Football: Final Top 10 of 2013

Returning after a brief hiatus for minor, almost imperceptible re-tooling, here are our ballots for this week (in order after the official listing: Neate Sager, myself, Andrew Bucholtz):

1. Western — 1st, 1st, 2nd. Will Western win by more over Mac, or Laval by more over Sherbrooke? The two spreads are within a safety for those games. And is a Western-Laval Vanier any different than a Red Sox-Cardinals World Series?
2. Laval — 2nd, 2nd, 1st. That was their fourth three-touchdown win over Montreal in as many years, if you were wondering about part of the reason why we sometimes call it "the Laval conference."
3. Calgary — 5th, 4th, 3rd. Quirks in scheduling mean UBC has to fly right back for another game, maybe even another one with more rouges than touchdowns for them.
4. Queen's — 3rd, 3rd, 4th. Hosting Guelph, and it may not be a close one.
5. Guelph — 7th, 7th, 5th. Having settled the Windsor-Guelph debate (ok, that was never actually a debate) it's now time for Guelph to step up for the Guelph-Queen's debate.
6. Bishop's — 8th, unranked, 6th. One of two teams hosting a playoff game this weekend who are the underdogs by my figuring (the other is Mount A, in the conference we don't talk about). This is the only team any of us did not rank this week; my other spot went to UBC, 9th. I don't have much justification for that.
7. Montreal — 4th, 6th, 7th. Have surrendered half as many points on the year as the Gaiters; you gotta think that matters.
8. McMaster — 6th, 5th, 9th. Sadly, Mac won't make it to London for their game, as their season was declared over almost two months ago and the team had to disband amidst the intense media hand-wringing.
9. Manitoba — 9th, 8th, 8th. Back to some agreement among us. No shame in being fourth in points scored in the country, behind just Western, Queen's, and Calgary.
10. Saskatchewan — 10th, 10th, 10th. That makes three playoff games with adjacent seedings, one per conference, and this one (at -3.5 for Manitoba) figures to be the closest of them all.

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Men's Hockey: AUS Update - Week 2 a lot like Week 1

The second week of the AUS men's hockey conference saw the same match-ups as the first weekend, but in the other teams' barns. UNB remains the only undefeated team, Dalhousie the only winless team, and everyone else is evenly divided in groups of two in the middle.

New-look V-Reds are a lot like the old V-Reds

Despite returning only a dozen players from their national championship team, including University Cup MVP Tyler Carroll who is out indefinitely with an upper body injury and hasn't played since the preseason, the Varsity Reds are cruising along pretty well so far. Friday night UNB inserted another recruit into the line-up, Phillipe Maillet, and he picked up an assist on a Chris Culligan goal on his first shift in the first minute of his first game. In case you're keeping count, and I'm sure the rest of the AUS is, that is skater #20 for the V-Reds so far this season. Under the new AUS roster cap they've now got a spot left for Carroll plus just one additional skater this season. Saturday night Maillet picked up his third assist of the weekend on Cam Critchlow's game winner to cap a UNB comeback over the opportunistic X-Men.

Friday - UNB 4 @ SMU 2
Saturday - UNB 4 @ StFX 2

Axemen can win on road with fewer shots on goal

Trust me, I'm not the only one who questions the high shot counts at the Acadia Arena. Two weekends ago the Axemen recorded a combined 111 shots on goal against STU and UPEI. This past weekend Acadia was on the road against the same two teams and recorded a combined 58 shots on goal. Is the Olympic-sized ice in Wolfville the only difference? Acadia exploded in the third period against the Tommies just like the previous week, and then were able to squeak out a win on the Island the following night thanks to two goals from Liam Heelis, including a shorty in the third period. Heelis now leads the AUS scoring race with 6 goals and 2 assists after four games.

