AUS Playoffs

[AUS Fan]

Credit has to go to Peters in this game. Any other goalie and it's a 5-1 win for UNB.
But, SMU is putting it all on the line. Everyone has bought in to the game plan.

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

The 2nd OT was messy for UNB from the start while SMU was going for the win. UNB never got it going and before you knew it - everyone is running around, a scramble and a goal. Crappy way to lose, but as Gardiner said after game 1 - 'we had the game on our sticks a few times - just didn't finish'. Same thing tonight.

Backs againts the wall tonight - can't think about game 5, need to win this in the 1st period and cost through like they did in game 2.

SMU, is playing a similar type of game against Alberta and UNB as in the AUS finals and at Nationals last year. UNB beat them in a slim 2-0 game. Alberta held a territorial and shot advantage against them in Saskatoon, but it took some luck and overtime to beat them. They are energized, physical, tactical,especially on home ice at the Forum, where it's not an easy place to win. When Steinburg has them playing his style of playoff hockey, they are tough to beat!
You can throw the regular season stats out the window!

 

[AUS Fan]

The last time I checked, the ice surface at the Forum was the same as the AUC. It takes them 1 hour to replace a pane of glass and they have to fix the posts every stoppage, but the rink is the same. UNB has FANS that actually support the team; SMU does not. UNB has last change, SMU has last change. I don't see where the Forum is a hard place to win.

 

[cishockeyfan]

I said at the start of the season dont be fooled by SMU's winless pre season or dull start to the year they are still a top 3 team in the aus and will be dangerous, and here we are now, the Huskies in he AUS Final.

Im convinced this was all a master plan by coach steinburgh. like 2010 when he fell ill and came back and they won it all, his early season leave of absence was the plan all along he knew what he was doing, this is what he envisioned. Is there a better head coach in the CIS than Steinburgh??? I dont think so. Peters may have been outstanding in the series, but the team came to play and played a fantastik team game. Best of luck to the Huskies

For now my heart bleeds Red seems UNB just cant win in mens Hockey : (

Vienneau was stellar but still a strange call to start After Lavigne really hasn't done no wrong

While UNB was full of Skill and Talent, I said all year they were also smaller and less physical than ever before, which doesnt bode well for playoff hockey. It will be interesting to see where they go from here. while they have a great core of 2nd and 1st year players they are losing alot of leadership and experience

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

Yep...I thought SMU was kind of a 'sleeping giant' all year...we all knew they had the talent on paper but just hadn't been able to put it together for whatever reason. Unfortunately for us UNB fans, they put it together just in time. Personally, all along I didn't want any part of them, would have much preferred to see UPEI.

 

[bad refs]

Does anyone not think that coaching plays a role? Just a thought. Stieny is a great coach, Gardiner is too, but the ability to adapt seems to be the difference here. SMU is a good team and from the beginning of the year people have said watch out. Stieny does what needs to be done with what he has. It seems others rely on their players to bail them out rather than coach them to win.

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

SMU played smart despite having a major territorial disadvantage, great goaltending and capitalized on their chances. I think that territorial advantage will be much more even against Acadia.
As for UNB, it's a major disappointment, but it's a tough league to win and it doesn't always go your way.

 

[radapex]

I said at the start of the season dont be fooled by SMU's winless pre season or dull start to the year they are still a top 3 team in the aus and will be dangerous, and here we are now, the Huskies in he AUS Final.

Im convinced this was all a master plan by coach steinburgh. like 2010 when he fell ill and came back and they won it all, his early season leave of absence was the plan all along he knew what he was doing, this is what he envisioned. Is there a better head coach in the CIS than Steinburgh??? I dont think so. Peters may have been outstanding in the series, but the team came to play and played a fantastik team game. Best of luck to the Huskies

For now my heart bleeds Red seems UNB just cant win in mens Hockey : (

Vienneau was stellar but still a strange call to start After Lavigne really hasn't done no wrong

While UNB was full of Skill and Talent, I said all year they were also smaller and less physical than ever before, which doesnt bode well for playoff hockey. It will be interesting to see where they go from here. while they have a great core of 2nd and 1st year players they are losing alot of leadership and experience

The most telling thing to me was Petgrave on the late powerplay when the pass back to Shutron hopped over his stick and out of the zone. Petgrave got the puck in the neutral zone and lightly tossed the puck to the SMU forward standing along the boards. In my opinion, it looked all too intentional.

 

[Rob]

I only caught the first two periods of this one but it looked like SMU was playing pretty even with UNB. Probably the worst game of the tournament for them.

I know Peters is on fire right now but I still have to pick Acadia. Should be an entertaining series.

