Field almost set for University Cup

The sixth and final team for the Canadian Interuniversity Sport men's hockey championship will be determined tonight.

The Saint Mary's Huskies will host the St. Francis Xavier X-Men in the fifth game of the Atlantic University Sport semifinal at 7 p.m. at the Halifax Forum.

The Huskies forced Game 5 with a 4-1 win Sunday night in Antigonish, N.S.

The winner will advance to the Cavendish University Cup presented by Home Depot, to be held March 24-27 at the Aitken University Centre.

The host University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds will face the SMU-St. FX survivor in the AUS final, which is to be completed by March 18. It hasn't been finalized whether the final is a best-of-five or a best-of-three.

If it's a best-of-five, the series would start Friday at 8 p.m. at the AUC and continue Saturday at 7 p.m. The later start on Friday is due to the UNB women's basketball team playing Western Ontario in the Eastern Regional semifinal at 6 p.m. at the Pit.

A best-of-three could start as early as Thursday night with the second game Saturday in Nova Scotia. Regardless, the V-Reds will be playing in their fifth AUS final in six years after beating the Acadia Axemen three games to one.

Chris Culligan is the latest UNB Valley Graphics male athlete of the week for his role in the series. He had two goals and two assists, including game-winners in the first and fourth games, and also set up rookie Nick MacNeill for the winner to end the longest game in CIS men's hockey history, a 3-2 quadruple overtime win in 121:53.

The other four teams that have qualified for the University Cup tourney include the University of Alberta Golden Bears and Calgary Dinos from Canada West, along with Montreal's McGill Redmen and the Western Mustangs from London, Ont.

Alberta-Calgary and McGill-Western will play best-of-three series for seeding purposes leading up to Nationals.

In the Canada West semifinals, Alberta swept the Manitoba Bisons 4-0 and 2-1 while Calgary beat the Saskatchewan Huskies 4-1 in the third and deciding game. The Huskies had tied the series with a 3-2 win after losing the opening game, 4-2. Western knocked off Guelph 4-1 and 4-2 while McGill eliminated the UQTR Patriotes 6-1 in the deciding game. The Redmen had won the opener 5-3 at home, but the Patriotes rebounded to post a 6-1 victory in Trois-Rivieres.