The third day of T Bay Tel Varsity Cup CIS-NCAA mens university hockey action saw the St. Francis Xavier X-Men and the Calgary Dinos score impressive victories and book their tickets to the tourney final on Saturday afternoon at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
The X-Men booked their ticket with a heroic 4-2 win over Lake Superior State giving St. FX and perfect 3-0 tourney mark. Calgary continued their impressive play by dominating the host Lakehead Thunderwolves by a 5-1 score and the Dinos ended round robin play with a 2-1 mark. Lake Superior State posted a 1-2 tourney record while the host Thunderwolves were winless at 0-3.
The Dinos will be looking to win their first T Bay Tel Varsity Cup title after losing two previous finals appearances while the X-Men will look to lift the Cup in their first finals in two tourney appearances. In the round robin portion of this years tourney; St. FX defeated Calgary 5-4 in an OT thriller so the final should prove to be an exciting one as East meets West at 2:00 pm EST at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay.
Varsity Cup Day 3: Game 1: St. Francis Xavier 4 Lakehead Superior State 2
The X-Men from Antigonish put on a heroic display of hockey led by goaltender Ryan Aschaber and gutted out a win against a tough NCAA Division I opponent. X was given 15 minor penalties in the match compared to Lake States 4 and yet the X-Men battled hard for the victory.
Xs goals came from Stuart McRae, Ryan Desrosier, Danny White, and Ryan Armstrong. Lake States goals came from Dan Eves and Nathan Ward. The X-Men played without Captain Ryan Walsh who sat out the game due to injury.
X jumped out to a quick lead 21 seconds into the game on a goal by McRae but then began the game long penalty parade. Aschaber was phenomenal in the first period; turning aside 22 Lake State shots. Lake State had two 5-on-3 man advantages for two minutes each time, and yet couldnt beat Aschaber.
X made it 3-0 with two early second period goals by Desrosier and White, both rockets that beat Lake State netminder Jeff Jakaitis high, but penalties again hurt X as Lake State scored two power play goals (Eves and Ward) off deflections off X defensemen. Again and again the X-Men were sent to the sin bin and again and again they would kill off the penalties. Lake State had a seeming goal disallowed late in the third after it was ruled it had been knocked in with a high stick and then Ryan Armstrong buried an empty netter in the last minute to ice the win for the X-Men.
Unfortunately for the X-Men; hard charging Jeremy Akeson suffered a broken shoulder in the game and will be out most likely for the rest of the season so X will be playing in the final without some key players.
The Three Stars were:
1) St. FX: Ryan Aschaber
2) St. FX: Ryan Armstrong
3) Lake State: Jeff Jakaitis
Varsity Cup Day 3: Game 2: Calgary 5 Lakehead 1
The host Thunderwolves played even with the quick and aggressive Dinos for the first period with both teams scoring one in the first frame. But that was as close as the Thunderwolves would get as the Dinos again used their speed and strong forecheck to neutralize Lakehead for most of the game; although the Wolves did have some good chances. Calgary goalie Scott Talbot again was excellent, turning aside 33 Lakehead shots.
PaulGentile led the Dinos with 2 goals while Colin McRae, Travis Friedley, and Alex Lapointe notched singles. Ryan Annesley had 3 assists for the Dinos while Jarrett Lukin had a pair of assists. Lakeheads lone goal came from Jeff Richards. Calgary outshot Lakehead 41-34 in the game.
The Three Stars were:
1) Calgary: Paul Gentile
2) Calgary: Ryan Annesley
3) Lakehead: Mike Jacobsen
Paid attendance on the day was 2524.