The UNB men's hockey team is looking for redemption on Monday night, as they play against St. Francis Xavier X–men in the first game of the Atlantic University Sport finals.

UNB lost to the X–men last year in the conference finals, despite going on to win the national championship.

"Last year we went to the Atlantic final and I think we had an extended winning streak going at that time and we ended up dropping a home game and ended up losing game two down at St. FX," said Gardiner MacDougall, UNB's coach.

"We learned some lessons from that, that obviously applied to us the next weekend but I think the group is excited about the opportunity to play a good opponent and trying to get better and obviously some pride on the line for a championship here as well."

The finals is a best–of–three series, with game one and three at the Aitken Centre in Fredericton. Game two is on Wednesday at St. Francis Xavier University, and if a game three is needed that will be on Friday.

Regardless of the result of the final, both teams will be going to the University Cup to compete for title of national champions. UNB is hosting the event, which runs from March 16–19.

UNB won the national championship last year, but first the focus is winning an AUS championship.