Blue Eagles fly past Tommies

The tale of the tape tonight was simple. Moncton made the most of their opportunities and STU did not. The Tommies were by no means out classed but couldn't find the back of the net when they really had to. PHOTO CREDIT: James West, Daily Gleaner.

Moncton was first on the board when Valerie Bosclair scored on the power play at 5:22 of the first. St. Thomas was able to respond just over 6 minutes later at 11:40 when Kelly Matthews set up Kayla Blackmore who sent the puck upstairs past the Moncton goalie Kathy Desjardins. Johannie Thibault scored the eventual game winner at 16:04 when she held on to the puck in the slot long enough to go around Julia Sharun and deposit the puck into the empty net.

Les Aigles Bleues would score one more in the second period to finish off the scoring on this night. The Tommies pressed hard in the third and out played Moncton but could not solve Desjardins in the U de M net. STU out shot Moncton 30 to 23.

The Tommies head to Sackville on Sunday to end their regular season against the Mounties. The following weekend the playoffs begin at UPEI and it seems likely that the host team will be playing STU in round one. Daily Gleaner: Huskies draw 1st blood in men's semi; STU loses to UdeM in women's play

Tommies do battle vs. Moncton tonight

The make up game for last Thursday's snow out will take place tonight at 7PM at the LBR. It is the final home game for St. Thomas and the graduating players will be honoured. Coming off a big victory on Saturday afternoon versus ST F-X, the Tommies are looking to put a dent in first place Moncton's "undefeated in regulation" record this season. Times & Transcript: UdeM women stay focused

Injuries

Originally printed in The Aquinian on 01/19/2009

When a person dedicates a large portion of their life to a particular sport, being unable to participate is devastating.

All athletes, at some point in their career, will experience an injury. Be it minor or major, injuries leave an impact in various ways that may go unnoticed to the average person.

For athletes, or the committed exerciser, a large part of their self-identity, and self-worth, will be ingrained in their active life. Often times, an injury can undermine an individual’s athletic self-worth and lead to a decline in how that person values them self.

The four main areas of well-being that are affected are the person’s,

Physical well-being; the pain of the injury and difficulties of a rigorous rehabilitation process. Temporary physical restrictions and possibly permanent physical changes.

Secondly, the Emotional well-bring is damaged due to the trauma of the injury and feeling of loss or grief. The immediate fear is the threat of weakened performance in the future.

Thirdly, a person’s Social well-being may be altered because of a lost connection with their role in society. A feeling of separation from family, friends and teammates will occur giving an athlete a feeling of loneliness or regret.

Lastly, and the most important of them all, is the damage left on an individual’s self-concept. An altered self image and threat to important goals and aspirations with give an athlete a sense of lost control.

It is difficult to prevent injuries entirely but there are a few ways in which you can minimize the odds.

Stretching has become a crucial part of sport that some athletes have yet to take it serious. Dynamic warm ups including active movements using balance and agility have over taken the outdated “cold stretch.”

The idea is to warm up the muscles and generate blood flow before beginning an activity. Stretching while the body has yet to warm up is ineffective and can actually contribute to pulled or torn muscles.

Athletes are training longer and harder to see improvement but overtraining accounts for a lot of sports injuries. Without adequate rest and recovery, these training regiments can backfire and decrease performance. A proper cool down period will allow the body to return to a period of relaxation and increase your gains in the long run.

Lastly, the importance of taking a day off is imperative and will allow the body to recuperate and repair damaged muscles.

I think I can speak from experience in saying that, injuries are going to happen. The main thing is that your prepared mentally and physically in order to avoid them from happening. And when they do happen, just remember it is all a part of the ride and just another story to tell once it is all said and done.

Sharun huge in Tommies shoot out win

Julia Sharun was expected to be good. No one expected her to be great but that is exactly the goaltending that St. Thomas has been getting from their rookie net minder. Today in Antigonish the Lady Tommies were out shot 46 to 15 by ST-FX but pulled out the 3 to 2 win in a shoot out.

The X-Women pounded Sharun with 16 shots in the first but it was the Tommies doing the only scoring. Lyse Rossignol scored from a scramble in front of ST-FX's net at 16:17 with assists to Couglin and Bernier.

The second period saw another X flurry of shots with the home team registering 17 and the visitors one. But the Tommies made their only one count, as Kayla Blackmore scored unassisted at 4:10.

X was able to break the goose egg early in the third when Anna Barrett scored her first goal of the season at 1:40. Just over four minutes later the X-Women tied the game as Christina Davis got her team leading 17th goal on the power play. The teams would remain tied at 2 until the shoot out.

Dominique Bernier would score the winner, as the Tommies handed the X-Women their second loss on home ice this season. Julia Sharun picked up her 13th win of the season as St. Thomas continues their record setting season. To date STU has 13 wins and 31 points, both team records.

Shootout win provides Tommies with record point total for season

Sharun stands tall as Tommies edge X-Ettes

A Few Tweaks...

Now that the men's season is over we have a little more time on our hands, so we're freshening up the site a little bit. So you'll notice things begin to look a bit different over the next few days. Some things will disappear, then reappear and after we're done you'll hardly notice we've done anything at all. So please, pardon the mess while we do some maintenance. We'll be out of your way as quickly as possible.

Lady Tommies vs UdeM RESCHEDULED

Tonight's Lady Tommies' game, UdeM @ STU scheduled for the LBR has been cancelled due to the weather conditions. Check this space for the rescheduled date.

