Lions Ready for Nationally Ranked Slammers

Undefeated Woodstock Visits the Forum Thursday Night

The MJAHL Halifax Lions have been pretty happy with themselves and their play over the last month. Since starting the season with 3 straight losses, the Lions had been 10-7-2 with a 4 game winning streak before being dismantled last week at home in a 9-2 loss to Summerside.

The Lions looked like a team that had grown a little too confident and it showed in their lacklustre play. The Capitals came in aggressive and hungry and led the game from start to finish winning in a rout.

A similar performance vs. the undefeated Woodstock Slammers this week, and the Lions could lose by double digits.

There will be no room for error for Coach Troy Ryan and his troops. However they should have some confidence heading into the highly anticipated match up. The last time Woodstock came to Halifax, the Lions took them to overtime before losing on a goal by Slammer’s star player Brogan Bailey.

This was before the addition of high scoring Brendan Taylor, when the team was struggling to score goals. With Taylor, the newly acquired Brad MacDonald, and the return of Stephen Woodworth and Mike Rofsky, the Lions can score in bunches. The only issue heading into Thursday is which team will show up; the Lions who won 4 games in a row at the start of the month, or the team that looked lethargic and disinterested last week vs. Summerside.

Lion’s fans hope it’s the former.

Game time is Thursday night at 7:00 at the Forum on Windsor Street.

Slammers to Watch
# 21 Brogan Bailey- 20 Goals and 18 Assists
# 11 Michael Best- 19 Goals and 18 Assists
#26 Andrew Langan- 16 Goals and 21 Assists

The Slammers have 8 players with point totals well above the Lion’s leading scorer (Travis Perry, 19 pts), including 6’4” defenseman Brad Tesnick who has 27....... Brad’s younger brother, Ryan, may be the best prospect on the team. The 16 year old has 14 points on the season and can really fly.......The Slammers are 26-0 with 1 shootout loss. They are currently ranked 8th in the country. The Slammers got a scare last Thursday. Troy Ryan’s former team the Pictou Crushers took the Slammers to OT before eventually faltering in their upset bid.

Troy Ryan hopes to have everyone back on the same page for the game. There was a notable lack of effort by several key players vs. Summerside.......Travis Perry continues to lead the Lions in scoring with 19 points. Robbie Veriker and Wayne Bedecki have 15. Kyle Dilosa is coming up fast on the leaders with 8 goals and 6 assists. Brendan Taylor has 10 points in 6 games.......16 year old Stephen Woodworth is back with the Lions after a couple weeks with Lewiston in the QMJHL. Woodworth is paired up once again with the veteran Kyle Mariani. Brad Macdonald, the brother of John, has joined the team and Coach Ryan has the pair on a line with Stuart Lenihan. The brothers Macdonald look appear to have played allot of hockey together over the years to say the least. The Lions are 2 points behind Amherst for last place in the Maurice Bent division with a record of 10-11-2.

Halifax Lions Update

Summerside Rolls Over Halifax at the Forum
Lion’s 4 Game Winning Streak Snapped in Rout

That loud thud you heard last night on Windsor Street was nothing to be alarmed about. Unless you’re a Halifax Lions fan.

It was simply the sound of the Lions crashing back to earth after getting soundly whipped at the Halifax Forum 9-2 by the visiting Summerside Western Capitals.

The loss snapped the Lions 4 game winning streak and dropped them to 10-11-1 on the season, 5 days after they climbed to .500 and matched the previous year’s win total with a resounding 6-2 victory over the rival Bridgewater Lumberjacks. The Lions had outscored their opponents 26-8 during the streak and had won their games at the Forum in an eerily easy fashion.

It was role reversal by classic definition last night as Summerside cruised to victory after scoring the game’s first four goals. Goaltender Paul Dorsey stopped 53 Lions shots on route to garnering the game’s second star (although in the press box everyone agreed 53 shots was a highly inflated total). Steven Brazil led the Capitals attack with 2 goals and 1 assist. Brazil also gave a Sean Avery type performance, getting under the skin of several Lions with questionable antics that drew the ire of his opponents while firing up his teammates.

In one notable example, Brazil skated by the Lion’s bench and gave an elbow to Wayne Bedecki as he stood watching the game. Brazil’s actions led the way to a series of altercations that should make for an interesting rematch when the 2 teams hook up tomorrow night in Summerside.

The Capitals improve to 15-11 on the season, good for 3rd place in the Meek Division. The Lions remain in the basement of the Bent Division, 1 point behind Yarmouth and Amherst.

Brad Macdonald and Stuart Lenehan scored goals for Halifax.

