David MacDonald scored on a screened shot from the blue-line 1:30 into double overtime Friday night at the Halifax Forum as the Saint Mary’s Huskies escaped with a 2-1 victory over the Moncton Aigles Bleus in the opener of their best-of-three AUS quarter-final hockey series.

 

After Pierre-Andre Bureau got Moncton on the board at 4:56 of the second period and Mike Danton netted the equalizer with under two minutes to go in the period, the two clubs played through a scoreless third stanza and first overtime before MacDonald ended it.

 

"We found a way in the end but it was a tough game to be in," Saint Mary’s head coach Trevor Stienburg said. "There’s not too many (that go) into double overtime."

 

The Huskies outshot the Aigles Bleus 36-24 but Moncton netminder Kevin Lachance held Saint Mary’s at bay until Justin Munden won a faceoff in the Moncton end and got the puck back to the point, where MacDonald’s shot — the first of the second overtime — found its way into the net.

 

"Lachance was incredible the whole night," said Stienburg, whose Huskies finished 15 points ahead of the Aigles Bleus during the regular season.

 

SMU finished third with a 16-8-4 slate while Moncton (9-16-3) slipped into the sixth and final playoff spot on the last weekend of the season.

 

But the third-place Huskies were hardly guilty of taking their opponents lightly, the coach said.

 

"We’ve played these guys, this is our third time in three years in the playoffs and they’ve given us problems every year. . . . They’re a scrappy bunch, they put out a real good effort, their whole team.

 

"You can’t take anything for granted in the playoffs."

 

The teams play Game 2 tonight in Moncton.

 

X-Men 3, Panthers 2 (2OT): In Antigonish, Ryan Sparling scored at 12:14 of a second overtime period as St. Francis Xavier completed a two-game sweep of UPEI in another game that went late into the night.

 

Brett Robertson and Bryce Swan also scored for the X-Men, who jumped out to a 2-0 advantage before the Panthers rallied with goals by Brandon Biggers and Cory Vitarelli.

 

The Panthers finished fourth in the regular season, three points up on the X-Men, who limped into the playoffs by losing four of their final five games. However, two of the X-Men’s losses were in a shootout and their lone win down the stretch was against the CIS No. 1 UNB Varsity Reds, the defending national champions’ only loss of the season.

 

•In AUS women’s regular-season hockey action:

 

Huskies 4, Tigers 2: Fifth-year forward Kori Cheverie of New Glasgow scored twice, including an empty-netter, and Saint Mary’s erased a 2-1 Dalhousie advantage with three straight goals at Alumni Arena.

 

Carla Little and Kaitlyn Abbass added singles for SMU (13-9-1). Brooklynn Winch and Sarah McVey countered for the Tigers (10-13-0).

 

Saint Mary’s moved into third place, a point up on the St. Thomas Tommies.

 

Panthers 4, Tommies 1: At Charlottetown, UPEI’s upset victory over St. Thomas was closed out by power-play goals from Danielle Maxwell and Amanda Armstrong after the Tommies had crept to within one goal.

 

( bfreeman@herald.ca)

 

This page last modified Sunday, 07-Nov-2010 16:43:31 AST