Well, as promised, the Atlantic standings and playoff-bound teams weren't decided until the last day of the season. The Universit de Moncton Aigles Bleus were eliminated from the hunt on Friday night when they lost to the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds 3-1 in Fredericton in a game where UNB only showed up for the last 30 minutes and then completely dominated play. At the same time the Acadia Axemen lost their final game to the St. Francis Xavier X-Men 3-0 in Antigonish, resulting in that they were now tied with the St. Thomas Tommies for sixth place, the final playoff spot, and now needed Moncton to do them a favour.
The next night down the hill at the Lady Beaverbrook Rink, Moncton made a valiant effort in the spoiler role to try to beat St. Thomas. They out-shoot the Tommies in fact but the STU goaltender, Aaron Molner, stood on his head and the only goal of the match was a fluke goal against the Moncton 'tender. STU had to get one point out of their final match, after winning their last two against UPEI, and managed to hold onto their 1-0 lead and eliminate Acadia Axemen from the playoffs.
Meanwhile in the battle of Halifax, on Saturday the Dalhousie Tigers defeated the St. Mary's Huskies 3-2 in overtime. By virtue of the one point for the overtime loss, SMU managed to stay one point ahead of Dal for third place. The X-Men were all alone in first place after Friday, and UNB traveled to Charlottetown on Saturday looking for two points to put them back into a tie for first, and first place overall since they held the tie-breakers against the X-Men. Even more interesting, if the V-Reds could beat the Panthers in regulation, STU and UPEI would flip their fifth and sixth place finishes, since STU held the tie-breakers against UPEI.
Confused yet? Well it didn't matter in the end since UNB lost 6-5, even though there was a controversial non-goal for UNB late in the third that would have tied the game. Although television video apparently showed the puck crossing the goal line, neither the goal judge nor the referee made the call at the time, and we don't use video replay in the league.
So St. F. X. and UNB get the first two places respectively, and the first round byes in the playoffs. The ten day break will be particularly beneficial for the V-Reds, as they haven't had a healthy scratch for several games now due to their banged up roster.
SMU and STU will play a best of three series, which opens in Fredericton on Wednesday before moving to Halifax for the final two games on the weekend. Similarly, UPEI will open at home in Charlottetown on Wednesday before also traveling to Halifax for the weekend to finish their series against Dal.
St. F. X. will then play the lowest rank survivor of the first round, and UNB the higher ranked. As it works out, Fredericton won't see a repeat of the Battle of the Hill unless UNB and STU advance to the third and final round of the playoffs. In contrast, Halifax fans will also have to hope that Dal and SMU advance to the Atlantic finals, as they won't play each other in the first or second rounds of the playoffs.
David Kilfoil is the colour commentator for CHSR-FM Fredericton's broadcasts of University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas Tommies men's hockey games. He would love to talk CIS/AUS hockey via our Fan Forum chat rooms here on our site, so fire any questions you may have to him in the Forum. The opinions expressed above are solely those of David Kilfoil and do not reflect those of CHSR FM.