.

And then Alberta dominated UFV. Not much to say about that one, considering it was the Bears' worst shooting performance of the season to date. I will say that in 24 years, I have never thought to verbify in the way the U of A did in this headline, and I can't say I regret it.
UFV (RPI #14, SRS +9.7): L 95-104 (OT) at Saskatchewan (5th, +13.1), L 57-79 at Alberta (4th, +10.1).

Fraser Valley, or as the Friday night boxscore calls them, "University of Fraise", may not quite be at the level of the top Canada West teams just yet (they let the Huskies shoot nearly 60%), as they'll need to play Alberta close like they did against Saskatchewan. Not winning either game on this road trip makes it hard to keep them up there. Alberta held them to 35% shooting. Against Sasky, Joel Friesen — or is that Fraise-n? — scored 29 as part of a top-heavy lineup the Cascades ran out there.

And this has to be the worst road trip in CIS, no? You could argue that an eastern or northern Ontario school that has to go south Friday and up to Lakehead Saturday has it worse, but flying to Saskatoon, driving (presumably) to Edmonton, and flying back to B.C.? That's up there. The coach agrees with me.
Laurier (RPI #12, SRS +9.7): W 98-77 vs. Laurentian (32nd, -3.9), W 102-62 vs. York (43rd, -13.2).

Fun fact: in two of the last three years, the Hawks have played the toughest or second-toughest schedule in all of CIS. They won't get any help in that category this week, though. When a team doesn't schedule any preseason games, you kind of expect them to be 40-something in RPI.

Laurentian didn't put up much of a fight Friday, down 21 at the half. Kale Harrison once again led the way with 30 points on just 19 shots — if only we could all go 14 for 19 every night. After seeing Laurier top 100 again on Saturday, one wonders if York had communication problems and went to the football stadium instead. (15 for 26 on three-point attempts?) Kyle Enright hit a personal best with 21, also known as a Kaleing.
Windsor (RPI #21, SRS +3.4): W 83-66 at Ryerson (35th, -7.4), L 81-86 at Toronto (24th, +2.8).

Surprised they're still in the top 10, or as one Windsor newspaper would put it, the 10 top.

In what seems to be the consistent theme this week, the Lancers won comfortably against Rye, though they didn't stop Jahmal Jones (6/10, 18 points, six assists) the same way Lakehead did last week (4/8, 8, and 0). Not coincidentally, the Rams were much closer in this one, but not really that close at all. Of note in this one for the Lancers, their own Jahmal, Jahmal McQueen, who was the third-leading scorer on both sides despite playing less than one-third of the game. In a very small number of opportunities so far he's Windsor's second-best percentage shooter (48.5%) after Enrico Diloreto.

Against Toronto, the Lancers had less success, shooting worse than they did vs. Carleton. The five-point loss was a 72-52 deficit after three as they outscored U of T more than 2 to 1 in the garbage-time fourth quarter; Cam will be by soon to explain score effects to whoever wrote this lede. Windsor had just seven players see significant minutes, though. Injuries?

And now time for This Week In @Chris__Oliver: "Many forms of talent, not just athleticism. Skill is a talent. Decision making is a talent. Toughness is a talent. Energy is a talent."

Hockey: Canada West weekly roundup

2011-11-27T12:18:00.004-05:00

After a week away from the roundup it's time to catch up on where the teams stand after another interesting weekend around Canada West. Here's our second-to-last roundup of 2011, as teams head into the final weekend of first half regular season action.

Bisons on the right side of the numbers

Number-ten Manitoba reasserted themselves this weekend in the race for top spot in the conference heading into the break with a pair of wins at home over the number-nine ranked Calgary Dinos. After a split the previous weekend, the Herd couldn't be stopped Friday night in an 8-1 victory, with both Del Cowan and Blair Macaulay - who has a conference high 12 goals - finding the back of the net twice. After a 4-2 win Saturday night Manitoba now sits with a conference high 48 goals (tied with Saskatchewan) with the Bisons on pace to score 96 goals this season - 7 more than last season. Head coach Mike Sirant's team is also on pace to give up 62 goals, which would be 19 fewer goals. Add those numbers up and it's little surprise the Herd are on pace for a 40 point season.

Friday - Calgary 1 at Manitoba 8
Saturday - Calgary 2 at Manitoba 4

Saskatchewan handles UBC

The Huskies also took care of business this weekend with a home sweep against a team they've handled consistently over the last several seasons the UBC Thunderbirds. The wins marked number-seven Saskatchewan's 13th victory over UBC in the last 14 regular season meetings between the two teams. The Sled Dogs will wrap up the regular season this weekend against Regina.

Friday - UBC 2 at Saskatchewan 4
Saturday - UBC 2 at Saskatchewan 4

Bears escape with sweep

After a week away from action number-five Alberta used goals from six different players Friday night to earn a 6-1 win over Regina, before a narrow 4-3 OT win on Saturday night thanks to a goal from defenceman Jesse Craige. The wins marked the third consecutive series sweep for the Bears who went a perfect 6-0-0 during the month of November. A trip to Manitoba this weekend will be a good barometer of where this squad is after a relatively easy stretch of games against the conference's bottom three squads.

Friday - Alberta 6 at Regina 1
Saturday - Alberta 4 at Regina 3 (OT)

Butler gets bombarded

If you just glimpsed at the Calgary-Manitoba score you'd think this game wasn't even close, but upon further review it's clear this was simply a 20 minute meltdown. It was 2-1 heading into the third period before Manitoba proceeded to score six goals in the final frame, beating Dinos netminder Dustin Butler those half dozen times on 14 shots. Two of those goals were shorthanded to boot, with a powerplay marker from Manitoba as well. Sounds like Butler was hung out to dry, and Manitoba took advantage.

Friday - Calgary 1 at Manitoba 8
Saturday - Calgary 2 at Manitoba 4

Thunderbirds settling into bottom three

After being swept two of the last three weekends it appears UBC's solid start to the season is coming back to a point where you expect them to give everyone they play a good test, but when it boils down to it they can't run with the big boys. Save for a 2-1 win over Manitoba two weeks ago, the T-Birds haven't been able to find a winning recipe over the last three weeks. A home weekend against Lethbridge this coming Friday-Saturday should remedy that though.