UPDATE: According to AUS Schedule Page, this game has been rescheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 25th at 7pm at the LBR

Top 10 Players In The Past 4 Seasons

Due to popular demand, people want another top ten list in the past 4 seasons. This is way harder than picking the top 10 games in the past 4 seasons because there are WAY more than 10 really good players in the past 4 years. But I will try my best.

#10 - Jean Bourbeau



You can't start a top ten list without Jean Bourbeau being #10. Bourbs, as his nickname is, came to STU from Bonnyville, Alberta and played in every game since coming midway through the 2004-2005 season. His stats over a 3 1/2 year career for the Tommies were 19 goals, 23 assists and 42 points with 116 penalty minutes. But scoring was not Bourbs game, it was his power forward play, his speed and his bodychecks that put the fear into opponents. My 2 favourite memories of Bourbs was my first season when he knocked clean out Danny White of St FX and last season when he destroyed Dan Rudisuela of SMU, causing Trevor Steinberg to get upset and yell across the ice. Bourbs was one hell of a player.

#9 - Miguel Delisle



Miguel Delisle was an amazing talent from the offensive blueline in. Even though he was not liked by a lot of the Tommies Army for his defensive play, he was a great scorer, playmaker and very good on the penalty kill with Kyle McAllister. Delisle's stats in 2 seasons with the Green and Gold were 21 goals, 33 assists and 54 points with 122 pim. There has not been a better pure goal scorer and better from the blueline in than Delisle. He was also very good at drawing penalties and getting under the skin of everyone he played against. Actually, in the same game that Bourbeau knocked out Danny White, Miguel drew a penalty against Ryan White. Then while White was in the penalty box, he butt ended Miguel from the box and was told by the ref to hit the showers. Miguel had a lot of timely goals for the Tommies and had 5 points in a 6-2 romp over Acadia in the 2006-2007 season.

I will be back soon with # 8 and # 7 after I have a discussion over who those people will be! Thanks for reading.

Thanks for Listening...

I would rather have been on the road broadcasting a playoff game last night, but since a too-short season is over, let me say a BIG "Thank You" to all of you who tuned in this season to the Tommies' radio/internet broadcasts.

Thanks to Mike Eagles for once again making it possible for the Tommies to have a broadcast partner. Thanks to 95.7 FM CKTP and station manager Conrad Mead, along with Robb, Remy and Mike for their many hours in the studio keeping the games on the air. If you appreciate having the Tommies on the radio or on your computer, please take a moment and send a note to Conrad at director@cktpradio.com. Let him know that you appreciate having a station that shows a commitment to local sports in our community.

Thanks to the game sponsors - Summit Dodge, Whitehead Bird & Miles, Casa Elegante, Trius and JCS Hosting. If you have the chance to do business with any of these companies, let them know that you chose them partly because of their commitment to Tommies hockey.

Thanks to Harold and Matt DeCourcey for their good work with colour commentary this season. And thanks to Jon Pickett for his Tommies player profiles. And thanks to host Gino Reda and producer Colin Campbell (no, not the same guy) from RBC Junior Hockey Radio for allowing us to use their show content.

Thanks to Coach Eagles and his staff and the players for another great (in its own way) season and for all they do to make me feel welcome.

Also, thanks to Dan from stutommies.com for inviting me to contribute to this site, and for his help providing out-of-town scores. Every night on the road, Dan would monitor out of town games and text or email the scores to me to pass along to you, saving a ton of work on my part.

I don't know yet what next year holds. I've yet to end a hockey season knowing what team or league I'll be calling games for the next fall. Hopefully everything will fall into place and I'll be back in the booth in October bringing you all the action with a new and improved Tommies squad for '09-'10. A new season will bring much deeper and expanded Tommies coverage than in seasons before and hopefully more games to call well into March.

The Tommies' future is bright. I'm looking forward to all the news this offseason, and talking to you from the rink again this fall.

Aigles Bleues not taking Tommies lightly

Times & Transcript Article:

Aigles Bleues visit the St. Thomas Tommies at 7 p.m. The Aigles enter tonight's game with a 19-0-2 record for 40 points. The Tommies are with a record of 12-4-5 for 29 points. UdeM is assured a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

"It will be an interesting game," said forward rookie Janie LeBlanc.

"St. Thomas is ranked third and we know we have to play well to beat them," the Balmoral native said. "We practised our skating and shooting and also our system because we had some difficulty against UPEI in our last game. "We will have to play defensive style and take the puck out of our zone before thinking of going to score."

St. Thomas is the only team to defeat Moncton in regulation play this season. Moncton will be short handed as their leading scorer, Marieve Provost, is playing with Team Canada at the World University Games in China.

Thanks to the Times & Transcript for reporting on this game.

Shameless Plug

Hey Y'all, this message is to help promote a hockey game at the LBR that does not feature the Tommies. It is the annual Washburn Cup Hockey Game between intramural eligible hockey players between Harrington Hall Raiders versus the Forest Hill Trojan Ryders. So to all the STU fans who are upset that there will not be any playoff hockey this season, come down to the LBR for a playoff, Game 7 atmosphere game between heated rivals. If you think the Battle of the Hill was intense, well, you have never seen a rivalry like this!

Puck drop is THIS Friday at 7pm and admission is free, but donations to the food bank and the Canadian Cancer Society are more than welcome. So come on down.

Here are the past scores from the past 3 years:

Forest Hill 8, Harrington 3
Harrington 8, Forest Hill 6
Forest Hill 7, Harrington 4

Hope to see everyone there, student and hockey fan alike!!

