There were not a lot of games in the final week of the AUHC regular season, but most of them were very important to one team or another. Wednesday night St. Thomas continued to battle for their playoff lives. They needed to defeat UNB in their cross-campus rival's rink (in regulation or overtime) and then hope Moncton beat UPEI in regulation on the Island.
With over three thousand fans at the Aitken University Centre for the annual Mark Jeffrey Memorial game, the Fredericton fans were expecting an exciting game. STU was missing power play quarterback Nick Theriault, sitting out the third match of his three-game suspension, and sparkplug Robin Boucher who left the team to be with his ill mother. The two teams didn't quite deliver to expectations as they played a careful first period with no scoring, very much like a playoff game. At 7:56 of the second period, UNB's Kyle Werner scored and opened up the game a bit. Just over two minutes later STU's Justin Roy picked up his own rebound and scored from an impossible angle to even the score.
Later in the second period hard work finally paid off for UNB as Dustin Friesen connected on a goal mouth scramble as the V-Reds dominated the Tommies on the cycle. Near the ten minute mark of the third period, UNB's Robert Pearce put the stamp on the victory as he got in behind the STU defence thanks to a Colin Sinclair pass and blasted a Mark Messier style one-skater over Aaron Molner's shoulder. STU went quietly after that as UNB smothered them defensively and held on for the 3-1 victory, in a match where the score could have been a lot worse. With the STU loss, they were now eliminated from the playoffs.
In Charlottetown, Panthers captain Joel Ward scored at 7:33 to take the early lead. The explosive Moncton offence replied 38 seconds later as they scored three even-strength goals in the next three minutes and one second. However, UPEI scored just 30 seconds later to pull within one. The Panthers got two more goals in the second period and another in the third for 5-3 final, foiling UdeM's efforts to clinch first place.
On Friday over 2800 fans came out to the Halifax Forum (four times the normal crowd) as St. Mary's hosted the Acadia Axemen in the battle for the other first round bye. Acadia scored twice in the first period and twice in the third period in cruising to a 4-1 win, out-shooting the Huskies 34-23. With the win Acadia dropped SMU to third place and put themselves in a tie with Moncton for first place.
Also on Friday, the Dalhousie Tigers salvaged some pride in Antigonish. StFX's Danny White scored shorthanded in the first period to take the lead, but Dal came back with one goal in the second and three in the third period, including an empty netter, for the comeback victory. Graduating Dal goaltender Pat Berrigan finishes his university hockey career with a win, and the Tigers eliminated any hope of X catching UNB for fourth place and home-ice advantage in their series.
Moving on to Saturday, Moncton had one last chance to win the AUHC pennant. Since Acadia had the tie-breaker in head-to-head matches, UdeM had to get at least one point in the game to sit alone in first. The game started ominously for UNB, as just 16 seconds in Kyle Werner was hit high and hard by Sebastien Savage and left the game. Pierre Luc Laprise fired a heavy shot through a crowd on the power play and Moncton took the lead at 12:29.
In the second period, UNB cashed in on the power play as Troy Stonier banged in the rebound at 3:46 with the V-Reds on a two-man advantage. Late in the second period, things got weird. On the power play Moncton captain Tomas Baluch took exception to UNB captain Craig Mahon's chirping and head butted the defenceman on the chin. Baluch received both a major and match penalty and an automatic ejection. He subsequently earned a three-game suspension from the league for the match penalty. In the third period Troy Stonier<