Friday - UBC 2 at Saskatchewan 4
Saturday - UBC 2 at Saskatchewan 4

Goaltending situation in Regina

Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader Post had the rundown about what went on with the Cougars goaltending situation a few weeks ago when he wrote about A.J. Whiffen's departure, and the accompanying search for a new backup goaltender (which led the Cougars oddly enough to a former teammate of mine, Churchbridge, Saskatchewan's Nick Thies who is a U of R student and former senior men's goalie with the Churchbridge Imperials). Interesting tidbit aside, Gore getting the opportunity to play consistently could be the best thing for the Cougars by giving the rookie a real chance to get his feet wet, and get in a rhythm. Whether or not Gore splits the second half games evenly with Andrew Hayes who will be joining the team remains to be seen, but for now having Gore as the number-one is a great opportunity for him and the team.

Friday - Alberta 6 at Regina 1
Saturday - Alberta 4 at Regina 3 (OT)

Evan Daum is The CIS Blog's national hockey editor. Contact him at evandaum@gmail.com

Vanier Cup: The day after

2011-11-26T12:26:00.000-05:00

They're not even going to bother playing the Grey Cup now.

If you watched last night's 41-38 overtime win by McMaster all the way to the end, you don't need me to tell you what it was like. If you didn't, I can't even describe it. Thankfully others can do that.

First, there's our liveblog of the game, featuring at least three of our own: Brian Decker and Andrew Bucholtz in Vancouver, and Neate Sager as well. It was easily our most-read liveblog, partly because it was run jointly with Yahoo! Sports Canada and we can't separate the view counts from both sites, and partly because the game was incredible.
Brian filed an excellent story for the Sil sometime after Tyler Crapigna's game-winning kick and sometime before collapsing into his hotel room. Read it.
Andrew wrote on the game for 55-Yard Line.
Richard Zussman, who briefly wrote for us a few years back, has a piece on the game for QMI. Near the end, Zussman points out there were more tickets sold to this Vanier than any other one except 2007 in Toronto (also paired with the Grey Cup), but also says there were many empty seats at B.C. Place.
Others: Andrew Bates, The Ubyssey/CUP; Gary Kingston, Vancouver Sun; A. Writer, Canadian Press; Drew Edwards, Hamilton Spectator.

Stray thoughts:

It's a good thing we waited until after the Vanier to run the quarterback rankings for this year; 36 for 55 and 482 yards will certainly help Kyle Quinlan's case.
Our somewhat-maligned football RPI had McMaster at No. 1 over Laval before the game. Just sayin'.
The word "diminutive" has not been used in reference to a player in Canadian football this much since Doug Flutie was around.
If you wanted to kick a team while they were down, you might point out that Laval punted on 3rd and 2 from their own 33 and kicked a field goal on 3rd and goal from the 11 — two decisions that, together, led to about a point being left off the scoreboard.

Vanier Cup: McMaster-Laval live blog, 9 p.m. ET

2011-11-25T16:16:00.000-05:00

Our Andrew Bucholtz and Brian Decker are on the scene in Vancouver for the 2011 Vanier Cup tonight (9 p.m. ET) between the McMaster Marauders and Laval Rouge et Or, so why not join us during the game for a live blog? We'll be running it jointly with Andrew's colleagues at 55-Yard Line, but you can also tune in right here.

Andrew's preview can be found here and at Yahoo!, and Brian has put together some reading material as well.

Vanier Cup: Laval - McMaster

Football: Vanier Cup required reading

2011-11-25T04:24:00.000-05:00

It’s the biggest day of the year for CIS football, and by the end of the night we’ll either have a new leader in all-time Vanier Cup wins or a school taking home the national championship for the first time ever. To get you primed for the big game, here’s all the required reading on tonight’s Vanier Cup matchup between the Laval Rouge-et-Or and the McMaster Marauders. We'll be live-blogging it here in conjunction with 55-Yard Line, so swing by at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Friday night for that!

- In hopes of extending his football career into the CFL, McMaster star linebacker Ryan Chmielewski made the move this season to the weakside position, away from the middle, where he’s been a perennial All-Star. Not only did it land him OUA Defensive Player of the Year honours, it helped his team – rookie linebacker Aram Eisho has been a revelation after taking over his old job. The Spec’s Larry Moko has the details on the last game of ‘Chummer’s’s CIS career.

- Here’s a good rundown on Laval’s vaunted model of sponsorship and administrative independence. I don’t think too many people around Mac feel bad for the football team having a quarter of Laval's budget, though. If I had a nickel for every time I've heard a varsity athlete complain about the football players getting free leukotape…

- More Spec: Scott Radley has the story on how one ill-fated interception ruined a great shot for Mac to win its only Vanier Cup in 1967. If someone throws a pick in this situation today, it might break Twitter.

- Radley again, this time with the story of how Vern Lucyk, Mac’s star running back in their 1967 Vanier Cup appearance, left that game at halftime to get married. Again, Twitter would explode.

- One more time from the Spec, as Moko talks about the impact rookie running back Chris Pezzetta has made in the second half of the season. Awful headline pun alert.

- Did Mac coach Stef Ptaszek jinx his team? If an Ontario team wins the Vanier every four years to show parity, things might not be on his team’s side tonight.

- Can Sebastian Levesque learn to become versatile enough to earn a CFL shot? He’s going to find out this spring as he hopes to get drafted and keep playing football.

- McMaster defensive back Allan Dicks will be the only British Columbian taking the field at BC Place tonight. He might be the smallest guy in the game, but he did have arguably the two biggest open field hits in the OUA this season.

- In case you’ve been living under a rock, Kyle Quinlan was suspended for three games for an incident at a campus bar, after which charges were laid against him for assaulting a police officer. CHCH has the story on how it hasn’t derailed his season. Also, get ready to hear this story approximately 400 times.

- Shameless self promotion: There are a few relevant tidbits in this article I wrote for the McMaster Silhouette and the CUP wire.

