Tigers thumped in front of honoured alumnus
On a night when Dalhousie’s men’s hockey team should have been reminiscing about the glory days, the St. FX X-Men decided to crash the party.
Brett Morrison led the way with two goals and an assist as the X-Men handed a 7 – 2 drubbing to the Tigers in front of a packed crowd that included alumnus Ken Bickerton. The former Tigers player was honoured during a short pre-game ceremony.
Bicketron played for the Tigers from 1976-1982, most notably in 1979 as a member of the only Tigers team to win the Atlantic University Sport championship. He was an AUAA (AUS) rookie of the year in 1976-77 and a second team all-star in 1978-79 and 1979-80. He was voted the school’s male athlete of the year in 1980.
After saluting Dal’s newest inductee into their Hockey Wall of Fame, the game to come was less than celebratory.
“Things didn’t go our way, that’s for sure,” said Dal captain David MacDonald. We had a lot of turn overs and they capitalized on their chances. We didn’t capitalize on ours.”
It has been a disappointing couple of weeks for the Tigers. They have had a hard time scoring goals and winning games, losing their previous three on the road to UNB, UPEI and Moncton by a combined total of 21 – 4.
To make matters worse, the Tigers have also lost their number one goalie Bobby Nadeau to a minor groin injury. Nadeau started the game, but took himself out after allowing two weak goals 72 seconds apart early in the first. The rest of the period wasn’t any better, consisting of sloppy play by the Tigers.
With the score 3 – 0 heading into the second, the Tigers played a better period, aggressively forechecking and keeping the puck out of the defensive zone, even if they were unable to score any goals. The X-Men, however, added two more to build the lead to 5 – 0.
“It’s frustrating because we can’t score goals and we are having a hard time stopping the other teams from scoring goals,” said Tigers head coach Pete Belliveau, referring to his team’s recent struggles. “This game I thought we played a little bit better, just gave up a couple of lucky goals.”
Francois Gauthier finally got the Tigers on the board just 1:34 into the third to make it 5 – 1. Michael Kirkpatrick responded for St. FX just three minutes later. In the final 10 minutes, Dal forward Benjamin Breault and X-Men forward Brennen Wray scored to make the final 7 – 2.
The following evening the Tigers once again did not see a favourable scoreline, extending their losing streak to five games after falling 5 – 1 to Acadia.
The Tigers, 2 – 6, are tied for last in the league with St. Thomas. After their victories against Dal, Acadia is 4-3-1 and St. FX is 3-5.
Jacob Johnston had the Tigers’ only goal in the first period to tie the match at one. The Axemen would follow with four unanswered markers.
Dal returns home this weekend to a Nov. 11 match against the nation’s No. 1 ranked UNB Varsity Reds at 7 p.m. The UPEI Panthers clash with the Tigers Nov. 12 at 3 p.m.
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