The Lions next home game is Thursday, December 17 vs. the Woodstock Slammers. The Slammers are ranked nationally and still undefeated after a shootout victory last night in Pictou. Game time is 7:00 at the Halifax Forum.

The New Kid in Town

Newly Acquired Taylor Leads Lions Revival
High Times at the Forum as Lions Beat Campbellton 10-2

Troy Ryan may have solved his team’s lack of scoring prowess with one simple move; the acquisition of Brendan Taylor.

Just last week the Lions were one of the lowest scoring teams in the league. Travis Perry was the team’s leading scorer with a dozen points, while most of the other teams in the MJAHL had 4 or 5 players in the twenties or high teens.

Enter Brendan Taylor.

Since joining the team last week, the former Gatineau Olympique has been the focal point of a Lions offence that literally scored at will vs. visiting Campbellton on Sunday afternoon.

Taylor has 9 points in the three games, including a six point game vs. the Tigers that featured his first career hat trick.

Taylor has also lit a spark under the Lions big left wing sniper, Kyle Dilosa. Ryan has Taylor on a line with Dilosa and Justin Belanger, and Dilosa has turned into a one man wrecking crew.

Seemingly frustrated and underachieving prior to Taylors acquisition, Dilosa went on a tear this past week, compiling 3 goals and 3 assists while looking dangerous on nearly every shift. Dilosa had so many chances on Sunday it’s a mystery he only scored once.

Taylor’s presence seems to have installed confidence throughout the entire line up. The line of Perry, Robbie Veriker and Wayne Bedecki seem much more comfortable as the #2 combination, while third liners like Andrew Wigginton and Chris Riguse had multiple point games on Sunday.

Two of Taylor’s goals were so impressive that the crowd’s reaction was more of a “jaw drop/what did I just see” reaction rather than a boisterous rise of applause. As the Lions scored their 8th goal halfway through the second period, even Lions fans seemed to feel agony for the struggling Tigers team. Campbellton dropped to 3-18 on the season with the loss.

The Lions improved to 8-10-2 on the season, 8-7-1 in their last 16 games, and just 3 points out of fifth place in the Bent division.

Lions’ fans are starting to get excited for the upcoming rematch with the nationally ranked Woodstock Slammers. The Slammers are 20-0-1 on the season and just cracked the Top 10 rankings in Canada. The last time the Slammers came to Halifax, they barely escaped with an overtime win off a goal from leading scorer Brogan Bailey. Woodstock will be in Halifax for the rematch on Thursday, December 17 at the Forum.

In the meantime, the Lions will try to extend their winning streak to 3 this Thursday, December 3rd, vs. the Dieppe Commandos at the Forum. The Commandos are 7-15-2 for 4th place in the Meek Division. Game time is 7:00.

News and Notes
Defenseman Michael Rosky is back with the Lions after spending time with the Quebec Ramparts in the QMJHL. Lions’ defenseman Ian Saab is back in the Q, he rejoined the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles last week.....Congratulations to SMU Huskies Head Football Coach Steve Sumarah. Sumarah was selected as the CIS Coach of the Year for 2009, earning the 4th year coach the prestigious Frank Tindall trophy last week in Quebec City. Coach Sumarah has been a regular on my radio show, CKDU Sports, and was also on Haligonia Sports during the Tall Ships Festival. Forthcoming, honest, and genuine, the Coach is always an outstanding interview and a class act. Sumarah will add the award to his trophy shelf beside his 3 AUS Coach of the year awards. The Coach will tell you he would trade them all in for a trip to the Vanier Cup I’m sure, but the award is well deserved regardless.....The AUS and QIFC have negotiated an extended deal for interlock football through 2012. The deal will see each AUS team get 1 interlock game a year, while each Quebec team gets 2 games total through 2012. The contract has to be a disappointment for the conference, as the previous contract stipulated 2 games a year for each team. However, considering there was talk of Quebec walking away from an extension, the AUS has to be pleased. Next season we finally get a Laval/SMU game. The Rouge et Or will visit Huskies Stadium on September 18 for a game that will be one of the premier sporting events in Halifax next fall. The AUS conference will still have an 8 game schedule, with two teams having to play each other 3 times. Yikes!.........Rogers is giving away 10000 Halifax Rainmen tickets for their exhibition opener on Dec. 19 at the Metro Centre (see haligonia.ca homepage). Halifax Rainmen home games will be shown all season long on Haligonia.Ca. The regular season starts in early January.......Do you know who the 13th Rider was? There were reports that it was Jason Armstead, the returner in the endzone in case of a missed field goal. This assertion is ridiculous, as the Riders would have wanted a return man back there to bring the ball out in case of a miss. The game was 28-27, and a team can get 1 point on a missed field goal if the ball clears the end zone or is not returned past the goal line. Chances are very good that we’ll never know who the 13th Rider was, and that it was a coaching mistake. But it will be fun to hear the conspiracy theories as time goes on. Personally, I’m going to wait 5 years until things cool down, and then I’m moving to Saskatchewan to write a book. The title: “The Unsolved Mystery of the 13th Rider.” Follow me on Twitter, just search Haligoniasports. Please email me at bill@haligonia.ca.