Friday - Acadia 7 @ STU 2
Saturday - Acadia 2 @ UPEI 1

Panthers have the early goaltending edge

While fans often comment on UPEI's quick transitional play, their goaltending tandem of Wayne Savage and Mavric Parks should not be discounted. Granted it is early in the season (and they've played a game in Wolfville), but the duo have a combined goals against average of 1.50 and a save percentage of .949. Friday the Panthers had a 2-to-1 shot margin in a 2-1 home opener win, while Saturday they were on the wrong side of a close 2-1 game.

Friday - Dal 1 @ UPEI 2
Saturday - Acadia 2 @ UPEI 1

Moncton not as good on the road

Suddenly the high-flying and national ranked Aigles Bleus are a .500 team. The high and lows of the early season. Friday night they were down by two when they pulled their goalie, but could only manage one goal with 8 seconds left on the clock. Saturday they had a 3-1 lead early in the second period, but the Huskies woke up and rang off four unanswered goals. A bright spot for UdeM are the hot hands of 2nd-year forward Pier-Antoine Dion, who had two goals and an assist in the loss to SMU and has at least one point in every game so far, for a total of 7 points. Dion had 9 points last season.

Friday - UdeM 2 @ StFX 3
Saturday - UdeM 3 @ SMU 5

Tommies still in the .500 club

STU had 3 wins in a forgettable season last year. They've got two already in the first two weeks of this season, both times against Dal. On the flip side they've come undone against the Acadia in the third period in both of their games. On the plus side rookie Brendan Childerly is tied in the scoring race with UNB star Chris Culligan, each with 4 goals and 2 assists. On the negative side, frustrated Tommies goalie Jon Groenheyde made contact with an official in the third period and earned a match penalty and ejection, and is suspended "indefinitely". The good news on Saturday was that STU rookie goaltender Alex St-Arnaud earned his first career win in the annual Lou Chabot Memorial game.

Friday - Acadia 7 @ STU 2
Saturday - Dal 2 @ STU 5

Huskies find their missing power play

SMU was 0-for-3-games with the man advantage to start the season. Saturday they get their first power play goal and they earn their first win. Coincidence? More importantly perhaps, Curtis Black got his first win in the Huskies net. Black only had one start last season, the last game of the regular season, which the Huskies lost 4-3 to StFX in overtime. With all-star workhorse Anthony Peters on the shelf since the start of the season, all the weight is on Black's shoulders now. Friday night SMU was completely outplayed by UNB in the first period, down 3-0, and made a game of it in the last two periods. Saturday they dug a shallower hole against Moncton before managing a successful comeback, helped by Lucas Bloodoff's two second-period goals.

Friday - UNB 4 @ SMU 2
Saturday - UdeM 3 @ SMU 5

Yes, the X-Men are still better than their record

The first time StFX played UdeM they came up a goal short. This time they came away with the one goal win. On Saturday UNB dominated the territorial play and shot clock in the first period, but it was the X-Men with the intermission lead. UNB tied it up in the second, only to see Robert Slaney, with his third goal of the weekend, retake the lead for the home side in the third period. The V-Reds continued their customary push and were rewarded with two goals in a 30 second span, plus a late empty netter to seal the win.

Friday - UdeM 2 @ StFX 3
Saturday - UNB 4 @ StFX 2

Tigers in early trouble

Four games in and Dal has yet to win a game. They've lost both of their games against STU, which are must-wins. They managed to keep the score close against UPEI on Saturday only because goaltender Wendel Vye stood on his head. Without injured offensive leader Pierre-Alexandre Vandall in the lineup so far this season Dal's scoring has pretty much disappeared. Great time for some players to step up and make a mark.

Friday - Dal 1 @ UPEI 2
Saturday - Dal 2 @ STU 5

Upcoming in Week 3

Dal is at Acadia for our first Wednesday match of the season. On Friday, SMU takes their turn at the Axemen. Also, STU hosts cross-campus rival UNB and will try to end their long losing streak (35 games) in the Battle of the Hill, UPEI crosses the Fixed Link to renew their rivalry with Moncton, and the Tigers are at the X-Men.

On Saturday UNB hosts UdeM in another battle of rivals, SMU is at StFX and the Tommies visit the Panthers. 

