Tigers Hockey Recap

Laura Shearer’s Tigers are poised for an AUS Championship run.

Photo Credit: Nick Pierce

Women good: Men bad... but Improving.

Last week I reviewed the first term performances of the Men’s and Women’s Soccer and Basketball teams.

This week I’ll be writing about the AUS championship contending women’s hockey team and the rebuilt Tigers men’s hockey team.

Tigers Women’s Hockey

The women’s hockey team have definitely met expectations in Tiger Town after one term of play. The only thing that slowed down this team was the swine flu in early November. The Tigers came into the season looking to make the jump from middle of the pack to contender in a conference that has been dominated in recent years by Moncton and Saint FX.

Mission accomplished.

Dalhousie has been very tough against Tier 2 teams like Saint Mary’s and St.Thomas, while taking care of business against the weaker teams in the conference. They finished the term with a 7-3 record for third place, but they had 2 games with teams from New Brunswick postponed due to the swine flu epidemic.

Head Coach Lesley Jordan and Captain Laura Shearer have both said they expect to win the AUS conference championship. Heading into the second term this ambitious team will need to find someone who can score on a regular basis besides Jocelyn Lemieux. Lemieux leads the team with 19 points, 11 greater than Robin Nicholson and Fielding Montgomery, tied for second with 8.

The Tigers have a losing record this season against the X-Women and Blue Eagles, although they

have played both teams tight on route to a combined 1-2 record.

The Tigers are loaded on the defensive end with a crop of big solid players mixed in with feisty skaters who can move the puck and quarterback the powerplay.

Goaltender Ashley Boutlier has been stellar with a 2.26 G.A.A.

The Tigers will need scoring output from other players if they are going to take down St FX and Moncton. The team gets an early test with a pivotal match up vs. the Blue Eagles on January 9th at the Dalhousie Arena.

Tigers Men’s Hockey

Revamped, reloaded, and rebuilding were all adjectives used in September to describe the Dalhousie Tigers. Pete Belliveau spent the entire summer on planes, trains, and automobiles to try and turn around a program that has been the worst in the country since 2003.

“Honestly I thought things would be a little bit better by this point,” said Coach Belliveau in an interview last month, referring to the team’s 2-8-2 record. That interview came an hour before the Tigers biggest win of the season, a drubbing of the St FX X-Men at the Dalhousie Memorial Arena. The Tigers finished the term the next night with a gritty overtime loss to the powerhouse SMU Huskies. Dalhousie has 9 points heading into January, 3 less than Belliveau’s anticipated goal of 12.

The Tigers are on pace to win 6 – 7 games, but could get close to 10 if Benjamin Breault is as good as advertised. The former 7th round pick of the Buffalo Sabres joins the team after a short career playing professional hockey in the East Coast League. Breault figures to bring some scoring punch to a team that is desperate for a legitimate sniper.

“Three lines of Guy Carbonneaus” is how Tiger’s Colour Commentator on ssncanada.ca, Steve Betts, has described the team, referring to their inability to put the puck in the net. Dalhousie has shown toughness and team speed, but goals have been at a premium.

The team has suffered from undisciplined play, receiving no fewer than 4 suspensions for illegal hits, and has looked completely lost for long stretches in their own zone. The stellar play of rookie netminder Bobby Nadeau has kept the Tigers in many games and given the team opportunities to pull games out late. Nadeau was lost for several weeks in November to swine flu.

With Moncton struggling and UPEI going through turbulent times, the Tigers have a chance to make the AUS playoffs for the first time in several years. Pete Belliveau is in year 2 of his 3 year rebuilding program, and a trip to the second season would be a significant step forward for the program.

Next Week: Men’s and Women’s Volleyball

bill@haligonia.ca
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Playing Santa Claus

Les Berry, the Head Coach of the Halifax Rainmen, hopes Santa brings a PBL championship.

Gifts to Local Halifax Sports Personalities if I was Chris Cringle

Andre Livingston, Owner of the Halifax Rainmen- More Basketball Fans at Rainmen Games
Livingston has done his part to try and make minor professional basketball work in Halifax. The Rainmen brass have put together a very competitive package for the Halifax sports market; A competitive team, local players and coaches, charismatic personalities like Eric Crookshank and John Strickland, games that have an “event” feel, and television coverage. Throw in the Weather Girls, Puddy, and Little Nate, and the Rainmen provide a lot of value for the price of a ticket. With the PBL all star game in Halifax and a Rainmen team that should go deep into the playoffs, this could be the year the franchise makes it big. If not, the writing may be on the wall for Livingston that Professional Basketball is not going to work in a city that has been a Mecca for university basketball in Canada.

