SMU defeats StFX 7-1 in Game 1 of Atlantic university hockey final
Courtesy Glenn MacDonald, The Chronicle Herald
 
The Saint Mary’s Huskies have drawn first blood in the Atlantic University Hockey Conference championship with the St. Francis Xavier X-Men.

But the Huskies’ 7-1 rout in Game 1 of the best-of-five final series Sunday night was marred by a frightening scene late in the second period.

St. F.X. sophomore forward Bryce Swan, who led the X-Men in scoring during the regular season, collapsed near the Saint Mary’s blue-line behind the play. He lay motionless on the ice for a few minutes as he was tended by the team’s bench staff. Many of the 3,800 in attendance sat silent.

A wobbly Swan was eventually assisted off the ice but he was clearly ailing. St. F.X. head coach Brad Peddle said Swan had been suffering from flu-like symptoms and he fainted from dehydration and fatigue.

"It was very scary. I watched it on video after the second period and he just fainted," Peddle said following the game. "I can’t speak much about it but he’ll see the doctor tomorrow.

"He’s been under the weather. It was more exhaustion and fatigue that had set in."

Aside from that alarming scene, the rest of the game was headlined by the Huskies as they continued their dominance in the post-season. After a scoreless first 30 minutes, Saint Mary’s struck for five goals in a seven-minute span in the second.

Colby Pridham collected three of those goals, Brad Smith notched his first playoff goal and Mike Danton scored his first of two on the night in the barrage.

"The guys have been saying to me that during the regular season we will go through some bumps and peaks and valleys," said Danton, who’s missing his regular linemates, Cam Fergus and Kyle Doucet, who are each out with injuries. "But come playoff time, everything seems to roll on through. It’s pretty clear that every game we have gotten better. We’ve had some outbursts in scoring the past couple games and it’s been spread throughout all the lines.

"When your defence is scoring and your third and fourth lines are scoring, that’s really big. That’s a sign of a good team when key players are out other players fill the roles and step in. That’s the depth of our team."

Andrew White had the other goal for the Huskies, who outshot the X-Men 35-24.

SMU chased goalie Bryan Gillis — the hero of the X-Men’s stunning sweep of the defending national champion UNB Varsity Reds in the semifinals — 4:32 into the third period and ahead 6-1.

It was clear that the defending league champion Huskies used the first period to get a feel for the upstart X-Men.

"Yeah, it was a feeling-out process," Smith said. "We didn’t play that bad in the first (period). We outshot them but the puck wouldn’t go in. Eventually the puck did go in the net and that’s what happened in the second."

"The first period was kind of boring," added Danton, matter-of-factly. "We were seeing what they were all about and they were seeing what we were all about. We didn’t just have to prepare for them they had to prepare for us.

"We noticed they were stepping up on UNB at the blue-line, at the red-line, along the boards against the wingers. So we chipped pucks by them and worked them down low. That’s where we came through on our second and third efforts. We outworked them, got the puck to the net and got rebounds."

Phil Mangan, the X-Men’s leading scorer in the post-season, answered in the second period on a slick individual effort.

But that was all St. F.X. had to cheer about on this night.

The series resumes Tuesday night in Antigonish.

"We have to forget about this game," Peddle said. "For the first 30-plus minutes, it was pretty close. We got the goal that made it 3-1 and it gave us a little bit of life. But all of a sudden, in a blink of an eye it’s 5-1. That’s how playoffs go.

"They (Huskies) were good. They capitalized on a lot of chances that they had and we had a few chances that we would like to have back. This was the first game in the playoffs that we got away from the things that made us successful. We have to address that now and we’ll be better on Tuesday."