Photo credit Waterloo Athletics
| Saint Mary's | 0 | UNB | 1 | Final - 2OT | Box Score |
| AUS Final - Game #1 | |||||
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Source: : Nick Murray, UNB Sports Information FREDERICTON, N.B. - It was a battle of the top two teams, and goaltenders, in the AUS last night at the Aitken Centre, and after over 80 scoreless minutes of hockey, Dion Campbell scored in double-overtime to lift UNB to a 1-0 win over the Saint Mary's Huskies in game one of the Subway AUS men's hockey finals. Campbell's goal at the 14-minute mark of the second overtime came at a point where Huskies goalie Anthony Peters kept Saint Mary's in the game with one huge save after another, and where Peters had stopped 40 shots to that point. The game-winning play started as a tired Saint Mary's line couldn't clear the zone and Colby Pridham took the puck around the net and centered it. With the puck deflected, Nick MacNeil batted it out of mid-air but hit the far post. The puck came to rest right on the goal line for a good two seconds before a diving Campbell poked it in to seal it for UNB. "I got the puck in the slot on my backhand and I threw it at the net," described Campbell. "Nicky took a swing at it and it just plopped. The goalie was out and I thought it was rolling in the net so I put my hand up [in celebration] and the boys got excited on the bench…but it stopped dead on the line. The guys on their team swung and missed but luckily I got there in time." However the goal didn't come without any objection from the Huskies bench, and head coach Trevor Steinburg said he thought MacNeil touched the puck with his stick above the crossbar. "We thought it was a high stick," said Steinburg. "We're still not positive that the puck was touched by anybody other than them again. So we thought it may have been blown down." Despite UNB goalie's Dan LaCosta's first playoff shutout, Peters was named third star for his efforts. Peters hadn't allowed a goal for over 179 minutes - dating back to the second period against Acadia on Jan. 23rd, said while it's disappointing to fall after a hard fought effort, he's not dwelling on what's already happened. "Anything can happen," said Peters. "We'll regroup and we'll have the home crowd revved up so hopefully the boys will feed off that. Hopefully we work hard and get some bounces to give ourselves a chance to win." Game two of the best-of-three series in set for Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Halifax. All AUS playoff games can be viewed online at AUSTV.ca
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| Windsor | 3 | Waterloo | 5 | Final | Box Score |
| OUA West final - Game 2 | |||||
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Source: Dan Ackerman, Waterloo Sports Info WATERLOO, Ont. - Waterloo Warriors forward Andy Smith (Rosetown) is heading home for a visit in a couple weeks – and he's taking his entire team with him. Smith, a Saskatchewan native, scored the eventual game-winner in the second period as the Warriors punched their ticket to Saskatoon for the University Cup national championship tournament with a 5-3 win over the Windsor Lancers in game two of the OUA West division final on Saturday night in Waterloo in front of a capacity crowd. The win completes the series sweep for the Warriors, who eliminated the OUA West's top three seeds en route to an unlikely division crown. Waterloo will now go on to play in the 102nd Queen's Cup OUA Championship game next week, before heading west for the CIS tournament starting March 14. Smith was credited with a pair of goals, but it appeared his first of the game actually belonged to Colin Behenna (Waterloo). Behenna finished with a pair of assists, and Kain Allicock (Markham) celebrated his 23rd birthday with a goal and an assist. Keaton Hartigan (Kitchener) was once again solid in the Waterloo net, making 37 saves for his sixth win in seven games this postseason. The Lancers got goals from Christian Steingraber, D.J. Turner, and Brett Oliphant, and Drew Palmer had 2 assists in a losing cause. Windsor goaltender Parker Van Buskirk, unbeatable for much of the postseason, allowed five goals on 30 shots as the Lancers' season ended. The Warriors weathered an early Lancer storm in the first period before Justin Larson (Buckhorn) ignited the crowd, hopping out of the penalty box and into the rush just in time to find Van Buskirk's 5-hole, making it 1-0 for the hosts. Windsor responded on a power play just 61 seconds later, when Evan Stibbard found a pinching Steingraber, who rifled a shot over Hartigan's blocker to even the score at 1 apiece after 20 minutes. Windsor came out with even more jump in the second, and the Warriors were hemmed in for much of the first three minutes. But it was Waterloo that got the game's next goal, when Smith pressured Van Buskirk on a dump in, and the Lancer goalie turned the puck over to Behenna who appeared to fire it home – although the goal was credited to Smith. The Warriors continued their torrid second period just before the midway point, when Matt Amadio (Sault Ste. Marie) broke in along the right wing and found a trailing Riley Sonnenburg (Cambridge), who made no mistake from the high slot to make the score 3-1 Waterloo. The Lancers refused to go away though, as Turner completed a gorgeous solo effort by defenceman Kenny Bradford to make the score 3-2. In the late stages of the second period and with the Lancers coming hard, it was Smith who turned the tides for good on the power play. He took a cycle pass from Allicock behind the net, jumped to the near post, and backhanded it over Van Buskirk's left pad to restore Waterloo's 2-goal lead. Despite Windsor's best effort, Hartigan kept them at bay and the Warriors led 4-2 through two periods of play. Just before the six-minute mark of the third period, Windsor once again silenced the raucous crowd when Oliphant grabbed a loose puck off a broken play and roofed it to cut the Warriors lead to 4-3. But just over two minutes later, the birthday boy gave the Warriors the insurance they needed, as Allicock popped out of the corner, was allowed to skate to the high slot, and beat Van Buskirk on the blocker side to make the score 5-3. The large crowd once again erupted as time ticked down, and when Kirt Hill (Winnipeg) cleared the zone with less than 10 seconds remaining, the Waterloo bench was able to exhale. After exchanging handshakes, the Warriors saluted the sold-out crowd in what was, by far, their biggest crowd of the year. The Warriors know they'll be part of the Queen's Cup OUA
championship game next week, but they still don't know where that
will be. If Carleton wins the decisive game three of the OUA East
final, Waterloo will travel to Ottawa to play the Ravens. But if
UQTR takes game three, Les Patriotes will make the trip to Waterloo
for the title game. Notes: Waterloo went 1-for-2 on the man advantage, while Windsor went 1-for-4…The win was head coach Brian Bourque's 150th combined regular season or playoff victory. Bourque, in his 8th year, has averaged more than 18 wins per season in his tenure…Waterloo will make their first appearance in the Queen's Cup game since their last provincial title in 1996.
