New Logo

According to today's Daily Gleaner, it would appear the Aitken Centre isn't the only thing getting a fresh new look this fall.

The University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds will unveil a new logo for its eight varsity sports teams "in time for the start of the '09-10 season," said marketing and events manager Dave Morell on Thursday.

"The old shield logo (a shield with an 'exploding flash') is a dated logo," Morell said.

"It has served UNB well, but it was felt something fresher was needed. So we have had one professionally designed and we will be unveiling it with a proper ceremony either the latter part of August or the first of September."

Click here to read the rest of "V-Reds to get new logo"

This is obviously long overdue. The current logo hasn't been on the men's hockey jerseys since 2002.

New Recruit?

Subtely positioned near the bottom of Bill Hunt's "Smith says MJAHL could work here - someday" piece today was a comment by MJAHL President Derryl Smith stating that Summerside Western Capitals defenceman Spencer Corcoran is heading to UNB this fall...Nothing official from UNB yet.

If you're curious, Corcoran is described as a physical player who's willing to stand up for his teammates. He was a big part of the Summerside team that won the MJAHL's Kent Cup and the Fred Page Cup this past year. He has a season plus experience in the QMJHL as well, playing with current V-Red forward Jordan Clendenning in Cape Breton in 2007-2008.

Coach MacDougall has had great success in the past at finding guys out of Junior A ready to play important roles, including Dion Campbell and Lachlan MacIntosh, who were big-time players at Nationals this year, or the popular Craig Perry from 06-07 championship team. We'll be sure to keep an eye on this one.

Spring Cleaning

Today's Daily Gleaner has another update on the Aitken Centre renovations. No mention of the rumours of the new retractable roof.

ReDSea Database is online at VREDSHOCKEY.COM

Once again www.vredshockey.com has outdone itself. Check out the incredibly useful ReDSea Database tool they've created:

IMMEDIATE RELEASE - JUNE 18, 2009

REDSEA - 35 YEARS OF UNB HOCKEY GAME RESULTS
One Page - Thousands of Results

The ReDSEa project allows a user, via a web interface, to review UNB Hockey results as far back as 1973/74 - 35 years. Results include the location of each game, the score, coach and comments on the game. There are also analysis reports that outline UNB’s results versus a particular opponent (home or away) and how UNB has done in the Playoffs and Nationals.

There are also reports on Coaches, Out-of-Conference opponents and a fun report - This Day in UNB Hockey History, which reveals UNB’s opponents on a selected day.

This marks the first publicly searchable results database for any Canadian university hockey team and one of the first for any hockey club that is publicly accessible (there are many ‘for purchase’ databases with team data). In addition, this site provides the user with the opportunity to compare UNB vs an opponent - a feature not commonly available on most ‘list’
oriented sites (eg. UNB vs STU, at home, from 2002/03 to 2008/09).

The database incorporates the game results already found on www.vredshockey.com (.ca), originally provided by the AUS office and augmented by www.vredshockey.com to include missing games, exhibition and nationals.

The ReDSea site is now accessible to the general public via a link on the front page of www.vredshockey.com or by entering the address http://www.vredshockey.com/redsea/

We hope that UNB and AUS hockey fans will find this site of interest, spurn many ‘water cooler’ conversations and answer those ‘I wonder...’ questions that come up from time to time.

Did you know...
...UNB scored 167 goals in 1998 on their way to CIAU Gold in Saskatoon (33 more than in 2009)
...UNB’s home record over the past 3 years is 45-13 (.776)
...UNB’s last game against Mt. A. was Feb. 21st, 1998
...UNB has played 11 games on Feb. 21st, four of which were Playoff
...UNB has never lost to Lakehead at Nationals (2-0) or Western (3-0)
...UNB’s largest margin of victory, at home, over UdeM is 10, 11-1 on Nov. 30, 2003 (Gene Chiarello Fund Raiser)
...UNB’s largest losing margin, as visitor, to UPEI is 12, 2-14 on Feb. 7, 1988

For more information about the ReDSea Database please visit www.vredshockey.com

UNB Secures Talent

Bill Hunt's pieces in the Daily Gleaner yesterday probably had most UNB fans looking up 60 or so junior hockey teams to make a list of names of the sure-bet recruits that we can all count on seeing in the fall when the new season starts. :)

Lost in the teaser was the real news. That Ken Seaman has been hired as the V-Red's full time strength and conditioning coach. He won't get credit on the score sheet but he should get credit for the biggest assist in the gold medal game this year. Playing their 3rd game in 4 days, and having barely 12 hours to recover after the game against Lakehead because of the early afternoon time of the championship game, a very tired UNB team had to skate with a much fresher Western team to win the CIS championship. All those hours of cardio and strength training paid off...when the score was tied 2-2 it was UNB that really took it to Western in the 3rd period, out-skating, out-shooting and out-scoring their opponents as we've seen them do vs. AUS opponents so many times at home.

A big part of that is because of the rigourous program Seaman has the team buying into. Locking-up Ken Seaman will pay dividends not just in the 3rd period, but also helps UNB continue to sell their program to potential recruits as one of the elite programs in the country. This is good news for V-Reds fans.

A Few More Exhibition Games

Looks like the V-Reds will play a few more NCAA teams early in October. Dave Ritchie writes in today's Gleaner that UNB will visit UMass on Oct. 3, then play Vermont the next night as part of an 8-game pre-season schedule that includes a tilt vs STU for the President's Cup.

Don't underestimate the importance of these games. They're used not only as a measuring stick and as part of camp to get ready for the season, but they also help with intangibles such as team bonding and even allow the coaches to simulate playoff/nationals-style atmosphere.

Aitken Centre Renovations Under Way

The much anticipated renovations are well under way at the Aitken Centre. Check out the official Varsity Reds Athletics site for some pictures. If you have any of your own...send them to us.

The renovations were announced some time ago, but for those of you who may have missed the details of what's being done, here's a link to Bill Hunt's article from the Daily Gleaner published May 2nd which nicely summarizes the project.

For years now UNB has had one of the better skating teams in the AUS. Having hard, fast ice as good as any certainly won't hurt.

No word yet on the status of the T-shirt cannon repairs.