St. FX sweep Dal in AUS men’s hockey
Arfa Ayub, Staff Contributor
Jason Bast’s goal with 10 seconds left in regulation brought the Dalhousie Tigers men’s hockey team’s first playoff run in seven years to a heartbreaking end on Feb. 19. Dal lost 3 – 2 to the St. FX X-Men in the AUS quarterfinals. They lost game one 4 – 0 in Antigonish.
“That’s kind of the nature of a two out of three series,” said Dal captain Ryan Jenner. “It’s not long. If you are not ready every shift you are not going to get the result you were looking for.”
Dal were missing some key players, including their main goalie Bobby Nadeau and forward Shea Kewin, with injuries.
“It’s not the way we wanted to go out,” said goalie Josh Disher. “All the boys worked really hard all year and it’s tough to end it that way.” Disher had 35 saves in the game.
It was Disher’s first and last AUS playoff appearance as a Tiger. He will be graduating this year along with teammates Chris Wall and Jenner.
In front of a sell-out crowd, the game had a little bit of everything, from heart-stopping moments to great defensive plays. The first period was wide open, with both teams trading chances but neither able to capitalize.
“We came out a lot stronger this game,” said Dal forward Jacob Johnston. “We were kind of flat-footed last game at their rink. This game we played really well defensively and made a point (of) using defence first as opposed to looking for offensive opportunities.”
Dal’s Benoit Gervais opened the scoring in the second. He fired a wrist shot high glove side on St. FX starting goalie Joseph Perricone. The second period was a battle between goalies as each kept their team in the game. With about nine minutes remaining, Disher made two great sliding saves in a row to keep the lead intact.
“I saw the puck well and my defence played pretty well in front me as which made my job easier,” said Disher.
A power-play goal by Phil Mangan tied the game up at one. A Chris Hulit shot then slid through Disher’s legs, giving St. FX the lead. With Bryce Swan sitting in the penalty box, Johnston capitalized on a power-play opportunity.
“I thought we battled well today,” said Johnston. “I think the only thing that really didn’t feel good was the loss with 10 seconds left in regulation. It would have been a little bit better to go out in over-time or something like that.”
Recent Comments