Dilosa Sparks Lions Attack

Halifax Drops Amherst for Third Time in November
For the second time in 7 days the Halifax Lions easily dispatched of the Amherst Ramblers. The Lions have now beaten the Ramblers three times in November, outscoring them 14-3 in the process.
The Lions improve to a record of 7-10-2 while Amherst drops to 10-12-1.
Kyle Dilosa led the way for Halifax with 2 goals and 1 assist. The newly acquired Brendan Taylor has made an early impact on the offensive end for the Lions. The Oshawa, Ontario native and former Gatineau Olympique has 3 assists in 2 games and has found a connection with Dilosa. The two big forwards clicked on a line with Justin Belanger that accounted for 3 Lions’ goals.
Taylor has taken over control of the power play and created a lot of scoring opportunities for the Lions with the man advantage. The "pass first" centre seems to have lighted a spark under Dilosa who had his best game of the season.
It didn’t hurt that there were scouts from the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles and Saint John Seadogs in the crowd at the Forum. Dilosa played briefly with the Seadogs last season and is hopeful for a return to the QMJHL.
Wayne Bedecki scored on the powerplay for the Lions who are now 7-7-1 in their past 15 games. Stuart Lenehan added a shorthanded goal and Andrew Wigginton scored his seventh goal of the young season.
The game featured a flurry of goals in the second period as the teams went back and forth. The Ramblers narrowed Halifax’s lead to 3-2 with 2 minutes left in the second. That’s when Belanger and Taylor assisted on Dillosa’s second goal of the night to secure the victory for the Lions just before the end of the period.
The Lions next game is Sunday at the Forum vs. the Campbellton Tigers. The Tigers have the league’s worst record at 3-16-2. Game time is 3:30.

Uteck Bowl Recap

Dinos Win Uteck Bowl; Nill and Glavic Triumphant in Return to Huskies Stadium

This past Saturday, Blake Nill walked into Huskies Stadium for the 2009 Uteck Bowl with the swagger of a man walking into his own house. The former Huskies head coach was returning to face his old friend and former school in one of the most hyped football games in the city in recent memory.
As the sun set in the south end of Halifax and darkness began to loom over the Tower at Saint Mary’s, Nill reminded all the Huskies faithful and maritime football observers why he won 2 CIS championships as Head Coach at SMU just about a decade ago.
Nill’s new team, the Calgary Dinos, looked very much like the number 2 ranked team in the country, controlling both sides of the ball and leading from start to finish in a 38-14 drubbing of the Huskies.
Nill shocked the Halifax sports community when he announced he was leaving a Saint Mary’s program that he had turned into a national powerhouse to take over the Calgary Dinos. The Dinos situation was eerily similar to the one Nill has assumed at Saint Mary’s; a once proud program now down on its luck and eager to return to glory. Like clockwork, Nill took the struggling program and turned it into a winner almost overnight, just as he had done with the Huskies.
The Dinos have now won back to back conference championships and will play in their first Vanier Cup since 1995.
Matt Walker ran for 235 yards on 20 carries with 2 Touchdowns on route to garnering Uteck Bowl MVP. Walker broke the game open early with a 69 yard touchdown run highlighting a 125 yard first quarter performance that sealed the Huskies fate while many of 5700 fans were still trying to find seats. The Huskies faithful were never able to generate enthusiasm as the Huskies attack sputtered throughout the contest, leaving the honours to about 40 Calgary fans sitting behind the Dinos bench to make the most noise on this day.
Steven Lumbala also ran wild on the Huskies, adding 156 yards to a Calgary ground attack that had many Huskies fans fondly remembering the days when Blake Nill’s Huskies used to run the ball down the throats of AUS opponents.
Eric Glavic returned to Huskies Stadium where he once performed so many incredible feats as the 2007 Hec Creighton Trophy winner, while leading the Huskies to the Vanier Cup, a game he never played in due to injury. Glavic was a non factor on this day, throwing for a pedestrian 77 yards as he gave way to the high octane Calgary running game which made the highly touted Huskies rush defence look painfully average.
Now healthy and wearing Dino’s red, Glavic will get his chance to win a Vanier Cup next week at Laval. The Dinos will play the Queen’s Golden Gaels after the Gaels upset national powerhouse Laval Rouge et Or 33-30 in Kingston.
The game will be a bitter pill for Rouge et Or fans to swallow, as it was assumed their home team would be playing in the national championship trying to defend their title. If Laval had beaten Queen’s, the match up of Calgary and the Rouge et Or would have been the biggest football game in the team’s history. With Laval now relegated to watching from the stands, it will be surprising if the 16000 capacity stadium comes anywhere close to reaching its maximum attendance.
Glavic’s replacement at Saint Mary’s, Jack Creighton, struggled for the second straight year in a national semi final, throwing 3 interceptions. Creighton was the victim of a strong wind in the face of the Huskies offence in the opening quarter, and the vaunted Huskies ground attack was never able to get going, leaving Creighton with plenty of second down and long yardage situations. Tristan Jones was still suffering from an injured shoulder, leaving his brother Devon and Truro’s Craig Leger to pick up the slack on the ground. Leger led the Huskies with 63 yards.
Fifth year senior Carl Hardwick, whom Justin Palardy called the toughest guy on the team in an interview last week on Haligonia Sports, closed out his outstanding career with 8 catches and 102 yards.
Huskies Head Coach Steve Sumarah was a picture of class as always in defeat. Sumarah made his way to midfield and gave Nill, his former friend and mentor, a quick hug before shaking hands with Calgary assistants. Tension has been high between the two since Glavic’s departure from Saint Mary’s. Nill and Sumarah were always close as coaches with the Huskies and even roomed together on scouting trips after Nill left the program.
Sumarah then gathered his troops on the Huskies side of midfield and led the team in prayer and gave one final salute to the seniors. The loss has to be a bitter one for Sumarah, despite his incredible string o success since taking over the head coach position 4 years ago.
The 2009 Uteck Bowl came and went with barely a whimper, and now were left to ponder a game that had so much promise and anticipation. The Huskies were never able to get anything going against a clearly superior team, and the loss brings to a close what could arguably be the most disappointing season of AUS football in years.

