Category: Team Stories

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Axemen veteran has chance to finish university career with national title

GLENN MacDONALD SPORTS REPORTER  ChronicleHerald.ca
Published March 19, 2014 – 7:23pm
Last Updated March 20, 2014 – 1:18pm
Acadia defenceman Leo Jenner lifts the trophy after the Axemen won the AUS men’s hockey championship over the Saint Mary’s Huskies on March 10. (TIM KROCHAK / Staff)
Acadia defenceman Leo Jenner lifts the trophy after the Axemen won the AUS men’s hockey championship over the Saint Mary’s Huskies on March 10. (TIM KROCHAK / Staff)

It took until Leo Jenner’s fourth — and likely final — Atlantic university hockey season to earn a trip to nationals.

The Acadia defenceman and his Axemen were close twice before. Last season and in 2011, all they had to do was reach the conference championship and they would’ve punched their tickets to nationals either as the AUS champion or as a wild card. But each time they lost in the semifinals, falling a game short.

This season, they earned it. The CIS No. 2-ranked Axemen captured their first AUS banner in eight years to advance to the University Cup, which opens Thursday in Saskatoon.

“This was the hardest year for the Atlantic conference to do it,” said Jenner, a six-foot-four, 225-pound stay-at-home blue-liner.

“There were a couple times where all we had to do was make it to the AUS final. This year, we had to take the hard route by winning the whole thing just to get to the (CIS).

“It’s definitely more fulfilling to actually win something. We didn’t want the handout.”Read more »

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UNIVERSITY CUP: SEEDING, POOLS, SCHEDULE

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OTTAWA (CIS) – For the second straight year, the University of Alberta Golden Bears have earned the number one seed heading into the CIS men’s hockey championship in Saskatoon.CHAMPIONSHIP WEBSITE

The seeding and pools were announced Sunday for the PotashCorp University Cup presented by Co-op. The six-team tournament, hosted by the University of Saskatchewan, gets under way on Thursday at the Credit Union Centre and culminates next Sunday at 4:30 p.m. Atlantic Time with the gold-medal final, live on Sportsnet.

Sportsnet also has live coverage of the last two contests of the preliminary round, Saturday at 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. Atlantic, on Sportsnet 360. All seven games from the championship will also be webcast live on www.CIS-SIC.tv.

Joining Canada West champion Alberta at the competition will be the second-seeded Acadia Axemen (AUS champs), No. 3 Windsor Lancers (OUA champs), No. 4 McGill Redmen (OUA finalists), No. 5 Saskatchewan Huskies (hosts) and No. 6 Carleton Ravens (OUA bronze medallists).

Alberta will skate in Pool A with McGill and Carleton in the round-robin portion of the tourney, while Acadia, Windsor and Saskatchewan battle in Pool B. Opening day will see the Golden Bears take on the Ravens at 4 p.m. and the Axemen square off against the Lancers at 10 p.m.

The Bears are the most decorated team in CIS men’s hockey history with 13 University Cup titles. Acadia (2), McGill (1) and Saskatchewan (1) have also claimed the CIS banner in the past.

NOTES: A complete championship preview will follow on Tuesday… A meet-the-teams media conference is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. Atlantic on Wednesday at the Credit Union Centre… The CIS major award winners and all-Canadians will be announced on Wednesday night.Read more »

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Axemen Heelis named league MVP, Burns AUS Coach of the Year

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Story courtesy of hockey.acadiau.ca

HALIFAX, N.S. – Atlantic University Sport is pleased to announce the 2013-14 AUS men’s hockey major award winners and all-stars as selected by the conference’s eight head coaches following regular season play.

Third-year Acadia forward Liam Heelis of Georgetown, Ont. was named the Atlantic University Sport most valuable player.

Other AUS major award winners announced today were UNB’s Philippe Maillet of Terrabone, Que., who was named rookie of the year; UNB’s Chris Culligan of Howie Centre, N.S., who was selected as the most sportsmanlike player; StFX’s Murdock MacLellan of Mabou, N.S. who earned the Godfrey award for student-athlete community service; and Acadia head coach Darren Burns, who was named the AUS coach of the year for the third time in his career.