 

[AUS Fan]

The most telling thing to me was Petgrave on the late powerplay when the pass back to Shutron hopped over his stick and out of the zone. Petgrave got the puck in the neutral zone and lightly tossed the puck to the SMU forward standing along the boards. In my opinion, it looked all too intentional.

Are you saying Petgrave "threw" the game? Not sure what is being implied here?

 

[BruinsFan0877]

I said at the start of the season dont be fooled by SMU's winless pre season or dull start to the year they are still a top 3 team in the aus and will be dangerous, and here we are now, the Huskies in he AUS Final.

Im convinced this was all a master plan by coach steinburgh. like 2010 when he fell ill and came back and they won it all, his early season leave of absence was the plan all along he knew what he was doing, this is what he envisioned. Is there a better head coach in the CIS than Steinburgh??? I dont think so. Peters may have been outstanding in the series, but the team came to play and played a fantastik team game. Best of luck to the Huskies

For now my heart bleeds Red seems UNB just cant win in mens Hockey : (

Vienneau was stellar but still a strange call to start After Lavigne really hasn't done no wrong

While UNB was full of Skill and Talent, I said all year they were also smaller and less physical than ever before, which doesnt bode well for playoff hockey. It will be interesting to see where they go from here. while they have a great core of 2nd and 1st year players they are losing alot of leadership and experience

I believe Stieny missed the beginning of the 2008-09 season.

And if winning the national title in 4 of 7 years implies you 'can't win in men's hockey', I'm really sorry.

 

[radapex]

Are you saying Petgrave "threw" the game? Not sure what is being implied here?

There was still something like 6 or 7 minutes left in the third period at the time, but it really seemed like Petgrave had just given up. All season, he'd been the type of player to try to make something happen - but not this time. This team just didn't seem to have the fight that we've come to expect out of Gardiner's squads.

When they were upset in the CIS at home two years ago, it was a disappointing loss but there wasn't an ounce of quit in that team. They played and pressured right to the final whistle.

 

[AUS Fan]

Final Series (Best 3-of-5): Saint Mary's (5) vs. Acadia (2)


Game 1: Thursday, March 6 - Saint Mary's at Acadia, 7:00pm

Game 2: Friday, March 7 - Saint Mary's at Acadia, 7:00pm

Game 3: Sunday, March 9 - Acadia at Saint Mary's, 7:00pm

Game 4: Monday, March 10 - Acadia at Saint Mary's, 7:00pm

Game 5: Wednesday, March 12 - Saint Mary's at Acadia, 7:00p


UNB fans can ignore this.....

 

[Drummer]

Final Series (Best 3-of-5): Saint Mary's (5) vs. Acadia (2)


Game 1: Thursday, March 6 - Saint Mary's at Acadia, 7:00pm

Game 2: Friday, March 7 - Saint Mary's at Acadia, 7:00pm

Game 3: Sunday, March 9 - Acadia at Saint Mary's, 7:00pm

Game 4: Monday, March 10 - Acadia at Saint Mary's, 7:00pm

Game 5: Wednesday, March 12 - Saint Mary's at Acadia, 7:00p


UNB fans can ignore this.....

ignored

 

[Rob]

Four games in five nights again.

 

[AUS Fan]

It is tough to play 4 in 5, but you may play 3 in 3 at the Nationals. In this case travel is not a big factor. If the series goes 5 games the winner has a week to repair before Nationals begins. If a team loses a guy in game 5 I'm sure they would rather have a week off than 3-4 days. It's all relative, I guess.

 

[Rob]

Any chance of D'Orazio coming back?

 

[AUS Fan]

Any chance of D'Orazio coming back?

Don't think so, but the Acadia coaching staff think he's skating.

 

[cishockeyfan]

The most telling thing to me was Petgrave on the late powerplay when the pass back to Shutron hopped over his stick and out of the zone. Petgrave got the puck in the neutral zone and lightly tossed the puck to the SMU forward standing along the boards. In my opinion, it looked all too intentional.

I think what u saw out of petgrave was simply nerves, while Peters may have stole games 1 and 3, UNB struggled more and more as game 4 went on and they were lost in the third. In the end SMU deserved to win.

Unb runs into this every year teams adjust to a playoff tight d game against them.

No matter how good UNB s teams have been since gardener has taking over, the power play has never been great. And they're never seems to be an adjustment. It's been the last 2 years of culligan on the right circle, before that it was hunter Tremblay for 3 years same spot, before that rob hennigar for 3 years, Ryan Lindsey the previous 2. Always top scorer right face off circle, second best scorer in the right corner to behind the net. It's always been the same with too much passing.

