AUS best-of-three quarter-final opens tonight at X

The rebuilding years of Acadia men’s hockey are over. Blair Jarrett wants to make sure of it.

"The last couple of years, we have been in that mould where we have finished sixth and have been saying ‘we’re rebuilding,’" said the fourth-year winger. "But it’s time to give that up and move on from that mindset. We have to convince ourselves and believe that we are better than a sixth-place team and that we can do damage in this league."

The Axemen were considered to be in a rebuilding mode this season but posted a 15-12-1 record, good for fifth-place in the AUS standings. They open the conference playoffs tonight on the road against the fourth-ranked St. Francis Xavier X-Men (15-11-2).

The best-of-three quarter-final should be interesting. St. F.X. finished one point ahead of Acadia to gain home-ice advantage. But Acadia swept the four-game regular season series, including a 6-0 thumping of St. F.X. last Saturday in Wolfville.

Prior to the lopsided setback to Acadia, the X-Men rookie duo of Bryce Swan and Brett Morrison combined for 15 points in two games prior against Dalhousie and UPEI.

"They put me with Morrison and we have really clicked," said Swan, who had four goals against UPEI on Feb. 8. "I don’t think I had that many in my junior career. It was something special."

Swan said the X-Men need to get off their rollercoaster ride in 2009 for any playoff success. St. F.X. reeled off seven consecutive wins before losing to Acadia on Jan. 17. The X-Men then lost five of their next six games, won their next three before losing their regular-season finale to Acadia.

"We had a seven-game winning streak then we hit a rough spell where we went away from our systems," Swan said. "But even when we were losing those games, we were still playing good hockey. There were games we could have, or should have, won.

"For us to be successful, we have to dictate the play. We’re a skilled team but we are most successful when we use our speed and when we’re aggressive on our forecheck. That’ll be key for us. We can’t do too much; we have to stay within our means."

Jarrett said consistency has been Acadia’s downfall lately.

"We need to get goals five-on-five and we have to be better defensively, not just on our blue-line but our forwards as well," Jarrett said. "We haven’t been consistent enough."

Game 2 of the opening-round series is slated for Friday in Wolfville. Game 3, if necessary, will be back in Antigonish on Sunday night.

The other series features the No. 3 Moncton Aigles Bleus against the sixth-ranked UPEI Panthers, beginning tonight in Moncton. The Aigles Bleus finished the regular season at 16-8-4, seven points ahead of the Panthers (13-12-3). However, the teams split their four head-to-head meetings, which included a 4-3 overtime decision for Moncton on Nov. 5.

The CIS No. 1 UNB Varsity Reds (21-4-3) and the 20-7-1 Saint Mary’s Huskies, fourth in the national rankings, each earned an opening-round bye and will play the quarter-final winners in a best-of-five semifinal. UNB will face the lowest remaining seed.

The semifinal winners receive an automatic berth to the CIS University Cup, March 26-29 in Thunder Bay.

Courtesy GLENN MacDONALD Sports Reporter, The Chronicle Herald