The lead story in the Atlantic University Hockey Conference for the last two weeks has been the red-hot play of the other team in Fredericton, the St. Thomas Tommies. STU has reeled off five straight wins, with goaltender Andrew Sim taking advantage of coach Mike Eagles you win, youre in philosophy to keep getting the starts. Newcomer Miguel Delisle now leads the Tommies in scoring, with two goals in each of their two road-game victories this past weekend, 3-0 over Dalhousie and 5-1 over StFX. His first goal against X was a rare penalty shot, still much rarer in the AUHC than in the new NHL. The previous weekend it was closer victories at home against the same two teams, 5-4 over Dal and 4-3 over X.
That Nov. 12th game against the X-Men saw both coaches given a one game suspension from a new Hockey Canada rule due to their players leaving the benches at the end of time and milling around a bit of pushing and shoving between a couple of players that continued as time expired. Since the referee hadnt given the teams the signal yet to go to their dressing rooms, the coaches picked up the misconduct penalties.
Delisle of Cornwall, ON played most of his junior with the Ottawa 67s with his last season split between Owen Sound and Kingston. Following that he played a year of pro with four different teams in the ECHL, and then played senior last season to get his eligibility back.
Notwithstanding the strong play of STU, it is the UNB Varsity Reds who are back in first place with a slim one point edge over the Tommies and Acadia Axemen who tied for second place. The V-Reds had a wild and woolly 8-6 win at home on Friday against the then first place Axeman. It was a minimal-contact run-and-gun affair that saw every defensive miscue by both teams exploited by their opponents with multiple lead changes and the last team scoring getting the victory. The next night against SMU saw the V-Reds get back to their less fan-friendly defensive play preached by Coach Gardiner MacDougall with only half the shots allowed and UNB cruising to a 5-3 victory after leading 5-1 early in the third period.
The Universit de Moncton Aigles Bleus had a big week, starting with their rescheduled game against SMU in Halifax on Wednesday. Huskies coach Trevor Stienberg made the game a fundraiser for UdeMs Sebastin Savage, rallying the entire SMU athletic program behind the effort. Over $20,000 was raised at the game through raffles for donated prizes from the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Sidney Crosby and Jaromir Jagr plus part of the gate proceeds. Les Aigles Bleus won the emotional game 1-0 in front of more than 2300 fans for their second straight shutout, and then went into Antigonish and back to Halifax on the weekend for 3-1 and 3-2 victories against StFX and Dalhousie respectively.
Uncharacteristically, the normal competitive balance in the AUHC is askew this season with the UPEI Panthers and the Dalhousie Tigers struggling to keep up with the pack. The Panthers have lost nine straight and the Tigers have lost their last seven in a row. Time is already running out for these teams hopes for the playoffs and they need to git er goin soon.
This coming week and weekend is the end of the first half before the long Christmas exam break. I would not be surprised if we see some changes on the leaderboard before this is all over, since tied-for-fifth place SMU and sixth place StFX are only four and five points back respectively from first place and each have a game in hand on the four teams ahead of them. You can check out the AUHC (AUS) standings and statistics at their official website: http://www.atlanticuniversitysport.com/mens/hockey/