Mounties steal one from Tommies

Tough loss this afternoon for the Lady Tommies in Sackville. They threw everything but the kitchen sink at the Mt. Allison goaltender but lost 1 to 0 in a shootout. Think we're kidding? First period shots favoured STU....slightly...20 to 0.

The power play unit was 0 for 4 and the Tommies rang six pucks off the iron. The Mounties only move defensively was to collapse everyone into the low slot and pray the goalie would see the puck. It worked. The Tommies were 1 for 5 in the shoot out with Kayla Blackmore scoring on an insane "Crosbyesque" move. Mia Leander takes the tough loss in the STU net. Another 3 point weekend for the Tommies.

Thursday night the Tommies take on their arch rival U de M Aigles Bleues at the LBR. Moncton has not lost in regulation during the regular season and St. Thomas is the only team to defeat them in regulation at all, doing it twice in the pre-season. This game could very well be a preview of the AUS finals. There is a lot of pride on line and it all starts 7 PM on Thursday at the LBR.

Tommies end season on high note

The 2008-09 season came to a close this evening on Prince Edward Island with a hard fought 2 to 1 win versus the Panthers. The young Tommies team was able to reach the 20 point mark by winning 6 of their final 8 games. On another positive note they were able to gain at least one point against every team in the conference this season and played spoiler down the stretch when it really mattered.

Tonight on the Island the game started off on the wrong foot. Sixteen seconds into it Matthew Carter scored to give the Panthers the early lead. It was the only goal of the period and STU was out shot 13 to 8.

The second period was very choppy and UPEI exchanged Wayne Savage, who had been perfect to that point, in net for Jhase Sniderman at the midway point. The Tommies were able to tie it late in the period. The Panthers drew a penalty and the face off was in the UPEI end. Max Chamberland won the draw, it went to Devan Praught, who fired the puck past Sniderman. The whole play took 2 seconds. Tie game after 2.

The Tommies would get the winning goal at 6:43 of the third. Jeremy Turgeon skated the puck into the Panthers zone and when the UPEI defender fell down, he passed over to Wes Welcher who zipped it back to Turgeon for his first game winner of the season. The Tommies defence shut it down the rest of the way. Ben MacFarlane picks up his 5th win of the season. HCH AUS Sport round up & Daily Gleaner article

Randy Corey ran into some technical difficulties (battery) during the first period. We hope he can log on at a later date and give his impressions of the Tommies this season. To Randy Corey, thank you for your excellent coverage of the Tommies.

live-blog-stu-upei-warmups.

The pregame warmup is underway. The Tommies are going with BenMacFarlane (4-8, 4.22, .894) in goal tonight. Brad Gallant, CoreyBanfield and Guiilaume Misczak are the scratches. STU has 1 winagainst 2 losses versus UPEI this year, their first win of the seasonhere on Nov. 15th, 7-5. The Panthers beat the Tommies 6-2 on Oct. 18th and 4-1 on Jan. 18th, both at the LBR. The game gets underway at 7pm on 95.7 FM CKTP and http://www.cktpradio.com/.

Posted by Randy Corey at 6:35 PM

live-blog-stu-upei.

The Tommies are in Charlottetown, preparing to take on the UPEI Panthers at the MacLauchlan Arena (pictured). STU is coming off a big overtime win over UdeM at home on Wednesday and hoping to finish off the season on a high note. UPEI is currently tied with Acadia for 5th spot with 29 points, so this is a big game for them. I'll check back during warmups and remember tonight's broadcast beginning at 7pm.

Tommies getting serious in stretch drive

St. Thomas forward Jillian Coughlin had a three point night as the Tommies downed the host PEI Panthers 5 to 0. As the playoffs loom in a few weeks the Ladies are bringing up their game and preparing for some stiff competition in the days ahead. Tonight the Tommies oushot the Panthers 34 to 15.

Kayla Blackmore got things started for STU at 14:03 of the first period unassisted. Just under 2 minutes later Jillian Coughlin got her first of the night on the power play from Boyle and Holt for the 2 goal cushion heading to the second frame.

The Tommies continued to scored when late in the second period Jillian Coughling got her second of the night and team leading 10th goal of the season from Lucrece Nussbaum on the PP. With 12 seconds left, Nicole Dube got her second of the season unassisted as STU rolled into the third up 4 goals.

Lyse Rossignol rounded out the scoring at 1:21 of the third from Bernier and Coughlin. Julia Sharun picked up her second shut out of the season facing period totals of 7, 5 and 3 shots for a total of 15. The Tommies head to Mount Allison tomorrow to play a make up game from November 22nd. Game time is 2:35 in Sackville, provided the team is able to get off Prince Edward Island. Game will be played Sunday afternoon in Sackville, 2 PM start.

Superstitions

Originally printed in The Aquinian newspaper on 10/13/2008

Athletes are odd creatures. Baseball hall of famer Wade Boggs used to eat chicken before every major league game he played. At the plate, he would etch the Hebrew word for “life” in the sand with the end of his bat.

Each day at practice he would take 150 ground balls, then do batting practice at 5:17 and sprints at 7:17.Call them what you will, but superstitions, rituals, and routines are a part of sports, and a necessity for players that swear by them.

They are a way to cope with circumstances that we can’t understand or are unable to control. It’s about the comfort they bring the athlete, who is always looking for an advantage in competition.Athletes and coaches follow daily and game time routines religiously because of their beliefs in superstitions.