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Rivalry Renewed; Ravens Spoil Redmen Record Bid

OTTAWA — Eleven minutes and nineteen seconds.

That’s how long No. 5 McGill needed to keep No. 9 Carleton scoreless in Friday night's game to set a new OUA record for longest shutout sequence. If they made it to the end of the second period without allowing a goal, they’d overtake Alberta’s CIS record, set last season.

Carleton had other plans.

McGill looked poised to continue their three-game winning streak, which had propelled them to fifth in the national rankings after previously being unranked, when Cedric McNicoll opened the scoring on an early powerplay goal just two and a half minutes in.

Playing in front of a near-capacity crowd, the Ravens took over from there.

A quick even-up call put the Ravens on the powerplay, and Mitch Porowski quickly tied things up. Carleton kept the pressure up, and just over a minute later Damian Cross’ shot deflected off a defenseman’s stick and into the net to extend the lead.



By that point, Carleton had triple the shots of McGill, outshooting the Redmen 9-3. Once the no-longer historic 11:19 mark passed, Carleton had extended that shot count lead to 15-3.

Jeff Hayes added to the Ravens scoring, tapping the puck into the open net following a gorgeous cross-crease pass from Jordan Deagle. Just like that, the Redmen had allowed more goals in this game than they had in regulation in all four combined regular season games.

Unsurprisingly, head coach Kelly Nobes took a timeout to try to regroup. Out of the break, McGill was successful in stopping the bleeding.

The game became noticeably physical, with both teams looking for — and succeeding in landing — big hits all over the ice. McGill managed to get the puck on net, closing down the shooting disparity (somewhat), and were rewarded with a late goal in the last minute as Alexis Millette banged at the puck twice from the top of the crease to close the gap to a goal heading into the first intermission.

Special teams remained a key story in the second period, as Porowski netted his second of the game on a powerplay opportunity to extend the lead to 4-2. That marked the end of Andrew Flemming’s night, as he was replaced by Jacob Chouinard between the Redmen pipes after giving up four goals on 19 shots.

The two teams continued trading penalties, with each able to finally succeed in killing a penalty, before Carleton took their second trip to the box of the period on a close too many men on the ice call that made Carleton’s head coach Marty Johnson livid.

He became even less happy when McGill capitalized on the powerplay opportunity, as Millette scored his second of the game.

Less than a minute later, McGill took a skate to the penalty box – on another call that could be described as controversial – and Cross needed only six seconds on the powerplay to net his second of the game from the hashmarks and restore the two-goal lead.

Porowski completed the hat-trick in the final minute of the second frame, taking Carleton to the intermission with a surprising 6-3 lead.

McGill came out hungry in the third period, illustrated by the fact that their starting line was set-up for the face-off before Carleton had even left the dressing room.

Unfortunately, it was all for naught, as Carleton managed to withstand the intense pressure put on by the Redmen. As both teams realized the game was out of reach, things took an ugly turn in the final ten minutes as the name of the game became “run the player closest to you as hard as possible.” Tempers began to boil over, peaking when McGill’s Patrick Delisle-Houde had his stick broken on a slash while awaiting the puck to drop on a faceoff, and culminating in a double minor penalty to McGill’s Carl Gelinas for spearing Deagle, who had aggravated the Redmen all day.

Ryan McKiernan added one for the Redmen in the final four minutes, taking the final score to 6-4 in favour of the Ravens.

The win marks the third time in four games that Carleton has scored at least six goals, the others an 8-1 win over Windsor and a 6-2 victory over Nipissing.

Carleton improves to 3-1-0 following the win, while McGill falls to 3-1-1.

Updated: This week's "Game of the Week" will be Thursday's cross-Toronto matchup between 5-1-0 York and 4-1-0 Ryerson.
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Women's basketball: UNB loses top player just before season starts

The headline in today's Fredericton Daily Gleaner (behind paywall) delivers the surprising news accurately: "Colborne drops bombshell and quits V-Reds." That would be Claire Colborne, sister of Joe who was recently traded to their hometown Calgary Flames.

