UNB 7 - STU 1

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.