In the past, teams have been known to never wash their uniforms or socks during a winning streak for fear of losing good luck. Coaches follow the same exact routines. Routines such as entering and exiting through certain doors, picking up hair pins for good luck, saying the same prayers and wearing the same outfit that was worn during a successful game.

Naturally, athletes are creatures of habit. They do the same thing day after day. They practice at the same time, they play at the same time and eat at the same time. Important parts of their lives are very ordered, and so, perhaps, they want to bring that same kind of order into every aspect of their lives.Lost sleep, nausea, and jumpy nerves often make a game a much less enjoyable of an experience. Anticipation and excitement is alright, but built up anxiety will hinder the athletes game. They are constantly in a battle with their unconscious mind. Ideally, you want the unnecessary nerves to disappear and for the body to react exactly as planned. But that’s not always the case.

Being nervous about game shows the player cares, but that nervousness can quickly become counter-productive. Think of nerves and anxiety as a type of fuel. Just like fuel, anxiety can be wasted or misdirected. Athletes become over excited and leak that energy leaving you feeling exhausted before the competition begins. On the contrary, being too relaxed will certainly not serve any purpose.

As Bud Light once claimed, “It’s all about balance”, a balance of excitement and nerves that will give you an absolute readiness, focus and intense energy to perform.

That’s where superstitions come in. They balance it all out. They are unexplainable, but are well-respected and understood among athletes, who use them to get the job done.

JC23

Best Game In The Past 4 Season Revealed!!

Here is the best game in the past 4 years for the Tommies.

#1- STU Tommies vs. UNB Varsity Reds, February 10th, 2006 (STU Wins 10-3)

Its time for the annual Lou Chabot game and the Tommies were looking for revenge yet again after losing the Mark Jeffery Memorial Game a few weeks before this game. The laughter at this game was started in the pre game warm up. It was Tommies superstition that on the half moon shots on the goalie that Nick Theriault always got the first shot, scored, then skated as fast as he could to the red line. Well, it was also the superstition of Craig Mahon of UNB to stretch by the red line on the other side. Anyways, Theriault would skate super fast and proceeded to snow Mahon when he stopped. Mahon always used to be the last off the ice as players like to be last of the ice for superstition purposes. The Tommies knew this and waited till Mahon came off the ice then skated hard to the Zamboni entrance to be last off. Then Mahon came back on the ice, skated around then went off the ice to a chorus of boos.

The first period was a tight period with STU holding the advantage 2-1. But you could tell the Tommies would dominate this game heading into the 3rd period with a 4-1 lead. Then the Tommies exploded with 6 3rd period goals. UNB goalie Reg Bourcier was obviously upset by his performance and Saint Nick decided to say something to him coming off the ice, only to take a blocker shot in the head by Bourcier, knowing he was dominated by the Tommies. Matty Seymour had a great performance with a goal and four assists, Saint Nick had 2 goals and Miguel Delilse had 2 goals and an assist. Brent Varty had a really strong game and got a huge cheer when probably had his only body check of the season when he decked Mahon to the ice. This was the top game in my opinion because the Tommies saved their greatest game of the 2005-2006 season in the Lou Chabot game, DESTROYING the Squirrels.

Well, that's it for me. It was a pleasure for me to be able to get my top 10 games out to the Tommies Army. I formally announce my retirement from the team as their video guy. Its been a ride and its kind of a good thing that my first game was a dramatic shootout win to last night with the Avery Bank Shot by Banfield to end the season. I want to thank Mike Eagles and Peter Murphy for letting me be able to work with them and learn more about the game of hockey than I did when I was assistant coaching hockey with my dad back in the day. Its been quite a ride for sure. Tommies Pride.

Tommies bounce Blue Eagles

It was the tale of the bouncing puck tonight at the LBR. It took a fluke goal in overtime but the Tommies finally came out on the right side of a 5 to 4 O/T game. It didn't look like STU was going to pull it out for the graduating Seniors late in the third but the final bouce went the Tommies way.

Prior to the start of the game Matt Davis and Justin Roy were presented with their STU Tommies sweaters in a pregame ceromny. Matt also got the call in the net for the first time in 8 games. He made the most of his chance tonight.

The Tommies scored the only goal of the first at 18:24 when Devan Praught redirected a Ryan Lehr point shot that fooled Moncton goalie Peirre-Alexandre Marion, with the other assist to Max Chamberland.

Moncton got into penalty trouble in second and went two men down for 58 seconds. Ryan Lehr made them pay just as the first penalty expired, when he wired home a Andrew Andricopoulos cross ice pass. Moncton stormed back to tie the game when Nicolas Laplante scored two consecutive powerplay goals 2 1/2 minutes apart. Devan Praught scored his second of the night on a nice centering pass by Max Chamberland, that he redirected into the net from the lip of the crease. The Tommes went up by 2 once again at 16:05 when Wes Welcher was able to bang one past Marion. The goal was somewhat controversaly as Moncton complained the puck had not crossed the goal line before the whistle was blown.

The Tommies held the lead until late in the third when Moncton would score a short handed marker that Matt Davis would surely love to have back. Then with less than 4 minutes on the clock the STU defence was not able to clear the puck and Moncton got a lucky bounce in front of Davis that hit a Tommie defender before finding the back of the net.