According to Bill Hunt's scoop, Colborne said she "was not happy with basketball and hasn't been happy for a while." Out of the blue on Thursday she requested a meeting with coach Jeff Speedy where she announced she was done, stunning Speedy. "I was caught totally off guard. I had no idea."

Colborne, a 21-year-old six-foot wing, was the AUS and CIS rookie of the year in 2010-11, but the team has struggled in the two subsequent years, especially last season when they were 2-18. Not coincidentally, all-star post and team leader Amanda Sharpe graduated in 2011 after an AUS-MVP season and the V-Reds as yet have been unable to find as able a replacement.

Colborne was fifth in the CIS in scoring in her rookie season (18.6 points per game), and third in the country in her second year (20.6 PPG) and named a 1st Team AUS All-Star. Last season her shooting dropped to 17.1 points per game.

Colborne has two years of CIS eligibility left, and could start play for another school on Oct. 24, 2014, 365 days after her last preseason game with UNB. Colborne said she would stay in school at UNB for her fourth year in the Bachelor of Recreation and Sports Studies (BRSS) program.

That is not the only headache for coach Speedy. Karlen Majcher, a 4th-year wing and bench player, is a close friend of Colborne's from Calgary and she also quit the team Thursday. Worse, his Australian recruit who is reputed to be a fine shooter, Laura Bamford-Cleland, has been hobbled with a leg or foot injury and yet to play this season.

Speedy says he will hold the door open in case Colborne changes her mind and wants to return, "but every day that goes by, that gets a little tougher. That's not a Claire thing, that's a team thing."


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Playoff season is just around the corner as the AUS men's soccer regular season winds down

Men's soccer are in their final few games before the AUS playoffs begin. Each game is becoming more and more crucial to get to the elusive playoff spot, and teams are battling it out to see who will be top six.

Let's see how some of the teams did this weekend, and where they now stand going into the final regular-season weekend.

Friday

Moncton 2 at Acadia 2
It was a 2-2 tie for the Aigles Bleus after they went back and forth, each trying to get a win. Ahmed Abdul-Rahman scored for Moncton at (9:00) answered by Acadia's Andrew Snyder (17:00). Moncton tried once again to take a lead, with a goal by Kouame Ouattara scoring at (43:00) but Acadia came back and Corey Cadeau scored at (65:00).

Saturday

Cape Breton o at UNB 1
The Capers fell to the Varsity Reds, with the lone goal of the game scored by Robbie Park at 6:37.

UPEI 2 at Mount Allison 1
The UPEI Panthers took their only victory of the weekend against the Mounties. Mount Allison started off strong with a goal by Federico Mora (14:16), but UPEI's Lucas Holmes (25:20) and Harminder Singh (87:29) gave the Panthers their win.

Dalhousie 2 at Memorial 0
The Memorial Seahawks couldn't score in their game against the DAL Tigers, losing 2-0. No goals were scored in the first half, but DAL's Nathan Rogers scored at 62:26 and Bezick Evraire followed with the second and final goal of the game at 75:41.

Sunday

Dalhousie 2 at Memorial 0
The Seahawks took another 2-0 loss to the Tigers this weekend. Nathan Rogers scored at (38:56) - his second goal against the Seahawks this weekend - and Tyler Lewars scored at the end of the first at 45:00.

Cape Breton 2 at Moncton 3
It was a close game for the Capers and Aigles Bleus, with a 3-2 win for Moncton.

Moncton's Amadou Fall scored at 17:16, followed by Caper Ian Greedy (43:52).

Moncton scored the first two goals of the second half at 82:06 by Philippe DeGrace and 86:43 by Jonathon Stephenson. Cape Breton tried to come back with a goal by Max Raab at 87:45.

Saint Mary's 0 at Mount Allison 0
It was a scoreless game for the SMU Huskies and Mount Allison Mounties.

UPEI 0 at UNB 3
The UNB Varsity Reds held on to first place in the AUS standings, defeating the Panthers 3-0.