Football: Vanier Cup features David and Goliath, or McMaster and Laval

2011-11-25T04:11:00.002-05:00

Somewhat paradoxically, it may be easier to sell casual or new CIS fans on Friday's Vanier Cup (9 p.m. Eastern, TSN) than those who have been following the Canadian university game for a long while. For new fans, there's plenty of ways to set this one up: Ontario versus Quebec, McMaster's passing attack against Laval's dominant defence, the Rouge et Or's strong ground game against the Marauders' line, et cetera, but for long-time fans, this may look like another potential Laval blowout along the lines of last year's 29-2 snoozer over Calgary. The Marauders themselves are confident, but not everyone's thrilled about their chances.

The Rouge et Or have been incredibly good for the last decade and a bit, winning all six Vanier Cups they've been to (and the first one only came in 1999) and generally dominating their conference, the playoffs and the polls. Meanwhile, the Marauders are the new blood on the scene, thanks to knocking off previous power Western in the Yates Cup and then beating Acadia in the Uteck Bowl. They've only even made the Vanier Cup once before, and that was way back in 1967. History certainly isn't on their side.

You never know what will happen in Canadian football, though, and the Marauders do have several things going for them. For one thing, Kyle Quinlan remains one of Canadian university football's top quarterbacks despite his legal problems and suspension earlier this year, and when he's on his game, he can lead a very dangerous passing attack. If he can connect on a few long bombs at the right moments, the Marauders could make things very difficult for Laval. The Rouge et Or aren't perfect, either; they have an amazing ground game with Sebastien Levesque and an impressive defence, but quarterback Bruno Prud'homme has been more decent than spectacular so far this year. If the Marauders can get off to a quick start, Laval may not have an easy time coming back. It's certainly a David and Goliath matchup, but the little guy did come out on top in the original, so don't write this one off yet.

Tune in to The CIS Blog and 55-Yard Line for a joint live blog of the Vanier Cup Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern!

Men's Volleyball: Week 6: Top 10 Tracker and Preview

2011-11-22T22:19:00.006-05:00

Very little changed in the national Top 10 this week, but we'll look at where the change did occur and tee-up the sixth week of CIS men's volleyball.

The Calgary Dinos are unsurprisingly the chief victims of this week's revisions to the national Top 10, having endured another lackluster weekend and remained at .500 on the year. The beneficiaries are Laval and UBC, who each edge forward a spot at Calgary's expense.

The Top 10 can be found here, while the RPI is here

Moving Down

#6 Calgary Dinos (4-4) (13th in RPI) - previous #4

The Dinos' inconsistent start to the 2011-12 season continued this past weekend against the Brandon Bobcats, and the most recent iteration of the CIS Top 10 made note of those struggles. Dropping the second of their matches against the Bobcats on Saturday, Calgary returned to .500 and served up another painful reminder that they remain light years away from the pace set by Canada West's top squads. Most worrying is the reduced production of reigning CIS MVP Graham Vigrass, and the flat out failure of outside Allen Meek to make the most of his new found offensive reps.

On the Ups

#4 Laval Rouge et Or (6-0) (5th in RPI) - previous #5

The Quebecois kingpins reap the benefits of Calgary's Saturday slip-up and nudge up a place in the rankings after suitably stomping the Montreal Carabins on the road. It's been business as usual for the Rouge et Or thus far in 2011, and it's tough to see where any real challenge lies for Laval.

#5 UBC Thunderbirds (5-1) (7th in RPI) - previously #6

Much like the Rouge et Or, the Thunderbirds ascend the rankings this week at the expense of the Dinos. UBC notched consecutive four-set wins against the Saskatchewan Huskies, and showed off some offensive balance in the process. With a lauded rookie class in hand, the Thunderbirds have given significant playing time to first-years such as setter Milan Nikic and have not suffered as a result. The future looks bright on the west coast.

One to Watch

#5 UBC Thunderbirds vs. #6 Calgary Dinos - Nov. 25 and Nov. 26

This series should be a perfect mid-season indication of just how far the Dinos have fallen from their division-leading form of a year ago. I believe that the rankings accurately portray two squads that are playing at very similar levels, and these two matches should each be extended and hard-fought affairs. Personally, my money lies with the Thunderbirds, who will benefit from home court advantage, and appear much more settled at this stage than their Albertan rivals.

The Entirely Unofficial Caldwellian Rankings (CR)

1) Trinity Western - The Spartans just keep rolling and there's no real reason to suspect that roll to stop any time soon. UBCO will pose an interesting challenge this weekend but should ultimately be overwhelmed by the T-dub machine.

2) Manitoba - The Bisons have the best record in Canada West and have been playing a balanced brand of volleyball that should stand them in good stead against the division's toughest teams. One such squad is on the immediate horizon in Alberta.

3) Alberta - The Golden Bears have yet to break, but they have bent. Whether Alberta can remain unbeaten in the absence of Jay Olmstead and with the Bisons upcoming remains to be seen. Mitch Irvine may have a little too much to do this weekend.

4) UBC - The Thunderbirds are a team in transition that is hardly playing like it. Players young and old are chipping in and UBC looks like a legitimate gatekeeper in Canada West. Games against Calgary this weekend will determine their viability in that role.

5) Laval - What is there really to say about Laval? The winning continues in the sea of minnows that is the RSEQ-AUS crossover zone. The real test as usual will have to wait for March. Meanwhile Karl de Grandpre will continue to eat Quebecois blockers for breakfast.

6) Western - The Mustangs emerged as the most battle-ready outfit in Ontario this season, as they did last year. The steady play has vaulted them above provincial rivals and may well keep them there.

7) Calgary - Oh how the mighty have fallen. The Dinos look like a shadow of the team that set the pace in Canada West last year, but fortunately for them, that shadow is still exceptionally dangerous. Vigrass and Meek must be better, while Levi Nutma has shown flashes of brilliance. But how many more losses can the Dinos endure?

8) UBC Okanagan - The great unknown in the CIS is enjoying its first year of university-level play this season. I will be having a close look at their match ups with Trinity Western this weekend, but thus far, the results speak for themselves for UBCO.