As the game entered over time, Moncton had a great chance early but Matt Davis made the big save off Ian-Mathieu Girard stick to keep the game alive. Then the strangest goal of an evening of strange goals occurred when Corey Banfield gained the blue line and prepared to dump the puck to the corner. His dump in bounced off the boards and came back towards the middle of the ice but the goaltender Marion had already committed himself to play the puck in the corner and wasn't able to reverse course in time to stop the puck from entering the empty net. Tommies win and deny Moncton the chance of catching Saint Mary's for the second seed and first round bye.

The Tommies season will come to a close in Charlottetown on Saturday night when they take on the UPEI Panthers. You can catch all the action on 95.7 CKTP starting at 7 PM. Daily Gleaner: Tommies finish strong

School of hard knocks

From the Daily Gleaner:

"That was obviously a big loss for us in the first half," Tommies' head coach Mike Eagles said. "Wes has come back and done a pretty good job. Certainly, he's a guy we count on in a lot of situations."

Welcher will wrap up his rookie season this week. The Tommies take on les Aigles Bleus tonight at the LBR, then play the UPEI Panthers in Charlottetown on Saturday. Both are 7 p.m. starts on CKTP-FM 95.7.

Game #2

Here is the second last game in the Video Guy Sportscentre Top 10 of greatest Tommies game in the past 4 years!

#2- STU Lady Tommies vs. St. FX X-Women, AUS Semi-Finals (STU Wins 3-1)

Like I said in my intro, I also covered the Lady Tommies for half a season after their original video person could not make some of the games and Coach Peter Murphy asked me to do it for the rest of the season. I made a lot more money doing their games and actually had fun watching women's hockey. There were some very good players that year with Emily Hobbs, Malin Storas, Karlee Sheilds, Caroline Hammerheim and Amy McLennan as examples. The girls had played pretty decent throughout the year and ended up finishing 4th in the regular season. But this was one of those games where the team is outshot very badly but with a hot goalie, ended up pulling it out in the end. The X-Women were the top team in the league and played really well all season, with a good top line of Jessica Shanahan, Amanda Church and Rebecca Davies. Hobbs stifled them all game with a lot of HUGE saves. The best part of the game is when Storas took the puck, walked in 2 feet from the blue line, and HAMMERED it past the X-Women's goalie Katie Harveaux. Storas jumped about 10 feet in the air with her celebration and Hammerheim added the insurance goal. If Rick Jenerette was doing play by play, he would have said "Malin Storas, Malin Storas with the shot heard round the world!!!!" Hobbs made a big save with 3 seconds left on Kelly Boudreau and STU knocked off the top team in the AUS. The ladies lost the AUS final to Marieve Provost and the Aigles Bleues the next afternoon. This was the upset of all upsets.

Now, my games that did not make the cut...but good games none the less!!

#11- Jan 22, 2006- STU 3-UdeM 2.....STU bounces back from a bad loss to UPEI to beat Moncton.
#12- October 28th, 2006- STU 3, STFX 2 (OT) Thatcher Bell scores in OT
#13- Jan 30th, 2009- STU 5, ACA 0- Ben McFarlane's first AUS Shutout
#14- Nov 29, 2008- UNB 3, STU 2 (SO)- A post and a crossbar away from upsetting UNB
#15- Feb 29, 2008- UNB 5, STU 4- Dustin Freisen's late goal ends STU's comeback bid.
#16- Feb 10, 2007- STU 6, ACA 2- Miguel Delilse's 5 point night.

Final Four Begins

Alright, I am back with the next best 2 games in my eyes in the past 4 seasons. Looking forward to Wednesday's matchup with the Aigles Bleus!

#4- Game #3, STU Tommies vs. St. FX X-Men, February 24th, 2008 (STU Wins 4-0)
The new recruits I had alluded to earlier came through in a huge way in the playoffs.....not to mention the amazing play of Matt Davis througout the year, especially in this game. People thought there was a huge hole in net with Aaron Molnar gone and the way Matt had played to replace him after Molsy went down 10 minutes into the playoffs the year before against St. Marys. This was also a game where it could have been Matt Seymour's final game as a Tommie. That night was not the night. He produced 3 points, 2 goals in the first period. All 3 Christmas recruits got points and Matt Davis picked up the shutout in probably his greatest game in the "game 7" atmosphere at the LBR. The celebration was on and everyone was estatic exercising some elimination games at home since STU was 0-2 in 2 years in games where they had a chance to eliminate a team from the AUS playoffs.


#3. STU Tommies vs. UNB Varsity Reds, October 20th, 2006 (STU Wins 3-1)

2 things are hard to believe in this game. Well, actually 4. We played at the York Arena on the Northside due to the LBR being renovated. We went undefeated at the rink at the start of the season going 3-0. UNB won the national championship out of the blue essentially. And this was the last game we beat them in exhibition, regular season and playoffs. This was my Dad's first Tommies game ever to watch and it was against the hated Squirrels. STU got into penalty trouble early and Nick Marach scored on the 5 on 3. Then it was all STU the rest of the way. Jeff Bateman scored a pretty shorthanded goal with David Bowman pretty much tackling him from the blueline in. Then Matt Seymour scored and the Tommies never looked back. The highlights from this game were Bateman's goal and the huge line scrum in front of the Tommies bench (and if anyone wants to see some quality pictures from my photo editor father, they are on my facebook, or wants me to send some, feel free) and Aaron Molnar stoning Rob Hennigar on a penalty shot. The fans enjoyed the great hockey game.




#2 and my honourable mention list will be up tomorrow sometime, possibly the top 10 players in the past 4 seasons, we will have to see.

