As Good as it Gets for Local Hockey
Courtesy Chris Cochrane, The Chronicle Herald
It’s as enticing a one-game hockey showdown as we’ll see in Nova Scotia this season.
At one end of the ice stand the St. F.X. X-Men, a team coached by former X star Brad Peddle and highlighted by an impressive core of talent. A young X team has finally come of age and is now itching for its turn to compete for a Canadian title.
At the other end are the Saint Mary’s Huskies, the defending national champions with an unquestioned leader in coach Trevor Stienburg. The battle-hardened Huskies already proved their mettle in last season’s march to a CIS title and now must win one more game to be guaranteed the opportunity to defend that crown.
On the line, in tonight’s fifth and deciding game of their AUS semifinal, is a berth in the conference final against powerhouse UNB, and most importantly, a guaranteed spot at the national championship University Cup that UNB will host later this month.
So the scenario facing these teams tonight is go to the nationals or go home.
And what better place to watch this drama unfold than at the historic Halifax Forum, the scene of so many great ice battles over the decades.
"We’ve got a strong rivalry with Saint Mary’s and both teams play like it every game," Peddle said. "And what you’re seeing in the playoffs is a carryover of that, but taking it to another level. I love the pressure of a game like this."
Peddle said it’s no surprise that a fifth and deciding game is necessary. These two clubs have basically been battling to get past each other all season. Saint Mary’s finished in second place with an 18-9-1 record while St. F.X. was third at 17-10-1, only two points behind.
By now, they’re well past the point of pre-game posturing and banter. Even home-ice advantage really makes little difference. This series has simply come down to which team executes best and gets the breaks in the final game.
"This isn’t about x’s and o’s now," Peddle said. "Stieny knows our tendencies, we know his tendencies. There’s no need for gamesmanship. There’s a mutual respect there. This is a hard-fought series, win or lose, both coaches are going to know their team laid it on the line for them.
"Home ice means nothing in this series. It’s a rink, a sheet of ice that’s 200 by 85 (feet) no matter where you play it. In playoffs, that doesn’t matter. They’ve won one in our rink, we won one in their rink."
The irony about the intense brand of hockey in this year’s AUS playoffs — the highlight being the four-overtime marathon that UNB won over Acadia in the other semifinal — is that it’s really not that much different from the typical AUS regular-season action.
Many Maritime hockey insiders appreciate that the AUS game, so often overlooked by fans during the regular season, is clearly the highest-calibre and most consistently intense hockey around.
For Peddle, these playoffs are more proof of that.
"Come out to any game in the SMU-X series so far and leave here saying you didn’t enjoy it," he challenged. "Go up to UNB and watch that four-(period) overtime game (against Acadia) and you leave there saying ‘Wow.’ It’s been the best hockey we’ve seen here all year. What we are seeing right now is a great example of AUS hockey at its best."