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Panthers rise and fall Page 7 UPEI Cadre »p O Vrs Canada’s teams are ranked ; Nov.16, 2007. best to worst Page 8 Page 6 Panthers get big win over Moncton | Athletes of the out of the UPEI zone and preserve chances from close range. Much of week

By Josh Lewis

The UPEI Panthers had one mes- sage for the Moncton Blue Eagles and the rest of the AUS Wednesday night: we’re the real deal.

The men’s hockey squad beat the Eagles, last year’s AUS champion and national runner-up, 2-1 at MacLauchlan Arena to move to 3- 2-1 on the season, putting them in a tie for third in the conference.

Josh Patterson and Rick Steadman scored in the first period and that was all UPEI would need, as Paul Drew stopped 39 of 40 shots and terrific defensive play and work ethic by the Panthers prevented Moncton from capitaliz- ing on many quality chances.

Patterson opened the scoring at 5:32 of the first, taking a nice feed from Howie Martin on a three-on- one and putting it behind Eagles goaltender Kevin Lachance for his fifth goal of the year.

Rick Steadman scored the eventu- al game-winner with 33 seconds left on a breakaway, scooping up a loose puck at centre and deking Lachance to the left side.

It was a great game all-around for Steadman, who made a diving play in the final seconds to get the puck

the win.

“Rick Steadman had a fantastic game,” said Panthers head coach Dylan Taylor.

“He scored the winning goal and was fantastic on the PK. He and Chase (Gavin) played very strong. Rick was a fella who showed some great leadership.”

Moncton defenseman Louis Mandeville broke Drew’s shutout bid with 19.2 seconds left in the game, putting a weak dribbler between the goaltender’s pads, but that was as close as the visitors would get.

“We want the league to realize that it’s gonna be a war to get points from the UPEI Panthers,” said first year defenseman Tomas Stryncl.

“The whole team bought into the plan we had before the game, min- imize the turnovers, be aggressive on our forecheck and everybody pressures on the power play. Everybody played great defense for 60 minutes, plus Paul Drew gave us a chance to win in the sec- ond period when they had the momentum.” -

UPEI was outshot 40-25 on the night, but many of Moncton’s shots were from the outside and they weren’t able to get many

that was due to good work by the Panthers’ defense corps, which did well at blocking shooting lanes and pushing players to the outside.

“T thought overall we had a real defensive conscience throughout the whole team,” said Taylor.

“We talked before the game about attacking offensively, but also being conscious of defensive responsibility. I thought through all four lines and six defensemen the team went out and executed that philosophy.

“It's hard to identify a single per- son who stood out because every- body pitched in and that's what it takes for our team to win.”

Taylor said his team has a pen- chant for raising its game against top opponents and he expects that to continue.

“Tt's the nature of the beast. People raise their performance to what they're facing. When the challenge is there we've been able to step up and meet it and we will need to continue to do that.”

Patterson, who took three straight penalties late in the second and early in the third, redeemed him- self as the final buzzer went by hammering Mandeville with a clean open-ice hit in the neutral zone.

Female:

Patricia Trainor 3rd year, Business Soccer Charlottetown, PE

Patricia Trainor was a rock all

weekend long for the Panthers in the middle of the park. Patricia’s work ethic and pursuit of the ball is next to none. The Panthers beat MUN on Friday 1-0 to advance into the semi’s but fell to CBU the 2007 AUS Champs Saturday 1-0.

Mate Kyle Spurr 3rd year Arts Hockey Hamilton, ON

Kyle Spurr has been playing strong this year and on

the weekend he had a goal and five assists. Friday night, Spurr had an assist and scored his first goal of the year in overtime vs. SFX. Saturday night in Halifax vs. the Saint May Huskies, Spurr had four assists.

Capers win third straight AUS championship

By Josh Lewis

The Cape Breton Capers contin- ued their dominance of Atlantic University Sport women's soccer Sunday, capturing their third

straight conference title with a 1-0 _

win over the Dalhousie Tigers at UPEI.

