Dal, X Face Off in AUS Hockey Playoffs
Courtesy Glenn MacDonald, The Chronicle Herald
THE ST. FRANCIS XAVIER X-MEN and Dalhousie Tigers may have finished nine points apart in the Atlantic university hockey conference standings but there wasn’t much separating the two head-to-head during the regular season.
The teams faced each other four times in 2010-11 with each team winning two games. They will meet again in the upcoming league quarter-finals.
The best-of-three opening round series starts Thursday in Antigonish.
"If you look at our series during the regular season, two wins each, it doesn’t get any closer than that," St. F.X. head coach Brad Peddle said. "But the regular season means nothing now; you throw the standings out the window.
"Our guys have worked really hard down the stretch to get better as we head into the playoffs."
The series will mark the first time in seven years that Dalhousie has reached the post-season. But Dal head coach Pete Belliveau said his charges won’t be resting on their laurels.
"We’re not happy with just being in the playoffs," Belliveau said.
"Goaltending, discipline, special teams, those will be the keys for us especially in a short series like this."
St. Francis Xavier finished third in the conference with a 17-10-1 record while Dalhousie squeezed into the post-season on the last weekend of the regular season. The Tigers ended with a 13-15-0 mark.
As for the other quarter-finalists, it can’t get any closer than the matchup between the Acadia Axemen and the UPEI Panthers. Both teams finished with identical 14-11-3 records.
Although the Axemen won three of four meetings this season, the Panthers were victorious in their last one, a 5-1 decision on the final day of the regular season.
"It wasn’t the result we wanted but for the most part, with the injuries that we have, the guys competed hard," Acadia head coach Darren Burns said.
"We’ve had pretty good results against them this season but they did win our last meeting. It’s a different ball game come playoffs."
The best-of-three quarter-final begins Friday in Wolfville.
Acadia goalie Kristofer Westblom, who appeared in 24 games this season, second only to SMU’s Neil Conway, can expect to see plenty of action against the high-powered Panthers. Matt Carter, who tied for the conference scoring lead with UNB’s Hunter Tremblay, and Cory Vitarelli combined for 77 points.
"We are evenly-matched and we’ve had real tight games," Burns said. "They are an extremely well-coached team and they have quite a bit of firepower, with two guys in the top five in scoring. They’re a very good team and will be a tough team to play against. Just look at our records; it doesn’t get much more even than that."
• The UNB Varsity Reds (23-5-0) and Saint Mary’s Huskies (18-9-1), who finished 1-2 in the regular season, respectively, have quarter-final byes and advance directly to the league semifinals.