Press Release

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Men’s Hockey: Aigles Bleus begin 2019-2020 season on Friday

The Université de Moncton Aigles Bleus begin their regular 2019-2020 Atlantic University Sport (AUS) men’s hockey season with two road games in Nova Scotia on Friday and Saturday.

The Judes Vallée coached team will be in Wolfville and face the Acadia University Axemen on Friday at 7 p.m. They will then travel to Halifax for an encounter with the Saint Mary’s University Huskies Saturday at the same time.

The team is composed of six rookies and 14 returning players. Coach Judes Vallée begins his third season behind the bench. “I look forward to this season; we are ready,” Vallée said. “Our training has gone well. Our work ethic on the ice will be our identity mark this season. We will also be more present and aggressive around the opponent’s net to score more often. I have enjoyed the player’s attitude during the exhibition games. We need to keep our plan simple and work hard every night. The league’s parity and high calibre shows nothing will be easy.”

The new team captain is third-year forward Vincent Deslauriers. “Each standing point will be important this season,” Deslauriers said. “We have six rookies, and we should do well. Our strength will be our work ethic on the ice, our skating and our endurance. We will be able to play a full 60 minutes and compete with every team. The exhibition games have shown us our individual roles, our weakness and our strengths as a team. We have a fairly good idea where we will end up in the standings. We are ready for these first games following very good practices. Our last game has prepared us well for our first two games on the road and the season.”

The team will be led by AUS all-star forward Maxime St-Cyr (23 goals-32 points last year) and AUS and U SPORTS rookie of the year, goaltender Étienne Montpetit. Defencemen Danick Crète has been converted to a forward. Rookie Gabriel Vanier will miss a few weeks because of an injury. Alexandre Jacob and goaltender Alexis Thibaudeau will also miss the weekend games because of injuries. Jason Rioux will be back-up goaltender.

Rookies this season are Michael Kemp, Vincent Millette, Gabriel Vanier, Wilson Forest, Francis Thibeault and Jeremy Hannah. The Aigles Bleus ended last season in fourth place with a 14-13-3 record and were eliminated in quarterfinal action against the University of Prince Edward Island Panthers.


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