Notes from the AUS
Had my first experience with a Flipcam on Saturday for the Uteck. All the videos I shot in the first half are sideways.....Forgot to have the camera rolling when Nill and Sumarah hugged after the game. It was pretty quick and void of emotion....the constant blaring of music and advertising really took away from the game. Do they really have to play a song between every single play?.....Looks who’s back: The X-Men basketball team. Coach K came into the Dalplex on Sunday and beat the nationally ranked Tigers by 11 points gaining a measure of revenge for last season’s loss in the AUS championship. It was a 4 point game in the standings so that’s a huge win for the undefeated X-Men......I talked to Coach Ross Quackenbush last week at Dalhousie and he mentioned being concerned about playing a 2 game set in NFLD vs. an improved MUN team. Sure enough the Huskies had to settle for a split.....Sean Gillis, the voice of the Rainmen, was talking AUS bball with me on the sidelines at the Uteck and he said any talk of the conference being down this year is highly exaggerated. Dal, Cape Breton, Acadia, X, and Saint Mary’s are all looking very good. It is a year where the bottom 3 teams may not be that great, with MUN showing the most promise. UNB and UPEI look like they are going to struggle....Covered the Dal Men’s Ice hockey game for ssncanada.ca on Friday and the Tigers played very well in a 3-2 loss to Acadia. The Axemen are playing solid, disciplined hockey and are currently in second place in a conference that has 2 of the 3 best teams in the country, the undefeated UNB V-Reds and the Huskies.... If you get a chance to see the UNB Varsity Reds men’s hockey team play this year, take it. They are very, very good. Right now they are 11-0 and I would not be surprised to see them go undefeated in the country’s toughest conference. The Reds play the Huskies on Jan.15 and the Tigers on Feb.6 (ssncanada.ca).....I wouldn’t want to be a Huskies hockey player this week. Chances are very good that Trevor Steinburg is not pleased with his squad dropping 2 games over the weekend, including 1 over a UPEI team that has had a very distracting week with their head coach resigning.

Uteck Bowl Preview on Haligonia Sports

This friday join me and Coach John Macneil of Eastlink for a preview of this weekend's Uteck Bowl, pitting the Calgary Dinos and the Saint Mary's Huskies. Emotions will be running high at Huskies Stadium as former Head Coach Blake Nill and former star Quarterback Eric Glavic return to Halifax to play Steve Sumarah's AUS champion Huskies.

Haligonia Sports will be live this friday at Noon on haligonia.ca! Get ready for the big game with me and Coach Macneil, as we break down the most highly anticipated Uteck Bowl in years!
See you then!

Capers AUS Soccer Champs. Great Scott! April's Back.