Congratulations Squirrels!!

FINALLY, what took you so long?? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and we are taking full credit for being imitated. Thanks. Some Squirrel fans have finally got their own site up and running. It looks great and will be a great source of information for UNB fans everywhere. Squirrel Blog

Acadia's powerplay spanks Tommies

The winning streak is over for the Tommies. This afternoons game in Wolfville started off well but the PK unit couldn't hold the fort against the strong charging Axemen power play and the final result was an 8 to 2 loss. The Axemen scored an impressive 7 of 8 goals on the PP and their only regular strength goal was scored 4 on 4.

The game seemed to have things happen in pairs. The Tommies scored early at 1:14 and 7:32 for a two goal advantage. Corey Banfield and Andrew Estey each had one. Then Acadia's Paul McFarland scored two in the final half of the first as the game was deadlocked going to the 2nd.

In the second frame, Acadia's Chris Bruton scored two consecutive goals, then Phillip Bertrand scored two goals to push the Axemen up by 4. After Acadia's fifth goal Ben MacFarlane was graciously pulled and Guillaume Miszczak came in to replace him. The Axemen would score 2 more in the third, including Bertrand's hat trick goal. The Tommies went 0 for 3 on the PP.

STU returns to action on Wednesday night at 7 PM versus U de M. This game will represent our graduating players final home game and their St. Thomas jersey will be presented to them. Come out and say "Thank-you" to Matt Davis and Justin Roy. DG: Tommies weekend in review

Tommies shoot down Ravens.

The Lady Tommies earned a hard fought split in Ottawa today with a 1 to 0 shut out win versus the Carleton University Ravens. Coach Murphy switched up his goalies today which proved lucky, as Mia Leander grounded the Ravens.

The only goal was scored at 12:54 of the second period by Jessica Holt with the assists to Michelle Goguen and Charity Walls. Mia Leander did the rest and held Carleton at bay facing 24 shots while STU fired 11 the other way. The Tommies will be on the road next weekend against Mt. Allison and UPEI before their next home game on Thursday February 19th against 1st place Moncton. Carleton Re-cap

Final 4

I have been getting some positive feedback about the top 10 list making everyone think about past games. If anyone has their own top games list, feel free to post them in the comment box below. Its just great that the boys are on a win streak, and winning 4 of the last 5. Its like an old school Tommies streak when the team was dominant and getting to at least #5 rank in the country at one point in the last 4 seasons. The final 4 games will be revealed Monday with #4 and #3, then #2 and my honourable mentioned list, then on Thursday will be #1. A little hint is that we have (and Banfield just scored in the Acadia game while I am writing this (1-0 STU)) is we have a playoff elimination, a "neutral site" game, The Shot Heard Round The World and a blowout. But not always in that order, just to make you think about it.

Exhibition: Gee Gees defeat Tommies.

St. Thomas is in the nations capitol this weekend for 2 exhibition games and Saturday evening they got their first taste of Ottawa hospitality. The Ottawa Gee Gees scored a shorthanded goal in the first period and 2 powerplay tallies in the 2nd period for a 3 to 1 victory.

The Tommies mounted a come back in the third when Jillian Coughlin scored from Kathleen Boyle on the powerplay. Pressure as they might, there was no more scoring on this night. The shots on goal were even at 24 apiece, while the Tommies showed some jump in the third out shooting Ottawa 10 to 6. Julia Sharun was in net. U of Ottawa story

Three in a row for Tommies

It took a while but the Tommies are finally feeling some wind at their back as opposed to hitting them square in the face. STU got their third win a row tonight defeating the Dalhousie Tigers 6 to 2 in Halifax. With the win the Tommies can not be caught in the standings by Dal. and have clinched 7th spot in the AUS.

It didn't take long for the Tommies to strike tonight. The Tigers took an early penalty at the 22 second mark and 15 seconds later Corey Banfield converted on the nice pass from Devan Praught. Devan would get the Tommies 2nd goal at 11:07 when he showed some nice hands taking the puck and going forehand to backhand beating Josh Disher up high. The Tigers came back just over 3 minutes later with their first goal from James Blumenauer. It stayed that way until 19:53 when Andrew Andricopoulos gained the Tigers line and fired a strong pass to Max Chamberland who scored on the one timer to restore the 2 goal lead heading to the second period.

It took 10 minutes for STU to score in middle frame when Devan Praught got his second from Max Chamberland and Corey Banfield. Just under 2 minutes later, with the team shorthanded, Bryan Main gained control of the puck in his own zone, raced up the boards creating a 2 on 1 rush, and sent a good pass to Max Chamberland for his second goal. Jason Rinzler would get in on the scoring act at 14:12 for the Tommies 6th goal with assists to Welcher and Turgeon.

St. Thomas took their foot off the gas in the third and Tyler Dick scored the only goal of the period at 13:44. At 5:45 the fire works started when Brad Larsh and Brad Gallant got into a good punch up and Randy Corey gave the decision to Gallant, who will probably face a 2 game suspension, if not more. Corey Banfield and Max Chamberland both had 4 points on the night. Ben MacFarlane picked up his 3rd win in a row and STU outshot the Tigers 41 to 32. The Tommies head to Acadia tomorrow afternoon to play the Axemen at 2PM. The game will be live on 95.7 CKTP. Entire AUS sport roundup from HCH

Cohesion

Originally printed in The Aquinian on 02/03/09

Most athletes will agree on one thing.

