Panthers on the road again

The UPEI Panthers’ men’s hockey team hits the road for a pair of games this weekend in Nova Scotia, beginning with the Saint Mary’s Huskies on Friday in Halifax.

Game time is 7 p.m. UPEI (2-2, four points) has been middling out of the gate despite scoring the highest number of goals in the Atlantic University Sport conference (20). The Panthers’ main bugaboo has been defence as they’ve surrendered a second-worst 19 goals – tied with Dalhousie.

Saint Mary’s (2-1-1) is one point ahead of UPEI and tied for third with Acadia.

Kameron Kielly (12 points), Darcy Ashley (10 points) and Marcus Power (nine points) are one, two and three in the league and UPEI scoring, respectively. Kielly leads the AUS in assists with nine.

Hunter Garlent and Jake Coughler are first and second on the Huskies’ scoring list with seven and five points, respectively.

Coughler and Kielly are former teammates on the Charlottetown Islanders of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Saint Mary’s goaltender Eric Brassard, who also played with Kielly on the Islanders, is tied with UNB’s Alex Dubeau for the best goal-against average in the league (1.67).

UPEI’s Matthew Macina has the second-worst GAA in the AUS at 5.02.

The Panthers tangle with Acadia on Saturday in Wolfville (7 p.m.).