9) Thompson Rivers - How Brandon and Saskatchewan garner rankings while the similarly 1-7 Wolfpack do not is a bit of a head-scratcher. TRU's young lineup has suffered from an exceedingly tough early schedule, but nonetheless managed a sweep against the Dinos in their opening weekend. Winnipeg provides the ideal opportunity for a bounce-back.

10) McMaster - The Marauders are banged up and playing inexperienced hitters an awful lot, but the talent is obvious amongst the blemishes. A stirring five-set win at Queen's will have done wonders for the Maroon and Grey's collective confidence.

Football: McPhee out at Waterloo

2011-11-22T21:20:00.000-05:00

From the University of Waterloo, released this afternoon:

After five years of coaching the Warrior Football program at the University of Waterloo, Head Coach Dennis McPhee has resigned from his coaching position and will be leaving the University.

“We wish Coach McPhee the best with his future endeavours and thank him for his contributions to the Warrior Football program,” said Bob Copeland, University of Waterloo Athletics Director.

Copeland said the change in leadership comes at a time when the Department of Athletics program is evolving according to a strategic direction built around core values and goals that best position the school for success in interuniversity sports.

Continuity for the football team will be provided by a strong line-up of assistant coaches including Assistant Head Coach Joe Paopao, longstanding Assistant Coach Marshall Bingeman, and Assistant Coach Kani Kauahi, all of whom will be on the sidelines guiding the Warriors through the 2012 season.

McPhee's reasons for leaving aren't given. Copeland's quoted in The Record as part of this passage:

McPhee, a fiery competitor with a temper to match, is thought to have left the school because of an impasse with UW’s senior administration on how the team can vie in an increasingly competitive Ontario University Athletics conference.

UW’s athletic director Bob Copeland confirmed McPhee’s choice followed lengthy discussions with senior management.

“His decision was definitely tied into the department’s and team’s year-end review. Whenever you conduct a review, it is a time for reflection and Dennis had the opportunity (to do that).

“He’s made his decision because it’s the best course of action for himself and his family and the program.”

(Wait, "increasingly competitive"? There's a whole post to be written on that word choice, but let's stick to the topic at hand.)

I don't know what will happen to Waterloo football any more than you do. I probably know less. But wording like "a strategic direction built around core values and goals that best position the school for success in interuniversity sports" does not usually mean "hey, let's take money from other teams and give it to the winless one that brought us so much bad publicity."

Even before last year's troubles, the Warriors weren't serious contenders. And Waterloo, at least in the 2009-10 academic year, was one of the least successful among all schools offering all the major sports, not just bad at football. I'm glad the school is talking, somewhat, about the future of the program — not as an alumnus (a non-donating alumnus, at that), but as a follower of CIS who would, frankly, like to have fewer irrelevant games.

Some of us, including myself, were incorrect to say Waterloo wouldn't play football again after last year. (Though, if you wanted to be cruel, you could say we haven't been proven wrong yet.) But maybe the story's changed now. It's unfortunate if current and future players lose those roster spots, but, really, it's hard to argue that axing football would be the wrong move.

Canada West Men's Basketball: Week Three Update

2011-11-22T16:08:00.004-05:00

If you have to check out Brian's Top 10 tracker on the week in men's basketball, you can find it here. Saskatchewan, UFV and Victoria all went up spots in the rankings while Alberta dropped after a 1-1 split in Winnipeg and UBC held the number four position despite being ninth in RPI, fifth in Canada West. It's also surprising that they didn't move up and that the voters weren't swayed by a couple of blowout victories against last season's CIS semi-final opponent in Trinity, although that team has yet to get their legs out from under them so far. According to team record, however. Not RPI.

JAMELLE BARRETT INJURY UPDATE:

Brian noted in the Top 10 post that the local scribes failed to document exactly why Jamelle Barrett was out of the Huskies lineup. A brief stay on Barrett's Twitter feed solved the mystery for us. Apparently Barrett may require surgery on a broken hand. As for why he was struggling, he admitted via Twitter that he's missed seven games with a knee problem.

TWU 75 @ UBC 104 | TWU 70 @ UBC 103

Not really much competition here. RPI doesn't really include Pythagorean Expectation, but UBC has convincingly blown out every opponent they've faced so far. They still have yet to see a starter play over 32 minutes and points have been coming from everywhere, so while Brian may have an issue with their depth I don't really see it. They've counted on their bench to come in for mop-up duty and the janitors have always cleaned up. On Thursday, the Thunderbirds showed off some rebounding ability, winning that 45-20, grabbing 15/30 boards off of Trinity's defensive glass. 17 of those came from Kamar Burke (6 on offense) and he also chipped in offensively going 6-for-11 with 15 points, second to just Doug Plumb. Trinity got 19 points from Kyle Cotson and 15 points and 6 assists from Tristan Smith in just 29 minutes, so, there's that at least.

On Saturday, Trinity fought a little harder around the glass and grabbed a lot more defensive boards, but they couldn't shoot worth a lick, going just 41.9% up against UBC's 59.7%. Cotson went 0-for-6, Smith 2-for-7 and Calvin Westbrook 1-for-6. Less Sean Peter, who had 21 points, the starters shot just 19.2% for Trinity. Kamar Burke picked up 13 boards again while Nathan Yu had another strong Saturday night with 21. Off the bench, Tommy Nixon, whose name has popped up a bunch, went 3-for-3 from beyond the arc and had 29 points in 43 minutes of play on the weekend.

UofA 70 @ Winnipeg 71 | UofA 84 @ Winnipeg 56

You always like to think that when a team gets upset it comes from a game-winning shot, but, not really the case in this one. It came down to a missed free throw by Matthew Cardoza. A layup from Brayden Duff gave the Wesmen a 2-point lead (70-68) with :22 remaining in the fourth quarter. The teams would trade foul shots in a :22 second-span that probably lasted about three minutes and Winnipeg held on for the win after Duff's foul sent Cardoza to the line after an offensive board. You can't really blame him for the win, as Alberta didn't shoot all that well compared to what they can do. They were held to 41.9% (though Winnipeg somehow won with 31.9%). Cardoza also missed three other FTs in this one, which was crucial, because both teams were sent to the line a lot. Anyway, this is just one of those losses...

