Dave Kilfoil kindly returns this season to give readers of Thunderwolveshockey.com a review of what's happening in Atlantic Universities Sport (AUS) hockey. Dave is the colour commentator for CHSR-FM Fredericton's broadcasts of University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas Tommies men's hockey games.
The Atlantic University Hockey Conference started exhibition play this past weekend. The main event was in Fredericton, where UNB hosted their inaugural Fall Classic Tournament, with the Dalhousie Tigers, UPEI Panthers, the Universit de Moncton Aigles Bleus and host UNB Varsity Reds playing their first exhibition games of the season. On Friday, Moncton got out of the gates early with 3 straight goals in the first 8 minutes against Dal and in spite of their parade to the penalty box cruised to a 5-2 win over the Tigers and thus advanced to Saturday championship game.
The Friday evening match saw the return of coach Mike Kelly to the CIS and the Aitken University Centre. Kelly had coached UNB to their first and only national championship in 1998 before leaving to coach and manage in the major junior ranks in North Bay and later Brandon. This summer Kelly took over the vacant UPEI coaching position, and added former long time St. Thomas University head coach Al MacAdam as one of his assistants. MacAdam left STU to first coach the St. John's Maple Leafs of the AHL and most recently was an assistant coach with Chicago of the NHL. The coaches couldn't help but be happy with their return to Fredericton as they watched Panther rookie goaltender Paul Drew do everything but stand on his head in facing 45 shots as UPEI stole the 5-3 win from the constantly attacking V-Reds.
On Saturday afternoon, the relegated V-Reds faced the Dal Tigers in the consolation game. This battle of the silver and bronze medalists from Nationals had the intensity of a regular season or even a playoff game as the rival schools renewed acquaintances. Once again there was a V-Reds offensive onslaught, this time with 50 shots, and the 5-3 final score for UNB flatters the Tigers. A couple of defensive gaffes and rusty goaltending on UNB's part help keep the Tigers reasonably close, but they only had 20 shots in the game, with 13 of them coming in the final period.
In the evening final, UPEI rookie and tournament MVP Josh Patterson scored the winning goal late in the third period as the Panthers defeated the Aigles Bleus 2-1 in an evenly played game. Even though Moncton opened the scoring early with their first shot on the first shift, penalties continued to haunt les Aigles Bleus, as they gave up 11 power plays to UPEI, to go along with their 7 the day before.
Although attendance was probably hampered by the fine fall weather in Fredericton and the novelty of the tournament, coach Gardiner MacDougall has already confirmed the St. F. X. and St. Mary's have accepted invitations to next year's tourney. Along with Patterson as tournament MVP, the all-star team was named that included from winner UPEI goalie Drew, defenceman Adam Rivet and forward Luc Chiasson, from Moncton forwards Dan Hudgin and defenceman-turned-forward Scott Toner, and from the host UNB defenceman Craig Perry.
In other exhibition play on the weekend, the St. Mary's Huskies edged the Acadia Axeman 2-1 in Digby, NS on Saturday. St. Thomas was in the U.S.A. for the weekend, where they lost 5-2 to Merrimack College on Saturday and then rebounded Sunday to tie U-Mass Lowell 4-4 in Nashua, NH. The CIS champion St. F.X. X-men were also in the States for the weekend. Saturday they lost 2-1 in overtime to U-Mass Amherst and lost the following night 4-1 to Providence College.