All three goals were scored in the first half of the game Victor Karosan (6:50), Benjamin Law (18:50) — his eleventh goal for the Varsity Reds in his career — and Marcus Lees 26:20). 

UNB sits in first place going into the final regular-season weekend, followed by Dalhousie in second, Saint Mary's, Moncton, Acadia and StFX. 

Cape Breton, UPEI, Mount Allison and Memorial sit outside the playoffs seedings going into their final weekend.

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Men's Hockey: What we learned in the first week in the AUS

So what did we learn from the first week of AUS men's hockey conference play?

Plus ça change ...

Even with only a dozen players back from their championship team UNB is still pretty good. Gardiner MacDougall is arguably the best recruiter in the CIS, and his new recruits from across the country were all front and centre this weekend. But most of the talk after the games was the play of two sometimes under-rated veterans: workhorse Antoine Houde-Caron who had success driving the net to spark the the V-Reds offence on Friday and captain Chris Culligan on Saturday, minus his two regular wingers, who put the team on his back in the second period in order to erase a two-goal deficit and skate to a hard-fought victory against a bitter rival.

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

Panthers on the prowl

UPEI looked very good in the preseason, and were the only road team to win both their games this past weekend. No one should underestimate this team, who may have flown under the national radar due to being eliminated in the playoffs by UNB the last two years running. While beating Dal is no surprise, taking a three-goal lead in the first ten minutes against Acadia is.

Friday - UPEI 5 @ Dal 1
Sunday - UPEI 4 @ Acadia 2

Moncton "Sedin Twins" delivering as advertised

What an opening weekend for UdeM rookie twins Alex and Allain Saulnier. The Moncton natives were co-captains of their hometown Wildcats last season, and were renowned for their chemistry, particularly on the power play. Alex scored twice on Friday, assisted both times by Allain. On Saturday Alex scored without his brother's assistance, but Allain did assist on two other goals, including one for another Alex, Emond.

Friday: SMU 1 @ UdeM 5
Saturday StFX 3 @ UdeM 4

Axemen still need more finish around the net

Acadia led the AUS in shots on goal last year, although the shot count does seem to get inflated at Acadia Arena. 59 shots on Friday only yielded three goals. On Sunday afternoon they converted two goals out of 52 shots on net. On the other hand rookie Axemen netminder Brandon Glover might be happy if he never gets another Sunday afternoon start; he gave up four goals on 11 shots before getting the hook early in the second period.

Friday: STU 1 @ Acadia 3
Sunday: UPEI 4 @ Acadia 2

Hope in Tommies Land

As long as Jon Groenheyde can stand on his head, and the team can manufacture some scoring, STU has a chance to win. The Tommies 2nd-year goalie made 43 saves in the first 40 minutes as St. Thomas nursed a one-goal lead into the third period on Friday. Saturday's game was less one-sided and had a better outcome, as the two teams traded goals all night and the hard-working Tommies delivered the first win for their new coach Pat Powers.

Friday: STU 1 @ Acadia 4
Saturday: STU 4 @ Dal 3

Tigers drop must-win game

Like for STU, wins are probably going to be a challenge for Dal against the six teams who finished ahead of them last year. And the year before. And the year before that. You get the idea. So while one might shrug off getting clawed by the Panthers (I know, terrible pun), they have to win those games against the Tommies if they have any hope of making the playoffs.

Friday: UPEI 5 @ Dal 1
Saturday: STU 4 @ Dal 3

The X-Men are better than their record

Hard to believe that StFX didn't earn a point on the weekend. Friday they played a close tight-checking game with UNB that didn't get away from them until the last five minutes or so when X had to open up their play to try to tie the game. On Saturday they spotted les Aigles Bleus a three-goal lead before battling back and coming up one goal short.

Friday: StFX 2 @ UNB 5
Saturday StFX 3 @ UdeM 4

So how long is this Huskies slump going to last?

