Written by Thomas Scott
The Dalhousie Tigers men’s hockey team finished the 2023-24 season with a 7-21-2 record, finishing last in the conference.
The Tigers opened the season against the SMU Huskies, suffering an 8-1 loss on Oct. 6 at the Dauphinee Centre.
The Tigers bounced back the next game, hosting the Acadia Axemen at the Halifax Forum. In the 4-3 shootout victory, Alec Belanger scored twice, and Nicholas Chenard made 31 saves for the Tigers.
The Tigers would finish the fall semester 4-12-2, ending it on a six-game losing streak.
After the break, the Tigers returned to the win column on their trip to Moncton. The Tigers defended well against the Moncton Aigles Bleus, winning 2-1 with 36 saves from Chenard. Belanger scored the game-winner in the third period, scoring his 15th goal of the season.
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Unfortunately for Dal, the next game was the start of a three-game losing skid, allowing seven goals in each game. The Tigers mustered only two more wins on the season, one over Acadia in a 5-3 victory and the other at UPEI in a 3-2 shootout victory over the Panthers. Dal’s highest-scoring game was at the Halifax Forum, hosting Moncton on Nov. 11, when Belanger scored two goals and an assist. Dal had 11-point contributors on the night, including a goal and two assists from Shaun Miller. One of the team’s bright spots this season was forward Belanger. The first-year kinesiology major finished fifth in the AUS in goals, scoring 16 in 25 games and earning the AUS Rookie of the Year award.
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The Tigers will be losing three players this summer. Gentile, Shaun Miller and Josh Wainman will all be crossing the stage at convocation.
Captain Derek Gentile finished the season as Dal’s points leader. The second-year commerce major scored at a point per game rate, finishing with 28.
The Tigers three goalies combined for the most saves in the conference with 1160, 231 more than any other team in the AUS.
Gentile, a commerce major, is coming off a successful season statistically. In the 2021-22 and 2023-24 seasons, the forward scored 55 points in 46 games.
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Playing three seasons for the Tigers, Miller totalled 61 points in 67 games. The winger generated 44 assists in his career, including 16 through 20 games in the 2021-22 season, good for fifth in the AUS for the management major. Wainman also played three seasons for Dal. The defenceman tallied 22 points in 63 games in his tenure as a Tiger. His nine points this season placed the commerce major 20th among all defenders in the conference. The team featured 11 first year athletes this season and will look to build with its youth in the years to come. Evan MacKinnon, Alexander MacDonald, and Jarrett Barker all earned their three-year D’s this season. Belanger was named the team’s MVP and won Dalhousie’s Rookie of the Year award. |