Defending national champion REDS and conference finalist Huskies top competition heading into 2023-24 season
(HALIFAX, N.S.) As the defending national champion UNB REDS men's hockey team laces up to chase their sixth consecutive conference title, most of the AUS coaches believe they're the team to beat.
The REDS, who finished the 2023 regular season in first place with a 24-4-1-1 record, topped the AUS men's hockey preseason coaches' poll with 35 total points and five first-place votes.
The annual poll was voted on by the league's seven head coaches, who were not permitted to vote for their own teams.
The poll results were announced Wednesday, ahead of the AUS regular-season opener featuring the UPEI Panthers visiting the Moncton Aigles Bleus. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ADT.
All games of the AUS regular season and postseason will once again be webcast at www.AUStv.ca.
The Saint Mary's Huskies—2023 conference runners up—were voted second in the poll with 32 points and the remaining two first-place votes.
The Huskies finished the 2023 regular season in second place with a 20-9-1-0 record and waged a hard-fought battle in last year's AUS championship—pushing the REDS to a deciding Game 3 in the final playoff round.
The Moncton Aigles Bleus finished third in the poll with 23 points. The Aigles Bleus entered the 2023 postseason in sixth place, with a 6-22-1-1 record in the regular season.
But the team made waves in the conference playoffs, downing the UPEI Panthers in the quarterfinals before being taken out by the REDS in four games in the semi-final round.
The STFX X-Men claimed fourth place in the poll with 21 points, closely followed by the Acadia Axemen with 19 points. The UPEI Panthers (10 points) and Dalhousie Tigers (seven points) rounded out the poll in sixth and seventh place, respectively.
After regular-season competition finishes on Feb. 10, the top six teams will move on to post-season play.
This will feature a pair of best-of-three quarter-final series. The two top-seeded teams will receive a bye to the semi-final round, which will feature two best-of-five series.
The two semi-final winners will meet in a best-of-three series for the 2024 AUS men's hockey championship final.
The 2024 U SPORTS University Cup men's hockey championship will take place March 14 to 17 and will be hosted by Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) in Toronto, Ont.
The complete 2023-24 AUS men's hockey schedule can be found here.