1997 AUAA Championship and CIAU Appearance

Regular Season

UNB was only .500 at Christmas, but on the strength of 5 straight home game wins in the second half and a single road loss to UPEI - UNB finished first in the MacAdam , 2nd overall in the AUAA (Acadia had 43 points in the Kelly).

              MacAdam  Division
 Rk     Team   W   L   T    GF   GA  PTS
  6  1) UNB   19   8   1   126   79   39
     2) STU   14  11   3   128  123   31
     3) UPEI  12  14   2   131  130   26
     4) UDM   11  15   2   140  149   24
        MTA    2  22   4    79  158    8

                 Kelly Division
 Rk     Team   W   L   T    GF   GA  PTS
  4  1) ACD   21   6   1   183  105   43
  7  2) SFX   18   8   2   137  103   38
     3) DAL   13  11   4   109  109   30
     4) SMU    5  20   3    88  165   13

Playoffs

MacAdam Div. Semi-Final, AUAA Quarter Final

Round One - UNB vs UdeM, Win Series 2-0
UNB dominated UdeM in the first round series winning 2 games to none. UNB scored 14 goals versus UdeM's 2. When added to UNB's score of 11-4 over UdeM in the last game of the season, UNB had out scored UdeM 25 to 2 in three straight games.

MacAdam Div. Finals, AUAA Semi-Finals

Round Two - UNB vs STU, Win Series 2-0
UNB would meet STU in the MacAdam Division finals, the first rematch since STU had upset #1 UNB 2 games to 1 in the MacAdam Div. Semi-Finals in 1994/95 (two years earlier). UNB Won the first game at STU. The second game went to 3 ovetime periods before UNB won 4-3 on a goal by Peter MacKellar, assisted by Toby Burkitt (shown below). This marked their second straight sweap and their first MacAdam Div. title since 1993/94.

AUAA Finals

Round Three - UNB vs Acadia, Win Series 2-0
UNB would meet Acadia in the finals. UNB and Acadia had meet in 92/93 & 93/94 with both series going to Acadia. UNB won the first game of the best of three 4-3 in OT. Jason Campeau scored at the 4:31 mark of the first OT period.
Before game two Coach Mike Kelly asked the players if they wanted to checkout of the hotel - they agreed and went on to win game two 5-4 and the series 2-0 - the third sweap of the playoffs. This was UNB's first AUAA title since 1984. UNB was outshot 41-23, but the strong play of goalie Frank LeBlanc kept UNB in the game.

CIAU Finals - U. of Toronto, Toronto - Ontario

Four teams were invited to the 35th CIAU finals in Toronto: AUAA Champions (UNB), Canada West Champions (Alberta), Ontario University Athletic Champions (Guelph) and OUA Runner-up (York).

The tournament was a traditional one game semi-final, followed by a one game final. UNB would meet Alberta and Guelph would meet York in a rematch of the OUA Championships. There was no consolation finals - single elimination. The Semi-Final games would be held at UoT's Varsity Arena, broadcast on TSN, with the finals in Maple Leaf Gardens, also on TSN.

UNB vs Alberta - CIAU Semi-Finals, Won 4-3 OT1

The game was close throughout - with Alberta taking the lead once in each period and UNB coming back to tie it before the end of each period. The game ended tied at 3-3. Alberta outshot UNB 44-39.

Jeff Andrews through a 'big' hit on Alberta defenceman, Glen Pullishy, at UNB's blue line which resulted in the turnover that sent Bill Wright and Dax MacLean on a 2-1 in which Bill feed a pass to Dax who scored the OT winner past Alberta goalie Dale Masson. The goal came at 7:53 of overtime. Alberta outshot UNB in the overtime 8-3.

UNB vs Guelph - CIAU Finals, Loss 3-4

UNB fell behind in the first period, but faught back in the second and third. UNB out shot Guelph in the third and 40-22 in the game, but Guelph All-Star goalie Matt Mullin stoned UNB to hold onto the victory. UNB was behind 0-2 in the first, 2-3 in the second. UNB would fall behind 2-4 before cutting the lead to 1.

Tournament All-Stars

Pete MacKellar and Daryl Rivers were voted to the Tournament All-Star team.

Material gathered from articles printed in the Daily Gleaner and The Brunswickan