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| Saskatchewan | 5 | Alberta | 4 | Final - OT | Box Score |
| Canada West final - Game 2 | |||||
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Source: Paul Cartledge, Alberta Sports Info The former Medicine Hat Tiger netted the series-extending tally 1:27 into the extra frame, the Martensville, Sask. native picking up four points on the night while fourth-year forward Andrew Bailey had a goal and two assists. Ex-Calgary Hitmen Kyle Bortis added a couple of helpers and third-year forward Kenton Dulle scored a single. Third-year rearguard Jesse Craige led all Bears with three points (all assists) while sophomore forward Levko Koper (one goal, one assist) and third-year forward Johnny Lazo (two assists) each put up a pair. Former Seattle Thunderbird Travis Toomey, team captain Greg Gardner, and fourth-year blue-liner Colin Joe each added singles. Toomey opened the scoring with his second goal in as many games, the Leduc, Alta. native taking a quick, short pass from Koper from behind the net, going just inside the far post for his third of the playoffs at 6:59 of the opening frame. Bailey replied at 10:46 when he tipped a Brett Ward wrister in the high slot, the puck then ricocheting off a defender to find the top left corner of the Alberta cage. The goal also broke Kurtis Mucha’s impressive shutout streak of 335:06, going a few minutes longer than the modern-day NHL record of 332:01 set in 2003-04 by Brian Boucher of Phoenix. Alberta retook the lead at 12:38 when Koper roofed a short-handed tally in the middle of the Saskatchewan zone but the teams entered the dressing rooms knotted at two when Bosch got his first of the night on the power-play with 2:30 left to go in the first, Mucha getting a pad on the forward’s first shot attempt, but unable to stop him from slamming home the rebound. Two late penalties in the opening 20 minutes led to four-on-four hockey to start the second, yet it was just as Huskie Derek Hulak was getting back on the ice that Joe fired a short-handed howitzer just inside the Saskatchewan blue line to put the Bears back on top 57 seconds into the middle frame. Alberta then increased the lead on a five-on-three power-play when Gardner cleaned up a Kruise Reddick slapshot at 6:52. The Huskies would reply again late, however, a couple of quick passes in tight leading to Bosch’s second goal, sliding the puck underneath Mucha’s pad at the 17:12 mark of the second period. As the final seconds ticked down in the frame, Brett Ferguson, who notched the game-winner on Friday, had a clear-cut breakaway but the former Red Deer Rebel struck iron right before the buzzer sounded. The metal kiss proved to be costly for the home team, when a goalmouth scramble led to Dulle potting a loose puck over a helpless Mucha to tie the game up at four with 6:28 left to go in the third period. Excited by a near-capacity crowd at Clare Drake Arena, the two teams put up a fervent pace in the final minutes of the frame, but neither team could get a point-blank chance to draw blood. Yet after a couple of potential rushes by Lazo into the Saskatchewan end to begin overtime, Bosch came down the right wing and, from the faceoff circle, roofed the winner over Mucha’s glove, making it Alberta’s third-straight post-season loss to the Huskies in extra time. Saskatchewan finished the night 1-4 on the power-play, giving up two short-handed goals, while Alberta went 1-5. Game three of the Canada West championship will be at 6 p.m. on Sunday. Game notes: Saskatchewan won last year’s conference semi-final with two straight overtime victories in games two and three of the series...Mucha’s shutout streak is the longest in modern-day play for the CIS, the WHL, and the NHL, but it falls short of the NCAA record of 375:01 set by Blaine Lacher of Lake Superior State, obtained February 26 to March 2, 1994. |
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