Men's Ice Hockey

2013-14 Men's Hockey Season Recap

Posted: Apr 09, 2014

Written by: Duncan Forbes

It was a tough season for the Tigers as they struggled with consistency and injuries all season long. They began the season with a big win at the Don Wells Memorial Tournament in Acadia with victories against Saint Mary’s and StFX, who they beat in overtime to win the tournament.

Shortly after they played a pair of games on the road against UPEI and Brock to end September with a 3-1 record. This brief optimism was put on hold as the Tigers went 0-4 to finish out the pre-season with a 3-5 record.

The regular season didn’t get off to a flying start either, as the Tigers went 0-9 in the first half of the season. Their first win came against the Saint Mary’s Huskies when they jumped out to an early 3-0 lead to win 3-1. They couldn’t find the same success again before the holiday break and ended up 1-13.

In November, Pierre Vandall was named to Team Canada’s men’s hockey team that would compete at the Winter Universiade in Trentino, Italy. He helped Team Canada win gold as they went 5-0 in the tournament, defeating Kazakhstan in the final 6-2 in December.

The Tigers were in the win column twice in the second half, and found themselves on the outside looking in when it came to the AUS playoff picture for the third straight year.

Brad McConnell and Andrew Wigginton led the Tigers with seven goals and ten assists for 27 points each, and Chris Ivanko led all scorers with nine goals.

Although the record was not what head coach Chris Donnelly envisioned going into the season, he says that the team stayed optimistic and competitive all year.

“It was a tough year in the standings, however, under the circumstances we were very optimistic that our guys continued to compete every night,” says Donnelly. “Our team lost over 10 games by just one goal, despite playing without a full lineup in almost every game.”

It was also a great learning experience for a Tigers team that sported 12 first and second year players.

“We had a couple of nice surprises this year with some great play from first year players, Fabian Walsh and Luke Madill,” adds Donnelly. “With a large number of injuries to our team, both players received a great opportunity to play in key situations and we were extremely pleased with their contributions.”

Donnelly also credits the Tigers alumni for supporting the Tigers while the going was tough.

“The players were encouraged by the support of some alumni, whose positive comments and interactions with the players were greatly appreciated, as they continued to take in our games on a regular basis,” says Donnelly.

The Tigers will be saying goodbye to some great individuals in Brett Plouffe, Francois Gauthier and Bobby Nadeau who will all move on next season. Brett will head west as he pursues his studies in medicine, while Francois will graduate from the engineering program and Bobby will be in his final year of dentistry here at Dalhousie.