Fredericton - Saturday night the men's hockey teams from cross-campus rivals the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas met on STU's turf, the Lady Beaverbrook Rink, and for 40 minutes the play was hard fought and fairly even. However in the
third period the Varsity Reds found another gear and took over the game as they cruised to a 7-1 victory past a Tommies team that looked like it had run out of gas. The Varsity Reds were led by defenceman Josh Kidd (Sundridge, ON) with two goals, Hunter Tremblay (Timmins, ON) with three points and linemate Chris Culligan (Howie Center, NS)with a goal and an assist.
Both teams were coming off opening season road losses the night
before; UNB lost 4-2 to UPEI while STU was blown out 10-1 by UdeM.
Much is expected of the V-Reds who went 27-1 in conference play last
season, while St. Thomas is striving to get back into the AUS
playoffs. UNB was first on the scoreboard at 4:46 when the V-Reds won
the faceoff in the offensive zone and Dion Campbell (Melville, SK)
quickly beat STU netminder Ben MacFarlane (Woodstock, NB). Bad news
for the V-Reds came at 14:35 when skilled forward Daine Todd
(Stettler, AB) was nailed hard in the corner by two Tommies, and left
the ice in obvious pain. Todd, who missed his entire first season at
UNB with shoulder injuries, went to the hospital for x-rays while the
game continued. At 16:15 Josh Kidd appeared to put UNB up 2-0 with a
slapshot from the point, but the goal was waived off by referee Guy
Pellerin who tagged Nick Layton (Salisbury, NB) with a high sticking
penalty on the play. Shots in the first period favoured UNB 15-14.
Fairly early in the second period Alex Labonte (Drummondville, QC),
who had been one of the more aggressive Tommies in the first period,
was called for goaltender interference. UNB passed the puck around
crisply for most of the power play, looking for the perfect shooting
lane, before putting the puck back to Kidd who hammered the puck
inside the right goal post at 5:04. The goal was not called back this
time. It was ten minutes before there was another goal, and it wasn't
pretty, as defenceman Spencer Corcoran (Summerside, PE) went end to
end and swatted the puck past a flat-footed MacFarlane. It was the
second year player's first goal as a V-Red. St. Thomas got on the
scoresheet at 18:08, when after Travis Fullerton (Riverview, NB) made
two big saves Cory Banfield (Dartmouth, NS) finally got the puck past
the UNB goalie. Shots were 10-9 for STU in the period, and 24 shots
apiece after 40 minutes.
Although the Tommies had been able to keep pace with the Varsity Reds
for the first two periods, that wasn't the case in the third period.
UNB came out of the final intermission flying, and STU was on their
heels for the rest of the game. The V-Reds top line was having a great
shift when Chis Culligan scored from his knees at the edge of the
crease at 4:41. Hunter Tremblay, tops in the CIS last season, scored
at 7:19 and Tommies head coach Mike Eagles called for a timeout to
attempt to rally his team. For their part UNB didn't ease up, and
defenceman Luke Gallant (Bedford, NS) scored shorthanded at 12:39. The
final goal came at 14:22 when the 6'5" Kidd blasted another point shot
past MacFarlane and into the top corner of the net. The V-Reds almost
added to their total at 17:12, while shorthanded, when a streaking
Dion Campbell was impeded by Randy Cameron (Cornwall, PE), who picked
up a slashing penalty on the play. The UNB fans in attendance of
course were calling for a penalty shot to no avail. UNB outshot STU
21-6 in the final period, and 45-30 in the game.
After the game UNB head coach Gardiner MacDougall was pleased about
the win, but he was concerned about Daine Todd's condition. On the 7-1
victory he commented, "how you practice, how you find ways to get
better and how you react to adversity are all important keys. They are
all part of the process for success in the AUS."
Notes: The Three Stars of the game were 1. Josh Kidd, 2. Bretton
Stamler, 3. Chris Culligan. UNB was 1-for-4 on the power play while
STU was 0-for-4. UNB's Chris Culligan was back on the first line
Saturday, after being out of the lineup Friday. V-Reds rookie Nick
MacNeil (Creignish, NS) played Friday, but was a game-time scratch due
to an undisclosed injury. Finnish graduate student Matias Keränen,
coming off a knee injury, made his debut for the Varsity Reds, playing
a few shifts on the energy line. Keränen first made contact with coach
MacDougall at the World University Games in Torino. STU netminder
Charles Lavigne was not dressed for the game as he continues to sit
out a four-game suspension carrying over from last season. STU
defencemen Andrew Andricopolous and Bryan Main have yet to play this
season with injuries while UNB will miss d-men Ben Shutron for the
season with a broken femur and Ben Wright perhaps until the second
half with a knee injury. UNB forward Taylor Procyshen is still out of
the lineup.
By David Kilfoil for the UNB Varsity Reds.
4 comments:
what wrong with Taylor Procyshen is he hurt ?
He's been hurt. Word is that now he's doing pretty good and now needs to get into game shape.
Yeah, he's still been having headaches as a result of his concussion last year.
Anybody know how Todd is doing?
Post a Comment