X-Men Will Bring Their 'A Game' in Title Tilt Against Varsity Reds

Courtesy Glenn MacDonald, The Chronicle Herald

The St. Francis Xavier X-Men have had a flair for the dramatic during the AUS hockey playoffs.

Spencer McAvoy expects nothing less tonight in Fredericton as St. F.X. visits the UNB Varsity Reds for the fifth and deciding game of the conference championship.

"The playoffs have been exciting, to say the least, and tomorrow night won’t be any different," McAvoy said Thursday night as the team was en route to the New Brunswick capital.

It has taken some drama for the X-Men to get to the best-of-five league final. They beat the defending CIS champion Saint Mary’s Huskies in double overtime in the rubber match of their AUHC semifinal at the Forum.

The exhilaration continued into the final with the first two games going into overtime. UNB won Game 1 while St. F.X. took Game 2 in the second overtime period. Both of the X-Men’s overtime-winning goals were scored by Phil Mangan.

"We have to go into (tonight’s) game the same way as we did in Game 5 against Saint Mary’s," said McAvoy, a conference first-team all-star. "We’re a good team when it’s crunch time. I know come tomorrow night, all 20 guys will bring their ‘A’ game."

St. F.X. staved off elimination and forced a fifth game with a 6-3 win in Game 4 Wednesday at the Keating Millennium Centre.

The CIS No. 1 Varsity Reds led 3-1 with just over four minutes left in the second period. But the opportunistic X-Men battled back and scored five unanswered goals, including Brennan Wray’s shorthanded tally 11 seconds into the third period to knot the score at 3-3 and McAvoy’s power-play marker 2:27 later to give X its first lead of the game.

"The thing about this team is that we don’t get too high if we’re leading or too low if we’re losing," said McAvoy, a sophomore blue-liner from St. Albert, Alta. "Between (the second and third) periods, all the guys were upbeat. We have trailed in playoff games before so we knew what it took to come back.

"We were behind the 8-ball going into the third with UNB on the power play. But Brennan scored a huge goal. That gave us momentum. If they would have scored, it would have been tough to come back."

Special teams were the difference in the game. The nationally fourth-ranked X-Men were 3-for-4 on the power play while the Varsity Reds went 0-for-4 and gave up Wray’s costly shorthanded goal.

"Our power play was really good last night and our penalty kills has been outstanding throughout the playoffs," McAvoy said.

No matter the outcome tonight, both teams advance to the CIS University Cup, which UNB hosts beginning next Thursday.