Huskies advance to semifinals after 9-2 win over Moncton

(MONCTON, N.B.) – The Saint Mary's Huskies have advanced to the Subway AUS Men's Hockey Championship semifinals after posting a convincing 9-2 win over the Moncton Aigles Bleus in Game 2 of the quarter-final round.

The two teams battled it out in front of more than 1,200 spectators at the J.-Louis-Lévesque Arena in Moncton. 

Moncton's Alex Saulnier opened the scoring in the first period, off of an assist from brother and teammate Allain Saulnier. But five unanswered Saint Mary's goals would bring the score to 5-1 to close the first period. 

Steve Lebel notched the second marker for the home team to open the second period. But Saint Mary's would respond with two more goals before the end of the frame and take a 7-2 lead after 40 minutes. 

Two more unanswered Saint Mary's goals in the final frame would bring the final score to 9-2.

Bradley Greene and Ben Duffy each scored twice to lead the Huskies offence. The other goals came from the sticks of Francis Ménard, Kyle Pereira, Garrad Grant, Mitchell Maynard and Taylor Burke.

Aigles Bleus goaltender Adrien Lemay was busy throughout the game with 39 shots on goal, including 17 in both the first and second periods.

Cole Cheveldave saved 23 of 25 shots in net for the Huskies.

"The penalties took the momentum out of our play," said Moncton head coach Serge Bourgeois. "Some players played a lot because they had to kill penalties and they were tired. We were the least penalized team in the league this season. I cannot explain what happened this evening, it was a big negative for us. We lacked discipline. The worst is we proved in Halifax we could play with this team. It was not fun for our spectators and our players tonight. We have three veterans leaving the program, Alex Emond, Pier-Antoine Dion and Adrien Lemay, and they brought a lot to our program. It is sad to see them leave this way."

Team captain Alex Emond was disappointed to see his career end this way. "We had our ups and downs, but the other team was bigger, faster and better than ours," he said. "We tried everything we could tonight without succeeding. The penalties hurt us. I am happy to have lived the Aigles Bleus experience. I told my teammates that I've had great years with the Aigles. It made me grow up as a person. That is what I'll remember the most."

The Huskies advance to the Subway AUS Men's Hockey semifinals along with the UPEI Panthers who upset the Acadia Axemen 5-4 in overtime tonight.

Saint Mary's will face off against the StFX X-Men in a best-of-five semi-final series which will begin next week. The Panthers will face the UNB Varsity Reds in the other series.