Athletics, Brewers to meet in KCBL final
The details of the game and how the team plays its system are more important for the UPEI Panthers men’s hockey squad than the outcome of its first exhibition game.
“But we want to win and part of that is just having competitive guys,” head coach Forbes MacPherson said Thursday.
“If you have competitive people in the dressing room it doesn’t matter if ... you’re playing a game of cards, an exhibition game or a playoff game. You want people who want to win everything they do.”
The Panthers host Moncton tonight for a 7 p.m. game at MacLauchlan Arena.
“We want to make sure we’re competing, battling for pucks, playing fast hockey,” MacPherson said.
The team has 25 guys in camp. Atlantic University Sport teams can only dress 22 skaters during the season. UPEI has three goalies, eight defencemen and 14 forwards in camp.
MacPherson has been pleased with how the first two weeks have gone.
“There’s the excitement of a new season,” he said. “There’s always a good energy. It’s the time of the year, essentially, where everybody has a clean slate.”
Practices have been efficient, and the players have brought good energy to training each day. MacPherson said he’s not focused on replacing minutes and points of the players who have not returned this season but getting the team to play a certain system. It starts with being difficult to play against and includes things like playing fast, aggressive hockey with good goaltending and being sound defensively. They are sort of the pillars of the Panthers program.
“If you’re going to get two points against our program, then you’re going to have to earn them,” MacPherson said.
The Panthers begin the regular season Wednesday, Sept. 26, when they host Moncton. They travel to UNB to play the Varsity Reds Sept. 28.
UPEI is heading south of the border the following weekend for games with NCAA squads (Quinnipiac, RPI and Maine).
It resumes conference play Wednesday, Oct. 10 against Moncton.
The Kings County League final is set.
The Alley Stratford Athletics and the Northside Gill Construction Brewers each won their bestof-five semifinal in four games. The best-of-seven final will start Sunday at 2 p.m. in Stratford. It will be a matchup of the regular season’s third-ranked Athletics and fourth-place Brewers.
Here’s a look at the clinching semifinal games.: Baseball
The Athletics defeated the Peakes Tee Bombers 4-2 Wednesday. Dan O’Shea struck out seven for the complete game victory while Josh Coffin suffered the loss with relief from Rob Phelan.
Dominique Ryan, Allister Smith and Grant Grady all had two hits to pace the Athletics while the Tyson MacInnis had a pair of hits to pace the Bombers attack.
Down 5-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning the Brewers scored seven runs, all with two out, to go ahead 7-5 en route to an 8-5 victory to eliminate the Morell Chevies.
Jason MacLean cleared the bases with a three-run double to get the Brewers on the board. A hit and a walk had the bases loaded again for the Brewers, setting the stage for Jayden MacLean, who ripped a single to score two. Another run scored after a throwing error and Jayden MacLean ended up coming home on another Chevie error for the little league grand slam as the Brewers scored four runs on the play.
Jason MacLean picked up the win for the Brewers in relief of Jamie Arsenault. Jordan Stevenson pitched the final two innings to pick up the save. Jayden and Jason MacLean and Jed MacEwen led the offence with two hits each.
Brett Hicken suffered the loss for the Chevies with relief from Logan Gallant. Jarrod Laybold and Desi Doyle each had two hits to lead the Chevies, who scored three runs in the first and added single runs in the second and third innings.