...that usually result in the team pulverizing their opponent the next night. Winnipeg's poor shooting finally caught up with them and Alberta had better rebounding, and, also, better shooting, particularly from Jordan Baker, who went 11-for-15 for 30 points and added 13 rebounds for the double-double. This game was over well early in the second half, with Alberta holding the Wesmen to 9 points in the 4th. Baker, Daniel Ferguson and Lyndon Taylor all played significant minutes in the quarter, with Golden Bears coach Greg Francis refusing to take his foot off the gas.

Lethbridge 67 @ UofS 83 | Lethbridge 65 @ UofS 74

Lethbridge's offense was held in check this weekend and even without Jamelle Barrett and Nolan Brudehl in the lineup. Barrett has not been himself in the previous two weeks, so he's probably nursing some sort of injury. Brudehl went down 1:04 in to the Friday game and didn't return on the weekend. Our crack news department will try and sort out the issue as quick as we can, taking into account the fact that we don't really know anybody in Saskatoon. The Huskies have been putting up points without Barrett, however, on Friday they got 18 from Michael Lieffers and 16 from Evan Ostertag off the bench, running up the score late after the Pronghorns were leading 41-32 at the half. They shut down Dominyc Coward after that, holding him to 2-for-7 shooting in the second half. Despite the losing effort, Daryl Cooper had an impressive stat line, going 7-for-9 with 25 points (9 FTs made) three assists an seven steals.

Saturday night was more of the same. Lethbridge was shut down and couldn't get much going in the second half except in garbage time, when they opened up the floor for Saskatchewan too. They shot just 31.9%, down from 33.3%, once again going for volume over quality (which sometimes isn't a bad move). Coward was a little better, hitting 18 in 29 minutes of play. Jones and Lieffers, the usual crowd for the Huskies, combined for 39 points and Lieffers got a dozen rebounds, plus an extra from the baker for being such a good customer.

TRU 75 @ UVic 77 | TRU 76 @ UVic 84

A pair of close victories for the Vikes, who move up to a perfect 6-0. They earned a scare Friday but Zac #@$*ing Andrus hit a jumper with the buzzer going to defeat the WolfPack, who are now less of a juggernaut after a strong early season. The game winner accounted for Andrus' 15th and 16th points on the night, while Ryan MacKinnon was otherwise slowed with "just" 18 points in 35 minutes. As for TRU, Justin King ho-hum put in another 35 and has become the conference's leading scorer, which I guess is something to print up in the local Omega newspaper.

On Saturday, it was close, but Victoria still pulled ahead as, for the second time on the season, a late bucket by the WolfPack kept the score within single digits. MacKinnon hit 22, Mike Berg had 16 points and 7 boards and Vic sort of pulled away in the third quarter after a 43-38 halftime lead.

UBC-O 52 @ UFV 74 | UBC-O 63 @ UFV 108

Again, the rookie franchise has a little bit to learn, as the Villains of the Valley crush the Victims of the other BC Valley on consecutive nights. Sam Freeman was back this weekend with 8 on Friday and 14 on Saturday in 36 minutes of play. The big-man Jasper Moedt had a double-double on Friday but was held to just 5 rebounds on Saturday, probably having something to do with the fact he only played 22 minutes, partly because the Cascades hit 64.4% of their shots so offensive rebounds were unavailable. Not a single UFV starter was below 50%, showing off where the Heat stand in shooting defense against a big team like UFV.

UFV travel to Saskatoon on Friday and Edmonton on Saturday, so this will be a fun upcoming weekend for them.

Other scores and Key Performances...

Friday

Calgary 74 @ Regina 83 Regina get their first win of the season on a terrific first half performance from Paul Gareau. He tied for the team-high with 20 points but played just 21 minutes, also recording 4 steals and 3 offensive rebounds.

Manitoba 94 @ Brandon 74 Manitoba win for their first time since their first week upset over Alberta on a 9-for-14 shooting, 25-point performance from Kurtis Sangespreet. Chipping in with 16 points and 9 boards was Keith Omoreah.

Saturday

Calgary 91 @ Regina 93 And Regina win again, giving Saskatchewan teams a perfect 4-0 record on the week. Sterling Noestedt was just 5-for-20, but hit the big layup with :10 left in the second OT, probably upstaging Keenan Milburn's 27 points in 46 minutes of play.

Manitoba 91 @ Brandon 98 Brandon earn the split against their provincial rival, securing 28 points off 9-for-13 shooting from Ilarion Bonhomme.

Men's Volleyball: Week 5: The Top-Ten Weekly Recap

2011-11-21T16:21:00.007-05:00

With the Christmas break nearly upon us, we break down the results of the fifth week of CIS men's volleyball.

This past weekend saw very little in the way of surprises, as most of the premier squads in the nation met expectations and dispatched lesser teams. The glaring exception to that generalization was provided by the Brandon Bobcats, who dealt a four-set defeat to the Calgary Dinos on Nov. 19.

The Swing of the Week: Windsor (2) vs. Western (3) - Nov. 18

This week we debut a feature that combines the long-winded narrative talents of yours truly with the mathematical wizardry of this blog's benevolent dictator Rob Pettapiece. For every week-ending edition of this column, we will pinpoint the most influential passage of play in a selected CIS match and explain how one team effectively swung momentum in their favour.

For this inaugural edition, we visit Windsor, where the Lancers were locked in a five-set struggle with the OUA-leading Western Mustangs on Nov. 18. Having traded sets throughout the Friday contest, the two teams were tied at 11 in the deciding frame when the Mustangs made a decisive breakthrough.

The catalyst for Western's streak would be middle Matt Waite, who powered his squad into the lead with a kill before blocking Windsor's Jimmy El-Turk to move the Mustangs to within two points of victory at 13-11. The Lancers called a timeout to regroup, but would only see the gap widen when Alan Screaton added a kill of his own. Fittingly, it would be Waite and Screaton to provide the winning combo block at 14-11 and complete a vital last-ditch push for Western. With the late momentum shift, the Mustangs maintained their perfect start to the season, and dealt a heartbreaking loss to their regional rivals.

