What we are seeing in the Atlantic University Hockey Conference is that #1 ranked Universit de Moncton Aigles Bleus are starting to pull away, the middle four teams are all bunched up, and the bottom three teams are duking it out for the final playoff spot. In other words, parity for the most part has returned to the Maritimes.
Moncton has won three of their four games since Christmas, their only blemish a shoot out loss to the St. Mary's Huskies (3-2). For their part, SMU came out flying the first weekend of the second half in no small part that their top line was finally healthy again, beating UdeM as mentioned and the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds (6-2) on the road, but since then have dropped games to the StFX X-Men (5-4) and the Dalhousie Tigers (6-4).
UNB has struggled since winning their own Pete Kelly Cup tournament on New Year's Eve. After losing to SMU, they rebounded against the Acadia Axemen (5-3) but in the last week they lost a huge game at home to Moncton (4-3 OT) on Wednesday and had a game stolen by goaltender Paul Drew and his UPEI Panther teammates (5-3) on Saturday.
The only bright spot, if any, for UNB is that their cross-campus rivals in Fredericton, the St. Thomas Tommies, are having their own struggles. STU lost to StFX (5-2) and Dal (6-5) the first weekend on the road. Back home on Friday they hammered the Panthers (7-2) and the next evening they travelled to Moncton where they were on the receiving end of a thumping (7-4). It is hard to figure out what is wrong with the Tommies: the team that had an eight game winning streak in the first half with two shutouts has given up 20 goals in their last four games. For their part normally stingier UNB has given up 18 goals in the same period.
The second hottest team in the AUHC is StFX. While Moncton has won 11 of their last 12 games, X is no slouch either, winning 8 of their last 9 games (including four in a row in overtime in November) to put themselves in a tie for fourth spot, with a game in hand on everyone ahead of them. Their only loss since Christmas (including winning their own holiday tournament) was 2-1 to UPEI where they outshot the Panthers 35-23.
SMU is two and two since the break to maintain their hold on third place, just a point back of UNB. Acadia has had only one win since Christmas, which has allowed UPEI to catch them and tie them for sixth place and the final playoff spot. UPEI has just the one blemish since the break, the STU game, as they rode the strong goaltending of Paul Drew (Merlin, ON). While many were ready to write off the Dalhousie Tigers in November, since Christmas they have won two of their four games, and their two losses were in overtime giving them valuable points. Ever since goalie Christopher Wall joined the team on loan in November, Dal has been competitive. Wall has opted to stay with the team for the second half, much to the consternation of his former Junior A team in Halifax. If they continue to win, they could be more than a spoiler as playoffs approach.
It is still too early to predict how things are going to shake out for playoffs, but here are my points to ponder for the remainder of the second half (which will probably be proved wrong soon after I type them.):
What will be the effect of the players who left Sunday for the World University Games in Torino? Moncton, UNB and SMU are all losing two-thirds of their top scoring lines for two games, while STU, SMU and UPEI are losing their top goaltenders. While thanks to the AUS schedule makers most teams have only two games while their players are absent, what kind of shape will they be in when they get back, hopefully with a gold medal?
Will SMU find second and third line scoring to support the top line in the conference?
Will UNB stop being pretty and patient with the puck possession and start shooting and scoring goals again?
Will STU get their first half team defence and discipline bac