Round 4 Vs. The Squirrels-Preview

This Friday, February 1st @ 7pm, the UNB Varsity Squirrels come into the Grant Harvey Centre for the fourth round of the "Battle of the Hill". The game will be the second time the Squirrels have played at the G/H Centre this season.

In the first tilt at the G/H Centre, UNB took the Tommies down 6-1. The V-Reds have been a tough team to solve this year out scoring the Tommies 18-3 this season. This number is not to scare anyone but it is a fact of the stats. It certainly doesn't mean that the Tommies aren't giving it their "all" but the shortened bench has been a factor.

The injury bug has certainly bit the team hard over the last few weeks, both defenceman Christian Morin and forward Colin Martin will be out for this weekend and on the doubtful list are forwards Jonathan Bonneau, Robert Zandbeek and a pair of rookie defencemen Jordan Thomas, Nick Brown.

Tommies goaltender Jonathan Groenheyde #31 is coming off a game in which he stood on his head to keep our Tommies in the game against the Acadia Axemen where he faced 70 shots on net and only allowing 4 goals. I'm sure he will be ready to do it again on Friday night against the Squirrels.

The Tommies are going to need the "7th Man" loud in the stands to show the Tree Rats we aren't afraid of them and stop them from trying to build a nest in our trench! Bring your noise makers and be prepared to make lots of noise to scare the Squirrels off.


Murph

WyldeMurph on Twitter

Panthers squeak past Tommies

In a playoff style game tonight in Charlottetown, the UPEI Panthers scored a first period goal past Julia Sharun and held on for a 1 - 0 win over the Tommies.  This was no small game either, as UPEI now sits two points back of the Tommies for second place and they have 2 games in hand. After a terrible start to the season, the defending AUS Champion Panthers are now 9 and 1 in their past 10 games.

No boxscore is available over 30 minutes after the end of the game so I can't tell you much other than UPEI led in shots 22 to 21.  Emily Ryan, Emily Francis, and Caley Steinert were all out of the lineup tonight.

STU will not be back in action for two weeks when they take on the Mount Allison Mounties on Feb. 9th in Sackville.  On the 10th the Panthers will come to the Grant-Harvey for a rematch of tonight's game.  Should be a good one.

Groenheyde amazing in Tommies loss

How many letters in the word amazing?  By my count ten and you spell it G-R-O-E-N-H-E-Y-D-E.  The beleaguered STU goaltender faced 70 shots (EN goal was 71) in a 5 to 2 defeat at the hands of the Acadia Axemen tonight in Wolfville.

If not for the "Groenheyde" work of the STU goaltender the game could have easily of been 10 to 2 or worse.  It would be super easy here to cut up the entire Tommies team in front of him but by the end of the night the 12 skaters on the ice for St. Thomas had nothing left in the tank.

After allowing 3 goals in the first period the Tommies made it close in the middle frame with goals from  Jon Bonneau and Alex Labonte.  Acadia scored their fourth goal midway through the third period to seal the win and an empty netter for good measure.  The Axemen had 29, 12, and 30 shots respectively through three periods of play.

Acadia gave Groenheyde first star honours in facing 70 shots, even though their own player, Mike Cazzola, scored a hat trick.  A real classy move, kudos to them!

You really have to think that Groenheyde has to get some consideration for the AUS Rookie Team that will be announced in March.  I realize that St-FX's Drew Owsley has better statistics but he also has a better team in front of him.  But to be honest I have little faith in the AUS considering Felix Poulin should have been on it last year without question and was not. We'll see.

Tigers roll over Tommies

In AUS men's hockey action from Halifax, the Dalhousie Tigers jumped out to a 3 to 1 first period lead and added two more unanswered goals in the second, as they cruised to a 5 to 2 win over the Tommies.

Sebastien Bernier (Zandbeek-Poulin) and Steve Sanza (Bernier-Labonte) were the Tommies scorers in the first and third periods respectively.

DAL out shot the Tommies 33-30. STU was 1 for 4 on the PP.

The Tommies move on to Wolfville tomorrow to face the Acadia Axemen at 7:00PM.

Tommies take down Huskies

Julia Sharun picked up her 4th shut out of the season
this afternoon versus the SMU Huskies.
Photo Courtesy Dylan Buell

With a hat trick of Tommies' players having a big game this afternoon, St. Thomas defeated the Saint Mary's Huskies 2 to 0.  Jordan Miller and Cassidy McTaggart each had two points and Julia Sharun earned her fourth shut out of the season.

The first period was uneventful with no goals being scored.  Saint Mary's did not register their first shot on net until the 12 minute mark of the period, as STU out shot SMU 9 to 4 in the first.

Cassidy McTaggart would score the eventual game winning tally at 15:03 of the second period with the helpers to Jordan Miller and Erin MacIsaac.  Sharun closed the door on 10 Huskies shots in the period while STU fired 9 the other way.

St. Thomas would get a little insurance at 4:09 of third.  SMU's goalie Sienna Cooke made a nice save on Jordan Miller that resulted in a face off to her right.  Cassidy McTaggart won the draw back to Paige MacDonald, who promptly sent a perfect pass to a waiting Jordan Miller at the side of the SMU net and fired a quick shot for a two goal Tommies advantage.

The Huskies would pull their goalie late in the third period trying to get on the board but Julia Sharun was up to the task and denied everything that was thrown her way the rest of the game.  Final shots on goal favoured STU 30 to 27.

The win was huge as the Huskies sat 1 point behind the Tommies for second in the AUS standings at the start of the game.  STU now has a 3 point advantage on SMU and 4 points on UPEI, who they play  next Saturday night in Charlottetown.