It is an unusual year in the Maritimes in the AUHC with three of the four semi-finalists advancing this season to the University Cup since Moncton is such a strong team this year.
The Universit de Moncton had the first round bye thanks to their first place finish, and made short work of the St. Thomas Tommies in eliminating the badly banged up Fredericton team in three straight, closing out the series Sunday night 6-3. The Tommies surprisingly went with their third string goalie, Guillaume Miszczak (Montreal, QC), for the must-win game and lost two defencemen in the valiant effort, one to a games misconduct penalty and another to injury. UdeM awaits the winner of the UNB-StFX series and right now looks unbeatable for the Atlantic championship.
St. Thomas has had their share of adversity, and after dropping their first playoff game in Halifax against Saint Marys, came home and tied the best-of-three series. They then went back to Halifax and won 7-6 in a wide-open affair that didnt showcase much defence, as both teams were missing starting d-men.
StFX is playing UNB for the fifth straight year in the playoffs, and the sixth time in seven years, so it is safe to say that these two teams know each other well and have built up an (un)healthy rivalry. UNB had the other first round bye and StFX eliminated Acadia in two games of their three game series. In Xs first game against Acadia starting goaltender Danny Battochio (Lively, ON) left the game after getting run over by his own teammate and third-string goal Alessandro Lupo (Keswick, ON) got the call to go in (his first ice time this season) and got the victory for the X-Men. Injured goalie Ryan Aschaber (Peterborough, ON) started the second game for the X-Men and won the series over Acadia.
UNB won their first two games in Fredericton, 4-1 and 4-2 as the X-Men were unable to score even strength. Sunday night they overcame that with three even strength goals by the struggling big line and added two powerplay goals, avoiding the sweep in the 5-2 victory that featured some rough stuff in the final seconds. UNB and StFX meet again Monday night in Antigonish, and if X wins again the teams will meet Thursday in Fredericton for game 5.
If UNB prevails against StFX they will play the waiting Moncton for the Atlantic championship, but if they lose they will be fighting the Battle of the Hill in Fredericton against STU to decide who slides into Nationals through the back door and takes the third Atlantic spot. Of course the loser against Moncton (X or UNB) goes to the University Cup as the second Atlantic entry.