With the Aces' win on Friday night, the top two teams from the regular season will meet in the best-of-seven finals of the Razzy's Junior C Hockey League for a birth in the Maritime-Hockey North Junior C Championships in Fredericton, NB  April 7^th - 11^th. The Charlottetown AG Electric Abbies advanced with a tough sweep of the North River Island Excavators Flames in which all games were decided by one goal and one was in double overtime. The number one ranked Tignish Perry's Construction Aces needed four games to eliminate the Pownal Red Devils in their best-of-five semi-final series.  The Aces had a slight edge over the Abbies in the regular season, winning the season series 3-2 and outscoring them 23-18.

 

The Abbies depth on offense helped lead them to this point. Although they only had one player crack the top 10 in scoring during the regular season (Robbie Doucette - 8^th), the Abbies were able to count on each line to contribute offensively each night. Team captain, Luke McIver, lead the defensive unit and contributed offensively as well with 17 points. In goal, Ben Watts logged the majority of the minutes and lead the league by a wide margin in save percentage (0.929) in the regular season and picked up two shutouts along the way.

 

The expansion Abbies surprised everyone with immediate success upon their return to the league this season and with 9 of their players being in their first year of junior, the team looks like they'll be a contender for years to come.  The Abbies can boast the longest win streak of the season (10-games) between November 14^th, and January 3^rd. This coupled with their sweep of the Flames has proven that they are for real and will be a handful in the finals.

 

In their way will be the two-time defending champions, who have been the most successful franchise in the league since returning from a one-year hiatus in 2001-02. This is their sixth appearance in the finals and would be their fifth championship over that eight-year span if they were to win this season. 

 

Like the Abbies, Tignish has spread their scoring around this year, with 11 players scoring at least 20  points. The next highest number among the remaining teams in the league was 6 players (North River). Evan Shea lead the team with 40 points. This is the first time since 2005 that an Aces player did not win the scoring race. Defensively, the Aces are just as solid with Mark Arsenault leading the league in GAA (2.31) and shutouts (3) during the regular season, while his partner between the pipes, Travis Gaudette, put up very similar numbers, making the Aces very difficult to score against.

 

Game one is scheduled for Sunday at 6:30 in Tignish.  The rest of the schedule will follow.