Familiar foes meet

AUS | X-Men and UNB battle in conference final beginning Friday at AUC

Brad Peddle and the St. Francis Xavier X-Men are living in the moment.

Despite the fact they're guaranteed a return trip to Fredericton and a ticket to the Cavendish University Cup here in a couple of weeks, Peddle says the Atlantic University Sport championship that will be up for grabs beginning Friday night at 8 p.m. at the Aitken Centre is important.

Game 2 in the best-of-five is scheduled for Saturday night beginning 7 p.m. at the AUC. Dates for the remainder of the series have yet to be determined.

"You've got eight teams in our league and you've only got two of them that can play for the AUS championship," he said. "There's a lot on the line. You don't get an opportunity to win the AUS championship every year, and that's what people have to understand...there's too much pride, too much competition and compete level on both clubs for this just to be a walk in the park because both teams are going. We expect their best game and they can certainly expect ours."

V-Reds won all four regular season meetings between the teams, 6-2 and 6-1 in the first half, 4-1 and 2-1 in the second. Of course, the X-Men have recent playoff history on their side: they ruined the V-Reds' run at a perfect regular season and then swept them in straight games in last year's AUS semi, ultimately losing the AUS final to Saint Mary's - which, of course, went on to win the national title.

X-Men turned the tables Tuesday night, coming back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Huskies in double-overtime in front of 4,685 fans at the Halifax Forum. Justin Munden and Ryan Rorabeck struck a little more than three minutes apart in the first period and the Huskies looked like they were off and running to the CIS tournament. Er, not so fast.

"It was obviously an outstanding win," said Peddle. "We're pretty proud of the group and the effort they put forth. After they got up 2-0 (Tuesday) night, the easy thing would have been to say 'We blew it in Game 4, they're up 2-0, let's just ride it out. But this team wasn't about to do that. We were fortunate to score that quick power play goal in the second and that got us going."

That would be a Bryce Swan power-play marker 37 seconds into the second period. Linemate Jason Bast, with his fifth goal of the post season, tied it up at 7:09 of the second. Phil Mangan scored the game winner early in the second OT, and the X-Men, who won the first CIS men's hockey title in their history on Aitken Centre ice in 2003, punched their ticket for a return to the scene of past glory March 24-27.

"This is what we wanted," said Peddle. "We had a goal for this hockey club at the beginning of the year. We knew UNB was going to the nationals...we wanted to be the other team. I thought we got better and better as the year went. We certainly got the matchup that we wanted and obviously, UNB is excited about the matchup too. You've got two teams that have a strong rivalry and a lot of pride in both programs that are going to go at it here."

After all, Peddle points out, there's a title -- and a very prestigious title -- at stake now.

"At the end of the day, you want to win a championship," said Peddle. "There are no guarantees at the CIS level. Once you get there, yes, you have a chance. But we have a chance right now to win the AUS championship and that's going to be our focus. Obviously the seedings are a concern, too," he said.

The identities of the six teams have already been determined: University of Alberta and Calgary from Canada West; Western, of London, Ont. out of Ontario West, McGill Redmen of Montreal from Ontario East, the X-Men and the V-Reds.

"Yes, it's a quick turnaround for us, but you can spin that the other way and say that when things are going well, you want to keep going," he said.

"They've had a couple of days off, but they had a four overtime game too that was as good as two games. So we're kind of even on that playing field. We went five, they went four and three-quarters. And it's not like they didn't have a physical series against Acadia."

Just as the four regular season wins for the V-Reds this season seem like a long time ago now, so does the playoff sweep of last season as far as Peddle is concerned.

"This is a new year, it's a new group," said Peddle. "They have a new group, we have a new group. Obviously, we have a lot of guys from our team last year who remember that experience in that building, and the atmosphere, and I'm sure they're going to use that. At the same time, it's not something we're going to dwell on. Last year was last year. It's all about the now."

In the now, Bast leads all playoff scorers with five goals and eight assists through seven post season games, one better than linemate Hulit, who has 5-7-12 in the post season,which began for the X-Men with a two game sweep of the Dalhousie Tigers. Third on the post season list is the V-Reds' Hunter Tremblay, with a goal and five assists in four games.