AUS men's hockey playoffs set to begin tonight with quarter-final action

Panthers, Huskies to kick things off tonight

HALIFAX, NS (Feb. 19, 2025) – With the puck about to drop on the 2025 Atlantic University Sport men’s hockey post-season, all roads go through the UNB REDS once again.

The six-time defending champs from UNB sat in first place in the AUS standings all season long, finishing the 2024-25 campaign with a league-topping 28-1-1 record – earning a bye into the AUS semifinals as the No. 1 seed.

Like last season, the second team to earn a free pass to the semifinals is Les Aigles Bleus from l’Université de Moncton. Their regular season ended with an impressive 19-9-2-0 mark.

Moncton, who will be looking for their first AUS crown since the 2006-07 season, fell to UNB 2-0 in last year’s best-of-three championship series.

Who they meet in the semifinals will depend on who makes it out of the quarter-finals, which start tonight. Let’s take a look at the matchups.

Quarter-final #1
UPEI (No. 6) vs Saint Mary’s University (No. 3)

Game 1 of this best-of-three quarter-final series begins tonight as the third-ranked Saint Mary’s University Huskies host the visiting UPEI Panthers. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.

During the regular season, Saint Mary’s went 17-11-2-0 to finish third, while UPEI collected a 9-19-0-2 mark.

These teams have somewhat of a recent playoff history, as SMU defeated the Panthers 2-0 in their best-of-three quarter-final series back in 2022 and 2020. The last time UPEI defeated the Huskies in a playoff matchup was back in 2013 when they swept their best-of-three quarter-final series.

On paper, the Huskies are the favourites this time around as they went 4-1 against the Panthers in their season series – winning their last three matchups. UPEI will also have to deal with the league’s leading scorer in the regular season, Derek Gentile, who recorded 46 points (19 goals, 27 assists) in 29 games.

The Panthers will counter with Kaleb Pearson, who missed three games in January helping Team Canada to a gold medal at the 2025 FISU Games in Torino, Italy. Pearson led UPEI with 31 points (15 goals, 16 assists) in 24 games this season.

Jakob Robillard (16 games started) and Joe Ranger (14 games started) split the puck-stopping duties for UPEI, while Justin Sumarah (11 games started) and Ben West (19 games started) share the crease for SMU.

This series could be a bit of a shootout as both teams struggled to keep the puck out of their own net – SMU sitting fifth in the league with a 3.66 goals-against-average and UPEI right behind in sixth place (3.74).

The Huskies last hoisted an AUS banner in 2010 when they captured their second straight AUS title. UPEI’s last league crown came in the 1990-91 season.

Game 2 of the series will go Friday night back in Charlottetown at 7 p.m. If a Game 3 is needed, the Huskies will host it on Sunday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m.

All playoff games can be found on AUStv.ca.

Quarter-final #2
Acadia (No. 5) vs STFX (No. 4)

This series will wait until Thursday to begin when the X-Men host the Axemen in a 7 p.m. start in Antigonish.

STFX finished the regular season in fourth spot with a 15-13-1-1 record. Acadia sat in fifth after posting a 14-14-1-1 mark.

Fans of AUS hockey will undoubtedly remember the quarter-final series between these teams last season. Not because STFX swept the best-of-three series, but because of how they did it – winning Game 1 in a triple-overtime thriller and then topping that in Game 2 with a quadruple-overtime victory.

Acadia will look to avenge that loss this year, and despite being the lower seed, they defeated X 3-2 in their season series.

A look at the numbers suggests that overtime may come into play again this year as not much separates these squads. STFX had 106 goals for, Acadia had 104. The X-Men gave up 108 goals, the Axemen allowed 102.

X is led by Zack Trott, who finished the regular season with a team-best 36 points (11 goals, 25 assists) in 30 games. Acadia’s top scorer was Brady Burns, who capped his year with 32 points (13 goals, 19 assists).

In net, the Axemen will send out Thomas Couture. After a strong rookie season last year, Couture led the AUS in games started (26) this season while recording a save percentage of .903. STFX rolls with a tandem in net, using both Patrick Leaver (16 starts) and Lucas Pfeil (14 starts) so who will start Game 1 might be a bit of a coin toss.

STFX last won an AUS title back in the 2016-17 season when they repeated as champs. Acadia’s last AUS banner was earned in the 2013-14 season.

Game 2 of this series will be hosted by Acadia on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. Game 3, if needed, will be played back at STFX’s rink on Monday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m.

All playoff games can be found on AUStv.ca.