Cheryl Wall was the hero for the second straight year, heading in a ball sent in from midfield by Kerri Mills just 30 seconds into the match. Wall also scored the win- ning goal for Cape Breton in the 2006 championship game.

Dalhousie had their chances

Due to date of publication, sto- ries on Panthers progress and elimination may be shown in the same paper.

By Josh Lewis

The UPEI Panthers perhaps made it further than some had expected, but bowed out of the Atlantic University Sport women’s soccer championship with a 1-0 loss to the Cape Breton Capers in Saturday’s semi-final.

The Capers won their third straight championship the next day with a I -0 win over Dalhousie.

through the remaining 89 minutes, but weren't able to convert. Leanne ‘Huck in particular made several strong runs, but none resulted in goals.

Both teams had seven shots on goal, while Dalhousie had six scor- ing chances to the Capers' four.

The Capers' Kiley Snow and the Tigers' Huck were named players of the game.Both teams still advance to this weekend's national championship in Sydney, N.S. with Cape Breton as the host and Dalhousie as the second team from the AUS conference.

The championship tilt was a match-up of the top two regular

season teams in the AUS. Both teams received byes to the semi- finals. Cape Breton, which fin- ished first with a record of 11-1-1, defeated the hometown UPEI Panthers 1-0 on a goal by Nicole Stewart to advance to the final.

Meanwhile, Dalhousie needed a shootout to knock off the Saint Mary's Huskies 2-1 in the midst of a torrential downpour courtesy of tropical storm Noel.

Stephanie Collins' shootout strike proved to be the winner, as Tiger keeper Heather Armstrong made a diving save to tip the final Huskie shot just over the crossbar.

It was a golden day for Cape

Panthers knocked off in AUS semi

Nicole Stewart’s goal in the 56th minute was all the Capers would need in this one.

Kristina Weatherbie played a per- fect ball through the Panther defense to Stewart, whose strike from the right side flew just under the crossbar, out of reach of UPEI keeper Amanda Wheatley.

The Panthers were very strong defensively throughout the match, holding the high-flying Capers to just one goal.

However, they weren’t able to create many quality chances at the other end.

Cape Breton outshot UPEI 16-4 and outchanced them 7- 2.

Players of the game were Nicole Stewart for the Capers and Sara Stewart for the Panthers.

Rookie striker Brandy Doiron missed Saturday’s game after being red-carded the night before for a shoving match with Memorial’s Julia Whitten.

UPEI, which finished sixth in the regular season with a record of 6- 5-1, got to the semi by upsetting the third-ranked Memorial Sea- Hawks in Friday’s quarter-final with a 1-0 win in extra time.

Tessa Roche’s shot from 30 yards out managed to handcuff Memorial keeper Simone Quinlan 11 minutes into the first 15-minute period of

Breton soccer, as the men's side also won their championship with a 2-0 win over Saint Mary's in Antigonish, N.S. Earlier in the week, Island native Kristina Weatherbie was named AUS most valuable player and head coach Ness Timmons received the coach of the year honour.

The decision by tournament offi- cials to reschedule Sunday's cham-

‘pionship game from | p.m. to 5

p.m. paid off, as the wind died down considerably over the after- noon. Earlier, it had been so strong that one of the nets had been blown across the length of the field to the other end.

extra time.

The home side was rock solid defensively and prevented. Memorial’s main scoring threats, Malorie Harris and Maxine Morris, from generating any pressure.

UPEI dominated at the other end, outshooting the Hawks 11-0 and outchancing them 5-0.

Friday’s other quarter-final saw the fourth-ranked Saint Mary’s

- Huskies defeat the fifth-ranked St.

FX X-Women 1-0 on a stoppage- time goal by Nicole Burgess.

The UPEI men’s team was elimi- nated from their championship Friday, losing 1-0 to UNB in quar- ter-final action.