Hero to Goat in 60 Seconds: The Curious Case of Jimmy Mayaleh

Two weekends ago I covered the AUS Men’s Soccer championships at Dalhousie University for ssncanada.ca. It was certainly one of the most bizarre yet beautiful championship weekends I had ever been associated with.
The three day event was chalk full of upsets, individual flashes of brilliance, contentious altercations between players and fans, and of course, a classic Halifax weekend of weather that forced the postponement of games and brought freezing cold temperatures to the pitch once play finally got started.
On quarter final Saturday, only one goal was scored through 2 games, a brilliant header by the magical Olivier Babineau in the closing minutes of overtime during game one, giving Moncton an upset win over UNB. In the second game, Danny Mcalleer won the match for PEI in penalty shots, after Saint Francis Xavier’s outstanding rookie, Max Mound, saw his attempt go harmlessly wide of the right post. If you watched the game on ssncanada, you could hear the shivering and shallow breathing of me and Matt Fegan as we called the last hour of the game in freezing temperatures.
On semi final Sunday, the four teams combined for 14 goals, both contests finishing with a 4-3 score. In the opener, Cape Breton scored 4 goals in the first half, and then had to hold on as Cinderella Moncton made a late charge to draw within 1 goal, but could not get the equalizer. In the day’s finale, last year’s AUS champion Dalhousie Tigers were upset on their home pitch by the upstart PEI Panthers. Jerrod Murphy and Jimmy Mayaleh played brilliantly in leading UPEI to the stunning win over the heavily favoured Tigers.
The final was played Monday morning on a beautiful, sunny day in Halifax. Cape Breton held a 1 goal lead well into the final minutes, when Jimmy Mayaleh found open space for the first time in the match, and drilled a strike past the Cape Breton keeper to tie the game at one.
Charlottetown’s Mayaleh was an instant hero for his hometown school, and to celebrate he ran around the field while removing his jersey. This earned him an automatic yellow card, seemingly an easy price to pay for the amount of joy the underdog Panthers felt as they drew even with the mighty Capers.
However just seconds after Cape Breton kicked off, Mayaleh let loose with a vicious and unnecessary challenge at midfield that drew another yellow card, earning Mayaleh an ejection from the match.
Mayaleh walked off the pitch looking like a man desperate for a hole to crawl in. The same turf that, just 1 minute previous, he had been dancing around minus his shirt, celebrating the goal of the tournament. Down to 10 men, the Panthers would go on to lose to the Capers, Keishon Bean scoring the game winning goal just 20 seconds into the first overtime to give Cape Breton an AUS Championship.
As a result of the red card, Mayaleh was forced to miss the team’s opening match at nationals this past weekend vs Laval, a match the Panthers would lose 3-1.
One of the great things about watching college and university athletes is the constant balance between incredible feats of performance and mind boggling mistakes of innocence. These athletes do things that make you jump out of your seat and simply marvel at the level of performance they can obtain. They also make mistakes, usually a result of the immensity of the moment that can simply break your heart. That’s when you step back, take a moment, and remind yourself: they’re just kids.

AUS Notes and Observations
The Dalhousie Tigers Men’s basketball team is very legitimate. I covered the Tiger’s games this past weekend vs. Memorial. Although the Tigers were inconsistent against the scrappy Seahawks, the disparity in talent levels between the two teams was very evident. Simon Farine is looking like the best player in the AUS, while newcomers Joe Schow and Mari Peoples-Wong showed flashed of brilliance in both games. Schow gives the Tigers the first legitimate big man in the John Campbell era, while Mari Peoples Wong may be the most athletic player in Tigers history.......I chatted with Scott Munro, head coach of SMU Huskies basketball on Sunday. The coach seems very happy with his Huskies team thus far. First year guard Justine Colley is as good as advertised and Laure Pitifield has brought alot of experience and offence to a Huskies team that was desperate for a presence in the post......The AUS Men’s Volleyball conference will be business as usual for the Dalhousie Tigers. Memorial is still a bad team while UNB does not appear to be much better than last season’s 8-10 effort. The Tigers swept the Reds fairly easily in weekend action at the Dalplex. The Reds actually hung close on Friday but were dismissed quickly in straight sets on Saturday.......Can’t wait for the Uteck Bowl. Dream match up for Huskies fans; the return of Blake Nill and Eric Glavic. The Huskies will have Devon Jones for the game, still no word on his brother Tristan. I had an interview with placekicker Justin Palardy on Friday’s episode of Haligonia Sports http://live.haligonia.ca/halifax-ns/sports/6276-haligonia-sports-episode-18-.html........ April Scott is back. I was covering the women’s volleyball game at Dalplex on Saturday for ssncanada when I looked down and saw April Scott walking around in a Tiger’s basketball uniform. I literally rubbed my eyes. AUS coaches must feel like Scott has unlimited eligibility. The 5th year senior is taking Dental Hygiene at Dal and decided mid week to dress up for the Tigers after taking last season off. Scott’s presence in the backcourt is a godsend for Coach Anna Stammburger as she has been playing rookies Trish Mcneil and Anna Von Maltzahn along with senior Rachel Harrison. The combination had been getting killed by full court pressure but Scott brings the type of ball control and smarts that makes everybody on the team better. 5th year posts Laura and Leah Girdwood got multiple easy baskets all weekend with Scott in the line-up, while Harrison was arguably the Tigers best player. The return of Scott paid immediate dividends, as the Tigers claimed their first victory of the season on Sunday vs. a tough Memorial Seahawks squad....This weekend I’ll be covering the Dalhousie Tiger’s men’s hockey game vs Acadia on Friday night at 7:00 on ssncanada.ca. Also tune in to CKDU Sports Tuesday at 10:30 am on CKDU 88.1 or ckdu.ca, and I’ll have a special Uteck Bowl preview show on Friday’s Haligonia Sports with Coach John Mcneil of Eastlink. The show airs Friday at noon on haligonia.ca.