 

[AUS Fan]

Good points made here. Other teams will Not play run-and-gun with UNB and Gardiner can't/won't adjust. Skill players don't want to muck in the corners. There may be such a thing as too much talent.

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

No matter how good UNB s teams have been since gardener has taking over, the power play has never been great. And they're never seems to be an adjustment. It's been the last 2 years of culligan on the right circle, before that it was hunter Tremblay for 3 years same spot, before that rob hennigar for 3 years, Ryan Lindsey the previous 2. Always top scorer right face off circle, second best scorer in the right corner to behind the net. It's always been the same with too much passing.

Their PP was really good in 2007/08 (48 PP goals, 29.1%), 2008/09 (37, 22.6%), and 2009/10 (49, 26.6%)...then again those were 3 out of the 4 years Tremblay was here...probably not a coincidence.

I do agree though that they are pretty predictable...although this year they tried the cross-ice pass quite a bit more than I ever remember...but that seemed to be their go-to move all the time...it might have caught teams off guard at first but after awhile they are going to catch on.

I think what frustrated my the most with their PP was their insistence on trying to skate the puck into the zone every time against SMU...by game 4 SMU had 5 guys stacked across the blue line, would easily force the turnover, and dump it right back down the ice. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

 

[AUS Fan]

"I think what frustrated my the most with their PP was their insistence on trying to skate the puck into the zone every time against SMU...by game 4 SMU had 5 guys stacked across the blue line, would easily force the turnover, and dump it right back down the ice. Lather. Rinse. Repeat."


Deja vu all over again. Same thing happened in 2010 against SFX. At least in a must-win game 3 which I saw.

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

Acadia takes game 1 by a 6-3 score...only watched the last 10 minutes so I don't really have any great insight. Noticed D'Orazio was back for SMU.

 

[AUS Fan]

Interesting game where both teams scored 3 PP goals. After a so-so 1st period where each team scored a PP goal, the 2nd period was entertaining. SMU had some sustained pressure after the 2nd Acadia goal but then the Axemen took over. 5 on 5 Acadia was the better team. Neither goalie was required to make any great saves and most of the goals were screen shots. The one exception would be Makin's goal which Peters should have had. Acadia killed off a 5-3 PP for almost a full 2 minutes early in the 1st period.
D'Orazio did play (tip of the hat to the Acadia coaching staff for sniffing that one out), but was not very effective 5 on 5. Missing a good part of the 2nd half with a broken hand sustained at FISU and then the injury at UPEI on the final weekend does not make for good conditioning. Bloodoff, Tanaka, MacAuley were some of SMU's better players. Tipoff and Johnston were not. Acadia was able to roll 4 lines with the Trask line contributing solid minutes. Jon Girman played sparingly but was a strength on the PK with shot blocking and solid defensive play. The Acadia defence was active most of the game.

SMU will have to win Friday night with the same roster while Acadia gets Dylan Anderson back to play with Gaynor and Ekelman.


Edit: Joel Ridgeway, not Jon Girman

 

[AUS Fan]

Game 2 AUS Final.

This game had more of a playoff feel to it. Shots were limited by both teams. Peters was called upon to make a couple of good saves early in the game. Then it settled in to a fairly close checking game. Acadia ended up with a slight edge in shots. The winning goal came when Doornboch lost the puck coming out from behind his net. Beaton waited for an eternity before sliding the puck over to Randall who had an open net. Doornboch was the victim again late in the third with Peters pulled for the extra attacker. His long pass came to Gibbons at center ice, who quickly fired the puck 90 feet into the open net. Ekelman scored an empty netter about 45 seconds later.
Chris Owens was injured midway in the second period. With SMU on the PK the puck was iced and Owens went back to retrieve it with Hillier hot on his heels. As he neared the end boards, Hillier gave him a little shove in the back which caused Owens to go hard into the boards. He stayed down for a while and came off under his own power. He did not return. Hillier was given a minor for boarding. Definitely a dangerous play on the part of Hillier.
SMU was the recipient of 6 straight penalties including the Hillier call. Shades of UPEI. I would assess 4 of them to be legit. Acadia, while not as blatant, did get away with a couple of subtle hooks and pick plays. Good on them if they can do it. Unlike the previous game, the PP was absent.
SMU must respond on Sunday night to stay alive. After giving up 3 goals 5-on-5 in game one, the Huskies were better in this game, but Acadia still had the edge in play. If SMU had a healthy D'Orazio and Beyers and Stickland in the lineup the results MAY be different. But, it is what is is.....