A team in which every player gets along well with each other and communication levels are high, results in great performance.

It’s called Cohesion.

Meaning, a common vision. Clear and concrete goals that accompany that vision and members that believe in the strategy.

Teams with cohesion can achieve dramatic results. The way players on teams interact directly relates to success.

As a famous sports psychologist once put it, “The fittest to survive and succeed are those able to find their strength in cooperation, able to build teams based upon mutual helpfulness, and responsibility for one’s fellow teammates."

Many things affect whether a team bonds together or not. Stability increases the chances. When a team has been together for a longer period of time, naturally, they will become more cohesive. Similarities in age, sex, skill, and attitudes bring groups together. A team smaller in size with fewer players would bond quicker than a large one.

Cohesive teams have coaches and managers who support the players and encourage them to form relationships.

Problems arise within a team when members start loafing.
This is the tendency to lessen your contribution when a part of a large group. One might perceive another working less hard then he/she, so they feel that gives them an excuse to exert less effort.

However, some may feel that their efforts are having little effect on the outcome or that their contribution is going unnoticed. The main problem arises when players assume that others will cover up for their lack of effort.

Team dynamics are unpredictable. Shouldn’t management shy away from the tactical side of sport and spend time forming cohesion? I think that teams are unaware of cohesion until it actually happens.

The more cohesive a team is, the more it encourages everyone to raise the level of their game to match others.

More often than not, players resort to the notion, “If it happens, that’s great, but if not, well, we don’t have a close group this year and there’s not much that can be done."

Be sure to spend time developing quality relationships with teammates. The more you understand and trust a person, the better your chemistry will be during competition.

JC23

Lady Tommies have full weekend coming up

The Lady Tommies are heading west this weekend to play a full slate of exhibition games against some top notch oponents. Their first stop is in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec to play College Lefleche on Friday night. This will be a rematch of thier Sunday October 5th game at the UdeM tournament that the Tommies won 2 to 0. Just found out that this game has been cancelled.

The Tommies travel further west to Ontario to face QSSF conference teams University of Ottawa Gee Gees on Saturday and the Carleton University Ravens on Sunday. Saturdays game against Ottawa will be webcast live and you can catch all the action on SSN Canada. You will need Realplayer to watch.

Friday Feb 6th 7:45 PM - STU vs. College Lefleche CANCELLED
Saturday Feb 7th 6:00 PM - STU vs. Ottawa
Sunday Feb 8th 11:00 AM - STU vs. Carleton

Check in with stutommies.com this weekend and we'll post the results as soon as we hear them.

Good luck ladies.

More Memorable Games

This was a very hard process to pick the top 10 games I have seen as they have been way more than 10 Tommies moments, even with a win or not. I will throw up an honourable mention list soon enough, when its time to reveal the #1 moment in my eyes.

#6- Game #1, STU vs. St FX X-Men, February 20th, 2008 (STU Wins 2-1 OT)

This is one of 2 of STU's "Shots Heard Round The World" (does that sound like something Buffalo Sabers play-by-play Rick Jeanerette would say) and it was huge to say the least. I mentioned before that STU has a history of not doing amazing in overtimes and shootouts before, especially in the playoffs. On this night, it was different. Matt Seymour started the scoring with the assists going to Justin Bowers and Corey Banfield, who started playing and stepping up when Jeff Batemen went out with a knee injury. They boys tried holding on with Matt Davis standing on his head like he did most nights last season, but X scored with 5 minutes left in the third. I was thinking "oh boy, overtime, the only OT win i have seen is when Bourbs (Jean Bourbeau) scored an OT winner earlier in the year." Enter Erick Tremblay. Erick was a mid season pickup along with Jason Cassidy and Keith Wynn (and one time gamer Patrick Bordeleau). Tremblay scored on his signature slapshot from the point right past the glove of Danny Battochio from a great d to d pass from Keith Wynn and the Tommies get rid of some overtime fustration.

#5- St. Thomas Tommies vs. UNB Varsity Reds, November 2nd, 2005 (Tie Game 3-3)
This was the first home Battle of the Hill I have ever seen and I was estatic to even watch it. Here's why! The game before at the AUC had a rareity as there was a fight between Anthony Butera and Stacy Smallman and Miguel Delilse knocked UNB's Craig Perry out with an elbow and JM Boisvert scored in overtime to win. So this game had rivalry written all over it. I have seen games between Army and RMC and it has nothing on the the sheer physicallity of the Battle of the Hill. STU got the first 2 goals from Kyle McAllister and Justin McCutcheon. UNB got back into the game on 3 goals from AHL players nowadays in Rob Hennigar and Darryl Boyce. Hennigar apparently had scored the shift before and everyone but the ref thought it was in so it didn't count. But next shift, Hennigar scored again. So with 15 or so seconds left and Aaron Molnar pulled, Eagles put out Chris Cook, McAllister, Theriault, Ryan Card, Bateman and Miguel Delisle to try and tie it. And from the side of the net, Delisle scored with 2 seconds left to get the Tommies to overtime. Neither team could capitalize in overtime and the game ended in a tie.

Top 10 Games Continued

Hey guys, hopefully everyone enjoyed my first foray into blogging on this site, so I am going to continue the countdown with top 10 games with number 8 and 7.

