A changing of the guard

I was proud of the Acadia hockey Axemen Friday night.

No, they didn't win game two of their quarterfinal playoff series against St. F.X., now left to watch the rest of the AUHC playoffs and the University Cup in Moncton from the sidelines.

I was proud of the performance they turned in prior to losing, coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the first 11 minutes of the game to force overtime, playing the X-men dead even for close to 33 minutes of extra time.

It wasn't the most stellar of seasons for the Axemen: despite having a veteran squad, they were victims of inconsistency the entire season - but didn't ever get truly untracked.

If their play at times was frustrating to the fans, it must have been doubly so for the Axemen coaching staff, likely as puzzled as the rest of us at Acadia's inability to turn in a consistent performance.

Seldom did they play a poor 60 minutes, but it often seemed they would play two good periods and one poor one - the case Friday. The first period was their undoing but, while it may have looked like they were just standing around, they really fell victim to a St. F.X. squad determined to avoid game three.

A lot of us as fans (the fact I'm an unbiased journalist doesn't mean I can't feel good when the home team wins) tend to focus on the things our boys do poorly or the mistakes they make, instead of giving credit to the opposition for being a better team.

I was proud of the Axemen, but it was a little bittersweet to realize Friday was likely the final game in an Acadia uniform for 12 of this year's team.

For fifth-year players Kane Ludwar, Kevin Korol, Matt Quinn, Andrew Bergen and Shayne Fryia, this is indeed the end of the line. Russ Moyer, Jimmy Gagnon, Joel Isenor, Brandon Benedict, John Ceci, Tyler Reid and Brad Horan are all graduating: though any or all of them are eligible to return next year, there comes a time when it's time to get on with life.

Few of any of the Axemen players grew up here but, while they're here, they become a real part of the local community.

The hockey Axemen - in fact, most of all Acadia varsity sports teams - can be proud of the fact they tend to attract and recruit good, conscientious student-athletes who most times graduate on schedule and are a real credit to the school.

What often boggles my mind is they are usually good students as well as good athletes, a real balancing act - a reality reflected in unprecedented numbers of RBC Academic all-Canadians among Acadia's varsity athletic ranks.

Head coach Darren Burns and his staff will have a tough job recruiting this summer, but Darren has proven before he's up to the challenge. Some of those skates will be awfully big to fill.

All of the Acadia varsity teams are in the same boat. The women's basketball team will certainly miss Kim Hurley, Ginny Gane and Jennifer Bishop; the volleyball team Kathryn Ellis and Pam Rogers; and the men's basketball team Jordan Sheriko, to name just a handful of departing (or potentially departing) student-athletes.

We often tend to forget, in the heat of the action, there is more to life - and to sport - than wins and losses. That's something, despite the less-than-ideal final result, the hockey Axemen showed me in spades again Friday.