X-Men, Acadia raise curtain on 2024 AUS Men's Hockey post-season

Quarterfinal winners move on to play UNB/Moncton

QUARTERFINAL SERIES #1 – STFX (3) vs Acadia (6)

(Feb. 14, 2024) - The 2024 AUS men’s hockey post-season gets underway tonight with Game 1 of a best-of-three quarterfinal matchup between the third-seeded STFX X-Men (16-13-1-0) and the sixth-ranked Acadia Axemen (9-16-2-3). Puck drop is set for 7pm in Antigonish.

STFX comes into the series as the favourites, beating the Axemen 4-1 in their five games played against each other this season. Their 3.73 goals per game vs the 2.33 goals per game Acadia averaged also seems like a bit of a mismatch, but it was the Axemen who allowed less goals per game – letting in an average of 3.26 goals, while STFX allowed 3.43.

If Acadia can find a way to get its offence going, they could possibly steal a game during this series.

Help might be on the way for the Axemen, who could see the return of Brady Burns to their lineup. He registered 21 points (7 goals, 14 assists) in 24 games before getting injured and sitting out the last six games of the season. If Burns is healthy, he could be the spark Acadia is looking for.

Offence will not be a problem for the X-Men.

They are led by the duo of Matthew Struthers and Liam Hawel. Both players finished inside the Top 10 of league scoring with Struthers placing second with 46 points (17 goals, 29 assists) and Hawel sitting sixth with 37 points (12 goals, 25 assists).

Not to be forgotten is Jacob Hudson, who found the back of the net 18 times this season – second best in the AUS.

Keeping those three off the scoresheet will be no easy task, but nevertheless, Acadia netminder Thomas Couture will give it a shot. Couture started 21 games for the Axemen this season and recorded a .915 save percentage – third best in the AUS.

Joseph Raaymakers will carry the workload in net for the X-Men. He started an AUS-best 26 games and made a league-topping 803 saves.

The last time these teams met in the AUS playoffs was just last season with Acadia sweeping STFX 2-0 in their quarterfinal matchup.

STFX’s last AUS title came back in 2017, while Acadia’s last banner was earned in 2014.

Game 2 of the series will be played Saturday night in Wolfville at 7pm. If a Game 3 is needed, STFX will host on Monday, Feb. 19 at 7pm.

QUARTERFINAL SERIES #2 – Saint Mary’s (4) vs UPEI (5)

Thursday night will see the start of the second quarterfinal best-of-three series between the fourth-ranked Saint Mary’s University Huskies and the fifth-seeded University of Prince Edward Island Panthers.

Just three points separated these teams in the AUS standings, and while the Huskies won the season series 4-1, two of those victories were decided in overtime/shootout.

Offensively, the teams seem like mirror images of each other. SMU had 93 goals for, UPEI had 92. Both teams had leading scorers that produced 28 points – Declan McDonnell for Saint Mary’s (12 goals, 16 assists), Kaleb Pearson for UPEI (18 goals, 10 assists).

The difference comes on defence, as the Huskies allowed an average of 2.93 goals per game while the Panthers allowed 3.73 – second worst in the league. UPEI will need to tighten things up if they hope to advance to the semifinals for the first time since 2019.

Both teams split their goaltending workload. The Huskies have Matt Welsh and Jeremy Helvig, but it was the latter who suited up in four of the five games against UPEI, earning the win in three of those contests.

In the other crease, UPEI features Jonah Capriotti and Joe Ranger. Capriotti started five of their last six games to end the regular season, including their 3-2 win over SMU on Feb. 2.

Saint Mary’s and UPEI met in the quarterfinal round back in 2022 and 2020 with SMU getting the best of the Panthers each time. Both years saw one of their games go into double overtime, so fans could be in for a treat this time around.

The Huskies last lifted the AUS trophy back in 2010. UPEI’s last title was earned back in 1991.

Game 2 of their series will be played on Saturday, Feb. 17 in Charlottetown at 7pm. If the teams split Games 1 and 2, Game 3 will go Monday, Feb. 19 at 7pm at the Dauphinee Centre.

The winners of these series will advance to the AUS men’s hockey semifinals where the Moncton Aigles Bleus and UNB Reds are waiting.

UNB, as everyone is aware of by now, is riding high after finishing the regular season a perfect 30-0. The reigning AUS and U SPORTS champs will be a very tough test for whoever should line up across from them.

Moncton finished the regular season in second place with a 16-11-3-0 record, but are sputtering a bit going into the post-season. In their final 10 games of the regular season, the Aigles Bleus went just 5-5. The extra time off should prove beneficial as they search for their first AUS title since 2007.

All games can be watched on AUStv.ca.