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER (Kelly Trophy): Liam Heelis, Acadia

The Atlantic University Sport men’s hockey most valuable player is Liam Heelis of the Acadia Axemen.

Heelis, a third-year forward from Georgetown, Ont., led the CIS in goals this season with 24. He led the AUS conference in scoring with 42 points in 26 games played. Also named a first team all-star today, he had an AUS-leading four short-handed goals and was second in power-play goals with seven. He also boasted the second most shots with 117.

He becomes the fifth Acadia player to claim the Kelly Trophy since 1979-80 and the second league MVP from the Axemen program in the past three seasons.
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The 2014 Subway Atlantic University Sport men’s hockey final playoff schedule is as follows (seeding is in brackets):

Final Series (Best 3-of-5): Acadia (2) vs. Saint Mary’s (5)
Game 1: Thursday, March 6 – Saint Mary’s at Acadia, 7 p.m.
Game 2: Friday, March 7 – Saint Mary’s at Acadia, 7 p.m.
Game 3: Sunday, March 9 – Acadia at Saint Mary’s, 7 p.m.
Game 4: Monday, March 10 – Acadia at Saint Mary’s, 7 p.m.*
Game 5: Wednesday, March 12 – Saint Mary’s at Acadia, 7 p.m.* (*if necessary)

The winner of this final series will advance to the CIS 2014 PotashCorp University Cup presented by Co-op being hosted by University of Saskatchewan at the Credit Union Centre in Saskatoon, Sask., March 20-23.

All games of the AUS championship series will be webcast at www.AUStv.ca.

Tickets available at the Acadia Box Office for games #1, #2, #5 at 1-800-542-84251-800-542-8425 or 902-542-5500902-542-5500.

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Beasts of the East: AUS Goalie Rankings

by Andrew Hastings  story courtesy of http://sportseh.ca on Jan-21-2014
The AUS has some beasts in net and here are the studs!

With perennial powerhouses Acadia and UNB pulling away in the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) standings, the success of both programs can be linked to strong play between the pipes. However, in ranking the Conferences’ best goaltending performances thus far, one must look beyond these probable selections and dig out some equally impressive goalie performances from the bottom half of the conference.


Photo Credit: Ted Pritchard/Chronicle Herald
At the risk of killing the suspense, we begin at the top with Acadia’s Evan Mosher in the number one spot. A somewhat obvious choice, Mosher’s stellar 1.91 Goals Against Average and equally impressive .927 Save Percentage are both tops in the AUS. In net for twelve of the Axemen’s fifteen wins this season, Mosher’s provided plenty of confidence to Head Coach Darren Burns. Currently in his third year with the Axemen, the Conception Bay, Newfoundland native has posted an impressive .800 win percentage and, prior to last weekend’s 5-3 loss to UNB, had yet to surrender more than two goals in a start since November 29, 2013.Read more »

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story courtesy of cis-sic.ca

2013 Winter Universiade: Culligan to captain Canada’s men’s hockey team

OTTAWA (CIS) – Chris Culligan, a forward from the reigning CIS champion University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds, has been named captain of the Canadian men’s hockey team for the 26th Winter Universiade, a few hours before the start of the biennial tournament in Trentino, Italy.

Canada heads into the competition as reigning bronze medallist thanks to a 3-1 win over Kazakhstan in the third-place match of the 2011 tourney in Erzurum, Turkey. The Canucks had previously dropped a 4-2 decision to defending two-time champion Russia in the semifinals.Read more »

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Locals integral part of Canada’s team at University Games

Newfoundland will be well represented on the Canadian hockey team which will take part in 2013 Winter Universiade (World University Games) Dec. 10-21 in Trentino, Italy.

Players Chris Owens (Acadia University) and Josh Day (St. Francis Xavier University) of St. John’s, along with Robert Slaney (St. FX) of Upper Island Cove will don Canada’s colours, while Brad Peddle of St. John’s will assist head coach Gardiner MacDougall. Peddle is in his ninth season as head coach of the X-Men.The team is comprised entirely of players from the Atlantic University Sport conference.Read more »