In the next to last week of the first half of the Atlantic University Hockey Conference season the top teams took wins from each other, the conference witnessed its first overtime shootouts, and history was made with the three New Brunswick university hockey teams all ranked nationally in the top five.
The biggest crowd of the season in the AUHC watched the most important Battle of the Hill in years as the #5 ranked University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds defeated their cross-campus rivals, the red-hot # 4 ranked St. Thomas Tommies 3-0, ending STUs eight game winning streak and putting UNB into a tie for second place. It was a sell-out crowd of 3740 fans at the Aitken University Centre in Fredericton that came to their feet when Jesse Ferguson (Langley, BC) wired a shot from the point on the powerplay at 16:02 of the first period that beat STU goaltender Aaron Molnar (Dorchester, ON), just back in the Tommie line-up after missing several games with an injury. This came after long segments of end-to-end hockey where the Tommies showed they were prepared to skate with the high-flying V-Reds. The atmosphere and energy in the rink Friday has not been seen since UNB hosted the University Cup in March of 2003 and 2004. An alumni pre-game pep rally, a full house, the importance of the match, and the deafening roar of hundreds of Home Depot thunder sticks ensured that the noise levels never dropped during the game.
Early in the second period Denny Johnston (Rosetown, SK) hammered home a rebound from a Nick Marach (Delta, BC) shot as UNB completed a two on one play to perfection at 2:02. The turning point of the game could have a few minutes later when STU had a five on three man advantage on the powerplay and rookie UNB goalie Michael Ouzas (Hamilton, ON) absolutely stoned Miguel Delisle (Cornwall, ON) from in close. In the third period UNB kept the pressure on and at 8:58 defenceman David Bowman (St. Catharines, ON) fired a shot from the point that went through a sea of green jerseys and appeared to change direction off of someone or something and thus fooled Molnar. After that goal the Varsity Reds went into a defensive shell and were blessed with a powerplay for the last four minutes of the third period but made few attempts to score as they preserved the big win.
The first place and #1 ranked Universit de Moncton Aigles Bleus stayed two points ahead of UNB and STU by defeating the UPEI Panthers at the same time in Moncton. Les Aigles Bleus scored two goals early in the second period but the Panthers replied with two of their own starting just over five minutes later to tie the game. Just past the five minute mark in the third period veteran forward Sebastien Strozynski (le Perrt, QC) scored the game winner on the powerplay and Mathieu Btournay (St-Chrysostome, QC) potted the empty netter with 16 seconds left for insurance as UdeM dominated UPEI 47-21 on the shot count.
In Halifax, the visiting StFX X-Men won their second consecutive game late in overtime as once again defenceman Sam Roberts (Ottawa,ON) got the winner, this time at 7:52 of the extra period, depriving the improving Dalhousie Tigers of the win. For their part, the Saint Mary's Huskies were in the Annapolis Valley to play the Acadia Axemen and were up 4-1just past the five minute mark of the third period. Acadia came within one goal when they pulled their goalie for the extra skater and Brandon Roach (Bay Roberts, NL) scored at 18:51 but that was as close as they could come even though the Axemen outshot the Huskies 47-22 on the night.
Saturday night les Aigles Bleus were in Fredericton to play the smarting Tommies. STU looked to be rebounding nicely as they scored two goals in the first six minutes of the game, but they couldn't improve their lead when they had 1:46 of five on three powerplay time at the 13 minute mark. Just over six minutes into the second period STU took a penalty and then the floodgates opened. UdeM scored