#8. St Thomas Tommies vs. Acadia Axemen (October 21st, 2005) (STU wins 5-1)

Acadia was the best team that season, defeating UNB in 3 games to win the AUS championship in March. STU played Acadia tough all season with a 2-1-1 record against their high potent offense with Brandon Benedict and Kevin Baker. In STU's home opener, STU beat them by a wide margin with the help of Andrew Sim in net. Sim made amazing saves all game, 31 saves in total and was the best penalty killer, as Acadia went 1 for 9 all game. "Saint" Nick Theriault scored a goal on the powerplay and recorded 2 assists while playing a rough and tumble defensive style we used to love.

#7. St. Thomas Tommies vs. Saint FX X-Men (January 24th, 2009) (STU wins 5-4)

This is the first time this season the Tommies have made the cut. With our playoff hopes fading, this game was the perverbial game 7 atmosphere to try and make it a good playoff run. After losing 10-0 on January 10th in Antigonish and losing the 2 points to Saint Mary's 24 hours before, the confidence may have been at an all time low. But with the help of Rigby and Vanier house cheering the Tommies, like the houses would for the annual "Washburn Cup" between the Forest Hill and Harrington residences, the fans made it a rabid crowd and kept the Tommies in the game. Ben MacFarlane kept the team in the game and Max Chamberland had an amazing performance with 4 points, including the game winner with 6 minutes to go, the boys celebrated as they won thier first game of 2009, ending their 7 games losing streak and go into the Mark Jeffery Memorial game with confidence and keeping their playoff hopes alive.

Thanks for reading, games 6 and 5 will be soon.

A STU Sendoff

Hey STUtommies.com readers, my name is Fraser MacAlpine and I am the videographer for the men's hockey team since 2005. I am a STU student in my 4th year majoring in criminology. On Wednesday, February 11th it will be my last game videotaping for the Tommies and it will be tough to pack up my gear and hang up my tripod. But like the graduating players, I will be moving on. I have made a lot of good friends here at STU, with the team and staff of both the men's and lady Tommies hockey players. I have seen a lot of talent in the LBR and I want to shed some light on some games I have been apart of in the last 4 years. I have videotaped 83 Men's and Women's exhibition, regular season and playoff games. I am also a huge fan of the TSN Top 10 lists so I will channel that into this blog.

#10- McGill Redmen vs. St. Thomas Tommies. UNB Pre Season Tournament. (STU Wins In Shootout)
This was the first game I have ever done, and to be quite honest, the worst game I have ever taped. I thought it would be cool for Coach Eagles to watch the game like he was watching a game on CBC and not for coaching purposes. And I was told that after. This game was amazing to watch for a nothing exhibition game since McGill lost to UNB and STU lost to UdeM the night before. Coming from Ontario, I have seen McGill before playing (and beating) RMC and Queens so it was cool to see a team from the home conference of the OUA in New Brunswick. This game was back and forth and both teams worked hard. One of the highlights was one of the hardest workers in a STU uniform I ever saw, Bruce Gillis, scoring his only goal of the season on a wicked slapshot. McGill tied the game with 0.8 on the clock scored by UNB's Robert Pearce's twin brother and the game went to a shootout. I know STU has never done well historically in shootouts but it was a different story as we beat them with goals from Miguel Delilse and Jeff Bateman. For my debut to watch and work with the Tommies, I was quite impressed.

#9. St. Thomas Tommies vs. UdeM Aigles Bleus, November 24th, 2007 (STU Wins 5-3)
I think a very underrated rivalry in AUS hockey is the other battle of New Brunswick between STU and UdeM. Sometimes, I am even more fired up to film these games and then the games with the "Tree Rats". Moncton had beaten us out of the playoffs the year before on LBR ice so I know the boys were really revved up to beat them back in the season. And what we got was an amazing performance by the top line of STU being #91 Justin Bowers, #25 Jeff Bateman and #24 Matty Seymour. Bowers picked up a hat trick including the winner off a Louis Mandeville giveaway in the middle of the third and roofing it on Kevin Lachance as well as 2 assists. Seymour had a goal and 3 assists and Jeff Batemen had 4 assists. It was the best one line performance I have ever seen.

I will be back soon with games number 8 and 7 and thank you for reading!

Tommies slip past Mounties in shoot out.

The Ladies secured 2 points today but it was probably much closer than they would have liked. Out shooting Mt. Allison by a wide margin,44 to 14, the STU crew would need the shoot out to secure the win. With the 3 points secured this weekend the Tommies have secured a play-off birth and have pulled 7 points ahead of Dalhousie for 3rd spot in the conference.

All of the regulation time scoring came in the second frame. Mount A. would score first on the PP at 12:24 when Laura Lighthall got one by Julia Sharun. STU came right back just under 3 minutes later on a goal by Lyse Rossignol and assists to Charity Walls and Dominique Bernier. That would be it for regulation scoring as the third period and overtime solved nothing. In the shoot out Lyse Rossignol would score what proved to be the winner to secure the win for STU.

Julia Sharun got the W facing 3, 4, and 7 shots, 14 total, in regulation while the STU defence didn't allow a shot in overtime for the second straight night. The Tommies peppered the Mounties goalie, Meagan Corley-Bynre, with shot totals of 13,15,10, and 6 for a total of 44.

The Tommies turn around and play the same teams two weekends from now on the road before their HUGE match-up against Moncton on Thursday Feburary 19th at the LBR. St. Thomas is the only team to defeat Moncton in regulation this year, in fact, twice. Both times in exhibition play in the preseason, mind you, but nevertheless the Blue Eagles and Tommies don't like each other and this game will be worth the price of admission. DG: Tommies salvage a weekend split