Overall, it was a swing of 50 percentage points of win probability, as Western went from being a 50-50 shot to win at 11-11, to winning it all four points later.

Recapping the Top-Ten

#1 Trinity Western Spartans (6-0)

TWU continued its unblemished start to the 2011-12 season with two more fairly routine wins against the Regina Cougars at home in Langley (3-0, 3-1). Particularly impressive was the performance of third-year middle blocker Lucas van Berkel in the first match on Nov. 18. Usually noted for his defensive prowess, van Berkel led his team on the score sheet with 10.5 points and hit for a super-efficient .625 hitting percentage (6 of 8 with an error).

#2 Alberta Golden Bears (6-0)

Alberta kept pace with the Bisons and Spartans atop the Canada West standings by notching consecutive wins at home against Winnipeg (3-1, 3-0). In the absence of influential left-side Jay Olmstead, who was injured a week ago, right-side Mitch Irvine exploded offensively over the course of the weekend. Irvine followed up a 29-point effort on Nov. 18 with 18.5 the next night, as he enjoys the greatest share of the distribution on offence.

#3 Manitoba Bisons (8-0)

The Bisons continue to set the bar in Canada West, and they proved their quality once again this past weekend with two wins against the always-dangerous Thompson Rivers Wolfpack (3-2, 3-1). Manitoba's outside hitting duo of Dane Pischke and Chris Voth took turns leading the charge over the two-game set. In the five-set triumph on Nov. 18, it was the former doing the damage, with 19.5 points on 16 of 38 hitting (.342). The next night, Voth carried the offensive burden and notched 22 points, going 19 of 40 hitting in the process (.350).

#4 Calgary Dinos (4-4)

The Calgary Dinos continue to struggle against the tougher outfits in their conference, and remained a .500 squad after splitting their weekend matches at home against the Brandon Bobcats (3-1, 1-3). Left-side Levi Nutma was hugely influential in Calgary's Friday night win, connecting with 16 of his 22 attempts for a ridiculous hitting percentage of .727. However, in the Saturday rematch, Nutma was held to just .080 while his outside partner Allen Meek went into negative figures with 8 errors and only 7 kills on 24 attempts.

#5 Laval Rouge et Or (6-0)

The Rouge et Or remain unbeaten in Quebec since the last Ice Age, after dealing a straight-set beatdown to the Montreal Carabins on the road. Karl de Grandpre once again put up dominating numbers (this is not a recording), notching a game-high 9 points on 7 of 15 hitting (.400).

#6 UBC Thunderbirds (5-1)

UBC kept itself within striking distance of Canada West's big guns after notching two consecutive victories against Saskatchewan (3-1, 3-1). In the Nov. 18 weekend opener, sophomore outside David Zeyha paced the Thunderbirds' attack with 23.5 points, converting 21 of 35 attempts in the process. The next night, UBC's veterans took over, with fifth-year outside Robert Bennett notching a game-high 17 points.

#7 Western Mustangs (7-0)

The perfect season was very nearly ruined for the Mustangs, as they narrowly eked out a five-set win in the titanic match mentioned earlier against Windsor. Middle Matt Waite poured in a game-high of 21 points on 16 of 24 hitting and 6 combined blocks (2 solo, 4 assists) in the Friday night contest.

#8 Brandon Bobcats (2-6)

The Bobcats grabbed their second win of the season by claiming the high-profile scalp of the Calgary Dinos on Saturday night. Middle hitter Jonathan Sloane shouldered the offensive load for Brandon in the victory, connecting on 17 of his 29 hitting attempts (.483) and tallying a game-high of 21.5 points.

#9 UBC Okanagan (3-3)

No news on the Heat front this week, as the UBCO outfit enjoyed a bye this past weekend.

#10 Saskatchewan Huskies (1-7)

Two more losses wracked up for the Huskies this past weekend at the hands of UBC, and that will likely spell the end of their short and inconspicuous time in the CIS Top-Ten. The Huskies have threatened to do damage this year (just ask the Golden Bears), but have failed to see the results thus far.

Hockey: AUS Weekly Update

2011-11-21T14:12:00.006-05:00

The AUS men’s hockey standings sure tightened up at the top end, with UNB out of first place for the first time in a long time (albeit just for two days). Moncton is pushing hard, and has the same number of wins as UNB. The Axemen are close on the heels of les Aigles Bleus, and Saint Mary’s and UPEI aren’t far behind. However SMU has played one more game than other top five teams. As always, or so it seems this season, goaltending is all important.

UNB salvages weekend

While the V-Reds had starter Dan LaCosta back between the pipes for the weekend, they had to dress one of their student trainers, Taylor Johnson, as the backup goalie Friday night. Johnson becomes the sixth goaltender to dress for UNB this season, and he last played competitive hockey at the midget level. Third-string goalie Matt Davis was back on the bench Saturday while UNB’s regular goalie, two-time CIS champ Travis Fullerton, is expected back after Christmas as he recovers from that emergency appendectomy from a couple of weeks ago.

LaCosta played fine this weekend, even though UNB lost to the opportunistic Panthers on the Island Friday, blowing an early lead. Granted the V-Reds received what appeared to be a disproportionate amount of chintzy penalties in the game with two refs on the ice, but when I look at UNB’s two losses to UPEI this season I feel that the V-Reds players have perhaps not respected the offensive skills of their opponent as much as they should. The loss, and the Moncton win, put UdeM temporarily ahead of UNB in the standings. That was until Sunday afternoon, when les Aigles Bleus and the V-Reds faced off in a battle for first place. After a somewhat tentative first period, UNB put the hammer down midway through the period and it was only Moncton goalie P-A Marion that kept them in the game. UNB didn’t solve him until their 41st shot in the third period, and after that the struggling V-Reds power play finally came through with a big goal for the winner.