Tigers Get First Win; AUS Soccer Championship Preview

Hockey Tigers Get First Win
Pete Belliveau’s Dalhousie Tigers men’s hockey team got their first conference win this past Friday night at the Dalhousie Memorial Arena. The Tigers withstood a late rally from the Moncton Blue Eagles to win 6-4.
The Tigers have 11 fresh faces on this year’s rebuilding squad, but it was a familiar face that led the way in this contest.
Captain and 4th year senior Jeff Larsh scored a hat trick to pace the Tigers, his third marker coming at the midway point of the second period.
Larsh’s first goal came 30 seconds into the game and was followed a minute later by a highlight goal from Kenzie Sheppard. A streaking Sheppard took a long pass from Ben Van Lare and scored on the breakaway with a nifty backhanded move.
Trevor Mackenzie also scored for the Tigers and Ronald Kelly added an empty netter to put the game away late in the third period.
Dean Ouellet scored a goal and added an assist to garner player of the game honours for Moncton. Bobby Nadeau stopped 33 shots for the Tigers to get his first victory of his university career, after playing 5 years in the QMJHL.
The next afternoon at the arena, the Tigers played the St.Thomas Tommies to a standstill after 70 minutes of regulation and overtime, but lost in the shootout.
Dartmouth’s Cory Banfield returned to the HRM as a Tommie and scored the game winning shootout goal. Banfield also scored in the first period on route to being named player of the game.
Patrick Sweeney led the Tigers with 2 assists. Ronald Kelly added a goal and registered a stellar two way performance to spark a Tigers comeback late in the third. Trailing 3-1, the Tigers scored 2 goals to force overtime and ensure themselves of at least a point in the standings.
The Tigers are now 1-3-2 and are tied for last place with Moncton. The Tigers have shown strength at the Memorial Arena, now 1-0-2 after 3 home games.
Dalhousie plays Acadia Wednesday night in Wolfville, and then come home for a pair of weekend games, vs. PEI on Friday night, and the UNB Varsity Reds on Saturday night. Both games start at 7:00 and can be seen live on ssncanada.ca.

AUS Soccer Championships at Dalhousie
The reigning AUS Champion Dalhousie Tigers men’s soccer team will play host for the 2009 championships. The Tigers will be the number 2 seed and play their first game on Saturday at 3:00 vs. the highest remaining seed from Friday’s quarter finals. The Cape Breton Capers are the tournament’s top seed and will play the lowest remaining seed on Saturday at noon.
#3 UNB plays #6 Moncton at Noon on Friday, followed by #4 UPEI vs. #5 St Francis Xavier.
Weather is expected to be a major factor for Friday’s games. The forecast is calling for heavy rains and cool temperatures. Saturday’s games should see crisp but clear weather, while Sunday’s final is expected to be a beautiful day.
Tigers Head Coach Pat Nearing was a guest on CKDU Sports this past Tuesday. Nearing said that the flu epidemic will probably be a bigger storyline than the weather. The Tigers have had players miss time the last couple of weeks due to illness, and he thinks the other teams are in the same boat.
If the Tigers make it to the final vs. Cape Breton, coach Nearing hopes to take advantage of the Capers attacking style. “(The Capers) are quick. Their whole team has an attacking mentality,” said Nearing. “They come at you in waves and it could create some opportunities for counter attack, a chance for one on one with our strikers. If that happens, I fancy our chances.”
Nearing also added that when the Tigers lost to Cape Breton in Sydney, they were without the services of starting strikers Hamzeh Afani and Michel Daoust-Wheatley.
Finally, Nearing warned fans not to book Cape Breton and Dalhousie as automatic participants in Sunday’s final. “The AUS is so tight and soccer is the cruellest of sports,” said Nearing. “It’s a game of upsets, affected by weather, surface....you could dominate a game from start to finish and lose 1-0.”
The entire tournament will be shown on ssncanada.ca. Join me and Matt Fegan at 12:00 on Friday for the first game of the 2009 championships.

