Press Release
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Hockey: Aigles Bleus and X-Men series is promising
The moment of truth arrives for the Université de Moncton Aigles Bleus as they open the Atlantic University Sport men's bets of 5 semifinal series against the St. Francis Xavier University X-Men in men's hockey, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. at the J.-Louis-Lévesque Arena.
The first two games are in Moncton and the next two in Antigonish next week. Moncton lost in 4 games in the semifinals last year. This is the first time since the 2005-2006 season that the team has qualified directly for the semi-final series. You need to finish in the top 2 in the regular season standings to skip the quarterfinals. The X-Men are coming off a grueling series against the Acadia University Axemen with a two-game overtime wins.
“It's a new season and it was our goal at the beginning of the season to play in the semifinals,” said blue and gold coach Derek Cormier. “Even though we won 3 of the 5 games against the X-Men during the season, it doesn't mean anything. We're starting from scratch, and we must win three games to win the series. Even though the X-Men have played two long games, they are going to be ready and on a high with their overtime wins. We're going to have to push harder. We've been working on the energy required for the games and improving some of the details. These are one-off games now. The nerves will play on us and we need to perform our way. The two weeks off allowed us to recover from injuries and the break was good mentally. We've had a chance to reflect on our season and we'll be ready to play on Friday.”
According to veteran forward Olivier-Luc Haché, "We'll be ready. We've had a good two weeks of practices, and the guys are feeling good and ready to go to war. We must continue to play with identity and be responsible defensively and produce offensively. The X-Men have a good offensive team.” Nathaël Roy and Jérémy Michel, who missed games at the end of the season, should be back in the lineup.
Tickets for the games are available for purchase at the CEPS reception during the day or after 6 p.m. on game nights at the arena box office.
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