Friday – UNB 2 @ UPEI 3
Sunday – UdeM 1 @ UNB 2

Moncton flirts with first place

Les Aigles Bleus are still missing some key forwards. Christian Gaudet is still out with concussion symptoms from that head shot from STU’s Chris Van Laren on November 5. The play is now up on YouTube. Van Laren’s high hit looks pretty blatant and deserved of the match penalty, while the retaliatory two-handed slash by Alex Quesnel looks less deserving of his match penalty. Both players got automatic four games for the match penalties. Moncton protested and Van Laren’s suspension was increased to six games, including the interesting sidebar that he cannot burn any of the suspension games by sitting out STU exhibition games over the holidays. In the Moncton paper UdeM coach Serge Bourgeois is looking for even MORE games against Van Laren. I dunno, six is pretty severe for the AUS.

Moncton’s rematch against STU on Friday didn’t turn into a gong show, which is good. They came back from a two-goal first period deficit and managed to score a late goal and get the win. As mentioned above, Sunday afternoon didn’t go as well, although goaltender Marion did his very best to steal a win, with the help of his teammates who for the most part did a good job of minimizing good second shot chances for the V-Reds. Still, they were outshot 44-16 and dominated territorially.

Friday – UdeM 3 @ STU 2
Sunday – UdeM 1 @ UNB 2

Acadia gains ground

The Axemen had the best weekend of the top-three teams, gaining on both UNB and UdeM ahead of them. They beat the two Halifax teams by the same score. Granted winning against Dal this season is unfortunately no big deal, but the Huskies are looking more like their old selves. The Acadia special teams killed off all 13 penalties on the weekend while their power play was 2-for-11.

Friday – Acadia 4 @ Dal 2
Saturday – Acadia 4 @ SMU 2

Huskies showing improvement

Veteran goalie Neil Conway hasn’t been having his best season so far, but he played well against StFX on Friday, and his teammates gave him three straight goals in the second period to take the pressure off. Conway didn’t have as good a night or get as much support the next night against Acadia.

Friday – SMU 5 @ StFX 1
Saturday – Acadia 4 @ SMU 2

UPEI finally gaining ground

Don’t look now, but the Panthers are showing some consistency and have a three-game winning streak. After the fine play of rookie goalie Mavric Parks helped slay the Red ‘n Black dragon for the second time Friday, the Panthers gave veteran Jhase Sniderman a rare start Saturday and he managed to get the win against the Tommies.

Friday – UNB 2 @ UPEI 3
Saturday – STU 3 @ UPEI 6

X-Men still in hangover mode? Still?

Can’t be fun for coach Brad Peddle to watch his team, and particularly his goaltending, struggle this season. After that thumping by SMU, StFX was handed the gift of Dal, who consistently serve as the solution to everyone’s losing streaks this season. Rookie Morgan Clark took the loss to the Huskies, and Joey Perricone got the start, and win, against Dal. Perricone was the team MVP last season, and carried the X-Men all the way to Nationals, yet that win on Saturday was only his second of the season thus far. Not very MVP-like to say the least.

Friday – SMU 5 @ StFX 1
Saturday – Dal 3 @ StFX 5

Harsh reality for Tommies: AUS is tough.

Friday night STU blew a two-goal lead, but were still 83 seconds from at least earning a point when Moncton sniper Marc-Andre Cote scored. Saturday in Charlottetown, Island native Randy Cameron (and one-time UPEI recruit) scored a natural hat-trick but it wasn’t enough compared to the Panthers more balanced attack.

Friday – UdeM 3 @ STU 2
Saturday – STU 3 @ UPEI 6

Nightmare won’t end for Tigers

The losing streak is now up to ten games. Dal gets off to decent starts, but so far this season they’ve been outscored a combined 50-16 in the second and third periods of games. Shots wise, they don’t look so bad, averaging 27.4 shots per game compared to their opponents’ 33.5. The third-string goalie, rookie Philip Wright, took both losses on the weekend and Bobby Nadeau is still out. I don’t see events getting any better for the Tigers until one of their goalies can start making some big saves, especially in the latter half of games.

Friday – Acadia 4 @ Dal 2
Saturday – Dal 3 @ StFX 5

The first half is winding down. UNB finally gets to play cross-campus rival STU on Friday, while SMU is at Dal and Acadia is at X. On Saturday there is one game – UPEI at Moncton. On Sunday StFX is at Acadia.

Men's hockey: Top 10 recap

2011-11-20T19:03:00.000-05:00

Your quick look at what the top 10 teams did this week...

UNB (2nd in RPI, no change): L 3-2 at UPEI, W 2-1 vs. Moncton. That first game played a part in moving the Panthers from 19th to 15th this week. PEI's goaltender, Mavric Parks, hasn't had a great year so far but probably put up his best CIS game in stopping 26 or 28 against the country's best team. It is not known where Parks, a CHL vet, would have ranked in a hypothetical goalie version of the Jeff Skinner Rankings.

The Reds then came back, slightly, against Moncton — outshooting them 32 to 10 isn't just score effects, and indicates that their first-period deficit may have been short-lived even once it started.
McGill (1st in RPI, no change): W 6-0 vs. Queen's. Is there any 6-0 game that doesn't have multiple ten-minute misconducts in the third? Two more goals for Francis Verreault-Paul as well.
Saskatchewan (20th in RPI, down from 14th): L 3-2 and 4-3 (OT) at Calgary. Well, I don't think they'll be No. 3 anymore... Andrew Bailey tied up the second game with 2:20 left, only to see Calgary score on their first shot in overtime.
Western (10th in RPI, down from 3rd): W 5-3 at UOIT, L 5-4 at Laurier. Keaton Turkiewicz picked up a natural hat trick all on one powerplay in the WLU game, but unfortunately it started a) when the score was 5-1 and b) in the third. (It's good for Laurier's Zack Shepley that nothing more happened in the five minutes following his major penalty, or else he may not be seeing the ice for a while, never mind the rest of that game.)

Here are the highlights from the Laurier game, though it's not just a running tally of all 55 of Ryan Daniels' saves.