Notes and Observations
Despite the Halifax Mooseheads horrible record, and the fact they are a bad hockey team, I’ve written on several occasions that, at the very least, they play hard and give it everything they have. Which is why I was so disappointed to read on Friday morning several Mooseheads players saying they came out flat and unprepared for their loss to Montreal on Thursday night at the Metro Centre. When you are 1-17-1, how do you possibly come out flat for a home game vs. a mediocre team? You’d think they would have been geared up for a possible win, considering there may only be 8-10 wins on the table for the rebuilding squad this year.....Does the Blue Jays announcement to keep Cito Gaston as manager 1 more season before turning him into a consultant seem strange to anyone else? What good does this do for the organization? Make him a consultant now and let the new GM hire a new manager. What can Cito do for the Jays in 2010 besides mismanage his pitching staff and inspire absolutely no one to do any more than the bare minimum......Watching Pedro Martinez pitch with a mid-eighties fastball and a beer gut is fun. A stark contrast to the days when he was a fire-baller with the Sox and looked about 140 pounds soaking wet. But the guy can still pitch, although, as I write this, Matsui just took him deep in game 6 (“who’s your daddy?”)....AUS basketball starts this weekend. The Tigers play UNB on Friday night while the Huskies have a tough 2 game set in Cape Breton. The women’s games will be very interesting with the defending champion Capers hosting the new and improved Huskies with their highly touted recruiting class.....the Acadia Axemen walking into Antigonish this weekend and beating the X-Men in the AUS Football semi-final would be akin to the Miracle on Ice in 1980, when a gutsy bunch of Americans led by Ken Morrow beat the Soviet Union. Even if Acadia manages to hang tough with the X-Men, the Gary Waterman “love in” on campus could come to a crashing halt. But it’s not going to happen. X wins by 21 points at least.....The Dalhousie Tigers women’s basketball team could be in for a rough November. After looking very unimpressive in pre-season, the Tigers have a tough first term conference schedule featuring games against MUN, CBU, and X. The Tigers are desperate for Alex Legge to return, but she won’t be back until January. Until then the team’s youthful backcourt will have its hands full with some very physical and experienced opponents.

Dalhousie Hockey Weekend Recap

Women’s Hockey Gets Big Win at Home
The Dalhousie Tigers gained a huge confidence building win over one of the top teams in the AUS women’s conference on Friday night at the Memorial Arena. The tilt can be seen on ssncanada.ca. http://www.ssncanada.ca/game/603/

The Tigers defeated Saint Francis Xavier 4-3 in a game that featured a plethora of thrills, goals, and physicality. It was the Tigers second win of the season giving them 4 points in the early stages of the conference schedule.

Last year’s leading scorer and third year forward, Jocelyn Leblanc, lead the way with 1 goal, 1 assist and stellar two way play en route to garnering player of the game honours for Dalhousie.

Carolyn Campbell scored 2 goals and was named player of the game for the X-Women.

The Tigers pounced on the X-Women early in the second period with two goals, but X pushed back later in the period with two markers of their own to draw within a goal. Despite a valiant and desperate effort in the third period, the X-Women could not get the equalizer.

Two days later the Tigers lost a heartbreaker at Saint Mary’s. The Huskies would get the game winning goal on the power play by Kyla Thurston with 1:17 left in the third period.

The Tigers will take a 2-2 record to Moncton for a game the 2009 AUS Champs on Friday night.

Men’s Hockey Still Winless

Pete Belliveau spent the entire summer on planes, trains, and automobiles to try and rebuild the Dalhousie Tigers men’s hockey team. The second year coach brought in nearly a dozen new recruits in an attempt to turn around a program that has been the worst in Canada over the past 6 years.

So far it’s been the same old Tigers.

Dalhousie lost 2 games in New Brunswick, 4-2 to Moncton, then a shellacking to the St. Thomas

Tommies, 9-3.

Goals have been hard to come by for the Tigers. After 4 games the team has scored a total of 9 and are still searching for their first win of the season.

Patrick Sweeney, Jordan Gagne, and Francois Gauthier lead the team with 3 points each. Daniel Bartek has 13 shots on goal but has only managed to put one puck in the net.