If anyone needs a pity party, it is SMU. Seriously. They were winless in the preseason. Assistant coach Tom Lee is battling cancer, again, and so far the bone-marrow transplants seem to be taking, fortunately. Head coach Trevor Stienburg is stepping back temporarily for health reasons. If that is not enough to stress out interim head coach Tyler Naugler, Huskies goaltender Anthony Peters (he of 26 starts last season) wasn't available this weekend due to injury so backup Curtis Black was thrown into the fire in New Brunswick.

Friday:  SMU 1 @ UdeM 5
Saturday: SMU 3 @ UNB 5

Next weekend

The same dance partners swap venues. UNB and UdeM are at SMU and StFX while Acadia and Dal are at STU and UPEI.



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Football: OUA playoff scenarios, odds, and possibilities

Most of the playoff teams have been determined in the OUA; only a small battle remains between Windsor and Toronto, but that is heavily tilted the Lancers' way. We also know who the top three teams will be: Western, Queen's/Guelph winner, Queen's/Guelph loser. That game alone can affect the playoff race considerably but it's not the only one with potential implications.

The fourth through sixth spots are still undetermined, and could be any of three or four teams. Toronto, should they qualify for the playoffs, will be 5th, which means the other three — McMaster, Ottawa, Windsor; all tied at 4-3 right now — have a home game on the line today.

There can't be a three-way tie with these teams, and the Marauders hold the tiebreakers over both, assuming nothing out of the ordinary happens. (They can sew up a point-differential tiebreaker over Windsor by beating Carleton by about 25 points, which should be simple enough to achieve.) So that home game is Mac's to lose.

Just in time for the games today, here are the odds for all four teams and each playoff position:

Team	4th	5th	6th	Out
MAC	73%	23%	4%	---
OTT	17%	45%	38%	---
WSR	10%	27%	58%	5%
TOR	---	5%	---	95%

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Championships: CIS goes for shiny and new

The CIS has just released the list of successful bidders to host men's and women's basketball, and men's hockey, for 2015 and 2016.

Women’s basketball
2015: Laval (Quebec City)
2016: UNB (Fredericton)

Men’s basketball
2015: Ryerson (Toronto)
2016: UBC (Vancouver)

Men’s hockey
2015: StFX & Saint Mary’s (Halifax)
2016: StFX & Saint Mary’s (Halifax)

For women's basketball  the choices are the shiny new PEPS varsity gymnasium in Quebec City and the shiny and still pretty new Richard J. Currie Center in Fredericton. For the men, the choices are the "sparkling" Mattamy Athletic Centre at the Gardens in Toronto and the five year-old Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre in Vancouver, which was used for hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

For men's hockey, the University Cup will be held for the first time in Nova Scotia, in the not-new and not-shiny 11,000-seat Halifax Metro Centre. In a novel partnership, StFX will be the official "host" in 2015 (and the all-important guaranteed spot at the 6-team tourney) while SMU will be the host in 2016.
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Hockey: Brett Willows' day, or less than a day, as a Maple Leaf

We feel duty-bound, when we can, to point out when a CIS goaltender "appears" in the NHL, especially since so few of them ever actually appear in a game after their university days.

Thursday night in Toronto, it was Brett Willows' turn. This time, the "quick, find a goaltender" game was even more rushed, as the Leafs expected James Reimer to play and Willows was only called after the first-minute injury. Apparently he didn't even get there until the third period.

Willows, currently third among OUA goalies with a .943 save percentage for U of T (after a .930 last year), is probably disappointed he didn't get in the game, but after stopping 50 of 53 shots the night before in a 7-3 win over Ryerson, he might also be relieved that he didn't have to go back-to-back. Even if it was only against Carolina.

Invariably the amateur 'tender who gets signed is not a fan of the team who needs him — see UBC's Jordan White, a Canucks fan, putting on a Sharks jersey for a day — with Willows in this case being a Montreal supporter.

If you follow the strange logic expressed by some Leafs followers and media members lately, this now means the team might consider offering Willows for Nail Yakupov.
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