Les Berry, Head Coach of the Halifax Rainmen – A PBL Championship
With the amount of talent, depth, and diversity Berry has put together on the Halifax Rainmen, the coach may find himself being held accountable if the team does not make a championship run. Berry’s biggest challenge is going to be distributing playing minutes to a roster that can go 10 deep. The only friction could come from players on the cusp of the starting line-up or eight man rotation. Berry will probably not have to worry about dissention from players like Gary Gallimore, Devon Norris, and John Strickland. Strickland seems to relish his role as a 12th man fan favourite and third assistant coach, while Norris and Gallimore have to be thrilled just to be on the roster. As the season progresses the only thing that could keep this team from the playoffs is dysfunction and coaching. The latter is not likely with the well travelled Coach Berry, but he’ll find himself front and centre in blame distribution if the Rainmen season begins to go south at any point this winter.

Cam Russell, Head Coach and GM of the Mooseheads – Moose keep playing .500 hockey.
Having survived a 12 game losing streak that had gone far past the point of acceptance with the dedicated Mooseheads faithful and local media, Russell has guided the team to 8 wins. After losing 18 of their first 20 games, the Mooseheads have played .500 hockey and miraculously still have a chance at a playoff spot. The Moose even have a win over the Saint John Sea Dogs, far and away the best team in the Q. As Russell continues to build towards year 3 of his rebuilding project, he’ll need to win close to half of the team’s remaining games as a nice show of faith to Moose fans. Herd Nation has been patient to say the least with Russell, enduring a horrific season last year and hanging in there as the team looked awful in October. Russell keeps telling us the Mooseheads are on schedule and will be much better in the second half. For his sake he better be right, another extended losing streak and the local media might finally start putting the heat on Bobby Smith to make a change.

Trevor Steinberg, Head Coach of SMU Huskies Hockey– A Return to CIS National Championships.
After the Huskies collapse last year in the CIS Semi Final to Western, Coach Steinberg and his troops need a return trip to get the program back on track. The AUS champions have looked shaky at times this season but have managed to gain 21 points, good for third place in the AUS, the most competitive conference in the countr. St FX and Acadia have emerged as contenders for number 2 in the standings, as the three schools battle to become fodder for the undefeated UNB Varsity Reds in the AUS Final. However, a trip to the final would get Steinburg back to nationals and an opportunity for redemption from last year’s stunning defeat.

John Campbell, Head Coach of Dal Men’s Basketball – The Return of Josh Beattie to a Tigers line-up that has not received consistent play from 5th year senior Andrew Sullivan and athletic newcomer Mari-Peoples Wong.

Steve Sumarah, Head Coach of SMU Football- A recruiting class with size, size, and more size; Sumarah needs to beef up the lines so that the Huskies can avoid a third straight CIS semi final loss in 2010.

Ross Quackenbush, Head Coach of SMU Men’s Basketball – A fourth player to emerge as an offensive threat so that the team doesn’t have to ride their talented trio of Ikeobi Ucheqbu, Mark Mclaughlin, and Joey Haywood.

Halifax Lions- More butts in the seats at the Halifax Forum. The MJAHL team has played winning hockey the past 2 months and are slowly climbing the standings. However it has yet to translate into any dramatic increase in attendance. The organization does a lot of very good things and hopefully will turn the corner at some point.

Anna Stammburger, Head Coach of Dal Women’s basketball- A healthy Alex Legge and a late season push at a playoff spot. With Legge and April Scott back in the Tigers line up, expectations will increase on the struggling program as March approaches.

Gary Galimore, Halifax Rainmen – A season of good behaviour. The notorious hothead is still remembered for hitting a minor official last year in Cape Breton as an assistant coach at St FX. Gallimore got into a heated exchange with a Quebec player last weekend in a preseason game at the Metro Centre. Gallimore needs to avoid making the news for wrong reasons.

Pete Belliveau, Head Coach of Dal Men’s hockey- Goals. Belliveau’s revamped Tigers have struggled mightily to score. Tigers colour commentator Steve Betts has described the team as “three lines of Guy Carbonneaus”. Help is on the way in the form of Benjamin Breault, a five year player in the QMJHL who was a 7th round selection of the Buffalo Sabres.

Saint Mary’s Athletics- Webcasting. The Huskies may be the most renowned athletics program in Canada that does not offer webcasting of home games. Newscast.com covers the Men’s Hockey team but St FX, Dalhousie, Cape Breton, and UPEI offer extensive webcasting of all their programs. Dalhousie even covers swimming! Get in the game SMU.

ACAA Men’s Basketball – One team that can stay within 10 points of Rick Plato’s Mount Saint Vincent Mystics . MSVU has now about 100 conference games in a row.

Lesley Jordan, Head Coach of Dal women’s basketball – A Secondary Scorer- As her team tries to compete with Moncton and St FX for the AUS championship, Jordan needs another player to step up and help high scoring forward Jocelyn Leblanc.

Halifax Sports Fans- A Mooseheads playoff spot, a Rainmen championship, a packed Metro Centre for the Briar, and a return of championship basketball in March.

Merry Christmas friends!
bill@haligonia.ca
Twitter- haligoniasports

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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.