First year goaltender Bobby Nadeau allowed 5 goals in 30 minutes in a relief effort vs St. Thomas. Asides from that dismal outing, Nadeau has been stellar and has kept the Tigers in contention in several games. Nadeu has faced the most shots in the AUS so far this season.

As Belliveau’s talented recruits learn how to come together and play winning hockey, Nadeau should get used to seeing a lot of pucks.

This weekend the Tigers will try to get their first win as they host two games that can be seen on ssncanada.ca. The Moncton Blue Eagles come to town on Friday night for a 7:00 match up, while the Tigers will look for revenge against St.Thomas on Saturday at 2:00.

Huskies Host X-Men in Pivotal Showdown;Home Field Advantage for Playoffs on the Line

This Friday’s showdown between Saint Mary’s and Saint Francis Xavier at Huskies Stadium lost a little bit of lustre on Saturday when the X-Men were routed at home to the Bishops Gaiters.
Instead of a classic undefeated #1 vs. a hungry #2, we now have two teams tied for first playing for a bye and home field advantage for the AUS Championship.
Not a bad substitute.
The winner is essentially guaranteed of a one loss season and first place, the loser will be destined to finish 6-2 and have to host lame duck Acadia in the AUS Semi-final, then travel to play in the championship game.
After this weekend, SMU and X will finish their season vs. Mount Allison and Acadia respectively. An upset by either the Mounties or Axemen is highly unlikely.
The X-Men beat the Huskies way back at the start of September, 24-19, on a beautiful day in Antigonish. The storyline of the game was the lack of focus and sense of entitlement from the Huskies, said to be reading too many newspapers and thinking they could waltz their way to the Uteck Bowl.
Since then the Huskies have looked more impressive each week, blowing out weak sisters MtA and Acadia, while winning tough games vs. Mcgill and Sherbrooke. The X-Men were starting to make believers of AUS sceptics, until they collapsed vs. a Bishops team they were expected to beat soundly.
Advantage: Huskies.
Saint Mary’s comes into the game on a 5 game winning streak. The Huskies have outscored their opponents during the winning streak 185-81. Quarterback Jack Creighton has been steady after a disastrous 4 interception effort at STFX to begin the season. Creighton has thrown for over 300 yards twice and has shown the ability to spread the ball around to multiple targets.
The emergence of the Jones brothers running attack has propelled the offence. Devon and Tristan have combined for 796 yards; Devon has 6 rushing touchdowns while Tristan averages over 7 yards per carry.
The Huskies defence is holding opponents to 16 ppg and hasn’t surrendered more than 24 points all season.
Special teams have been the X factor for SMU all season. Placekicker Justin Palardy is 17-20 in field goal attempts en route to becoming the AUS record holder for successful kicks made in a career. Palardy is also perfect on 21 Point after attempts. Kick returner Jahmeek Murray is averaging 17 yards per kickoff return and nine on punt returns.
Steve Sumarah has to like his chances. His biggest challenge this week may be to make sure the Huskies show up on Friday night ready to play.
Focus was not a problem for Gary Waterman’s X-Men, until last week when his team became victim to the classic “trap” game. The X-Men had to be looking ahead to the big game this week in order to lose so badly at home to a team they should have been able to beat with a solid effort.
Despite the road-bump, there’s no reason to believe X can’t win in Huskies Stadium.
QB Steve Snyder is the favourite to win AUS MVP. The fifth year senior has averaged 317 yards a game and will likely finish the season with over 2500. Fellow senior, James Green of Halifax, has been solid on the ground, averaging 3.5 yard per carry for a total of 307. The trio of Peter Giannikopulous (35 catches), Akeem Foster (27), and Mark Metulynsky (27), form a talented and dynamic group of receivers.
The X-Men have been solid on defence all season, allowing only 14 ppg. Tom Lynch and David Skillen have been monsters with 42 solo tackles between them, while Dylan Hollohan has 5 interceptions to lead the secondary.
The game may come down to field goals, in which case the advantage clearly goes to the Huskies with Palardy, who may be the best placekicker in the country.
Excitement is building for what should be an incredible game. There will be lots of X rings in the crowd, with proud Xavier alumni attached. The Huskies student body have been coming out in full force so far this season, and the “old dogs” alumni section will be packed as always.
Based on the way the Huskies have been getting better each week, and the way they handled a decent Mcgill team in Montreal last weekend, I have to go with the home team in this showdown.
Take the Huskies by 7points in what should be an incredible football game.
Kickoff is at 7:00 at Huskies Stadium on the campus of SMU. For some strange reason, Eastlink has chosen to show the Acadia/MtA game on Saturday so the only way to see it is to head down to the stadium.