Note, at about 2:34, the shot that hits the crossbar but doesn't appear to go in. It's called a goal anyway. Do they still refuse to use OUA refs in Waterloo? (I'm not saying, I'm just saying.)
Moncton (12th in RPI, down from 10th): W 3-2 at St. Thomas, L 2-1 at UNB. Only one regular-season loss to a non-UNB team, but their strength-of-schedule partly tells us why.
Alberta (5th in RPI, up from 12th): W 4-1 and W 4-1 vs. UBC. Our first top 10 team to increase their RPI ranking, the Bears handled the 'Birds pretty darn easily, and they get a week off to reflect on it now.
Acadia (3rd in RPI, up from 5th): W 4-2 at Dalhousie, W 4-2 at Saint Mary's. The SMU game was apparently so uninteresting, they only named one star of the game.
Manitoba (14th in RPI, up from 13th): L 2-1 and W 4-2 at UBC. That's not going to help you stay in the top 10. UBC's Jordan White stopped 75 of 80 in the two games; Antti Niemi just felt a very cold wind rush through his apartment and he doesn't know why.
Lakehead (6th in RPI, up from 15th): W 4-3 and W 4-2 at Windsor. Big weekend for the non-GGODs, which is not to say that they are not good dudes, but just that they are not the great such group of them. The OUA West dominance of the top 10 isn't as evident this year so far, but the Lancers were still 9th in RPI entering the weekend and dropped two to Lakehead. Despite the somewhat-close scores, however, Windsor played with a deficit for almost the entire weekend, giving up the lead right away in both games and never glimpsing it again.
Nipissing (11th in RPI, down from 7th): L 7-6 (SO) at Concordia, L 7-1 at Ottawa. The Lakers blew 3-1, 5-2, and 6-3 leads in the first game, and to make matters worse the seven-shooter-shootout went the Stingers' way too. Giving up 13 real goals in two games is not that outrageous for this team: they've given up six or more three other times before this weekend. (For the record, Nip U's record when they score 11 or more: 1-0.)

Men's Basketball: Top 10 weekend results

2011-11-20T14:17:00.000-05:00

Each weekend, we’ll do a brief check-in for how the league’s best teams fared in their weekend (or earlier mid-week) games. For more in-depth coverage of this week’s results, stay tuned for our conference posts and Tuesday top-10 tracker.

Here are the RPI numbers and other relevant statistics.

1. Carleton Ravens: (4-0 OUA, No. 2 RPI, +26.6 SRS)

Clobbered Western 96-43 and took out Windsor 95-66. I’m running out of verbs to describe the Ravens’ beatdowns of lesser foes. By week 5, it’s going to be “Carleton hastily drubbed York.”

I know Western is in a rebuilding year and has some injury issues, but I can’t remember the last time they were included in the "OUA teams that lose by 50+ to Carleton" category. The fact that Carleton shot 62.3 per cent from the field in this one makes me think they were shooting into a hula hoop for one half.

Next Saturday’s duel with Lakehead in Thunder Bay should be a good litmus test of this team’s quality in the early going.

2. St. FX X-Men: (3-0 AUS, No. 1 RPI, +15.3 SRS)

Shane Coupland’s big performance in overtime saved St. FX from an early season upset at the hands of Acadia. After trailing for most of the game, the X-Men led the Axemen (yes, I just wanted to type that) until Acadia’s Justin Boutilier forced OT at the buzzer. But Coupland’s three triples in the extra frame kept X out of the loss column (like the Carletons, they are 10-0 overall).

In related news, Terry Thomas continues to be a stud, going for 26 points and 10 rebounds.

3. Lakehead Thunderwolves: (4-0 OUA, No. 7 RPI, +13.5 SRS)

Survived shooting 35.4 per cent to beat Toronto 68-63 and responded with a 95-54 win over Ryerson. These wins must have a lot to do with Scott Morrison’s handlebar ‘stache.

Could No. 1 be in sight with a victory over Carleton next weekend? Maybe, but that’s a tall order to begin with. Needless to say this Wilson Cup rematch is going to have some interested observers.

4. UBC Thunderbirds: (4-0 CWUAA, No. 9 RPI, +14.2 SRS)

A measure of revenge from last year’s CIS semi-final? Maybe so, as the Thunderbirds crushed Trinity Western 104-75 and 103-70. I know it took them until the fourth quarter to pull away, but it’s a little concerning that in the first win, UBC is still going with an 8-deep bench. They showed off a little more depth in the second win.

5. Alberta Golden Bears: (4-2 CWUAA, No. 4 RPI, +10.1 SRS)

Oh, Alberta. One week after I make a case for you to be a top-3 team, you go and lose to Winnipeg 71-70. Jordan Baker and Daniel Ferguson going 12-for-31 combined will do that.

A 28-point win (including a 30-13 game from Baker) was a nice bit of revenge, but probably won’t be enough to keep them as high as No. 5.

6. Windsor Lancers: (2-2 OUA, No. 21 RPI, +3.4 SRS)

Fell 69-65 to Ottawa and 95-66 to Carleton in the dreaded Ottawa weekend, a commonly-feared trip by OUA West teams. When Tyson Hinz makes five threes, you know it’s going to be a long night.

7. Saskatchewan Huskies: (3-2 CWUAA, No. 10 RPI, +14.0 SRS)

With Jamelle Barrett out of the lineup, the Huskies got by Lethbridge twice, including a 74-65 win thanks to a career performance of 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting from Duncan Jones.

It’s a good thing the local papers reported on why Barrett was out — or not.

8. Victoria Vikes: (6-0 CWUAA, No. 3 RPI, +5.8 SRS)

Managed to sneak by a resurgent Thompson Rivers team 77-75 and 84-76 to stay undefeated on the season. Ryan MacKinnon (20 points per game over the weekend) continues to be a steady option on offence.

9. UFV Cascades: (5-1 CWUAA, No. 14 RPI, +9.7 SRS)

Jasper Moedt led the Cascades to a 74-52 win over UBC Okanagan on Friday night with 24 points and 12 rebounds, then a balanced performance (six players in double figures) led to a 108-63 win the following night.

10. Laurier Golden Hawks: (4-0 OUA, No. 12 RPI, +6.0 SRS)

A CIS season-high 130 points against RMC (OK, well, it’s still 130 points) highlighted a two-win weekend as the Golden Hawks beat the two teams from Kingston. Laurier’s depth was on display in both games, with six players notching double figures in points in each contest.