No. 1 UNB Varsity Reds extend unbeaten streak to 16 with win over Tommies

FREDERICTON – Friday night the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds men's hockey team opened the second half of the AUS season against cross-campus rival St. Thomas Tommies for their third meeting of the season. Once again it was a one-goal game, once again UNB carried the balance of play, and once again STU net minder Charles Lavigne (St. Bernardin, ON) kept his team in the game, but the Varsity Reds came away with the 4-3 win while outshooting the Tommies 42-16. With the victory, UNB extends their record perfect start to 16 straight wins, while also setting a new team record for most consecutive wins in a season.

Before the game, Fredericton native and silver-medal winning Team Canada goaltender Jake Allen came onto the ice for the ceremonial puck drop and received a standing ovation from the season-high 3,517 fans at the Aitken University Centre. Interestingly, two of Allen's former teammates with the Montréal Juniors are now rookies and linemates with the Varsity Reds: Nick Layton (Salisbury, NS) and Matt Fillier (Durham, NS).

Once the game itself got going flow quickly disappeared as referee Thayer Doyle called a slashing penalty on STU's Alex Labonte (St-Majorique, QC) just 44 seconds into the game, the first of ten minor penalties in the tightly called period. STU killed that penalty off, and soon after were on a power play of their own. Three seconds after their man advantage expired Tommies forward Devin Praught (Summerside, PE) took advantage of a funny puck bounce off the side of the net to bang the puck past UNB goalie Derek Yeomans (St. Albert, AB) at 5:18. At 9:03 UNB's Daine Todd (Stettler, AB) got robbed at the doorstep by goalie Lavigne on the end of a 3-on-1 rush. Then at 10:41 STU's Jason Cassidy (Toronto, ON) checked Josh Hepditch (Fredericton, NB) from behind at the Tommies blue line (which automatically earned a game misconduct as well) and Mike Reich (Craik, SK) took a tripping penalty on the same play in the Tommies zone and the V-Reds had a two-man advantage for a potential two minutes. It took just 17 seconds for the tying goal as UNB moved the puck around quickly and defenceman Josh Kidd (Sundridge, ON) came in close to score. STU got their lead back at 13:15 when they were on the power play and Yeomans gave up a big rebound on a Praught shot and Matt Eagles (Fredericton, NB) knocked in the puck. UNB coach Gardiner MacDougall then opted to switch up his goaltenders, putting Travis Fullerton (Riverview, NB) in the V-Reds net. The Tommies did a good job the rest of the period to continue taking time and space from the V-Reds and there was no more scoring in the period that saw UNB outshoot STU 10-6.

Early in the second period UNB scored two ugly goals just 15 seconds apart as defencemen Ben Shutron (Orleans, ON) and Bretton Stamler (Edmonton, AB) each in turn came in from the point to the crease to bang the puck past a highly agitated Lavigne. On the first goal Dion Campbell (Melville, SK) used his speed to beat the STU defence and put the first shot on net while on the second it was Lachlan MacIntosh (Perth-Andover, NB) taking the initial shot. STU coach Mike Eagles then used his 30 second timeout to settle down Lavigne and the rest of the Tommies. At 9:02 STU captain Erick Tremblay (Gatineau, QC) took a goal-saving penalty as he desperately slashed UNB's MacIntosh as he weaved his way through the crease with the puck. At 12:54 UNB's Ryan Seymour (Fredericton, NB) scored his first goal of the season as he converted a Josh Kidd pass from below the goal line. UNB continued to separate themselves from the tight STU checking, but didn't score again in the period they outshot the Tommies 13-4.

While the third period saw UNB carry the play against a STU team that looked to be tiring, they couldn't solve Lavigne again, despite firing 19 shots at him. With 1:56 to go in the period the Tommies pulled Lavigne and were rewarded at 18:57 when they swarmed the UNB net and Mike Reich got the puck past Fullerton to bring them within a goal of UNB. However that was as close as they could come as the Varsity Reds held on for the 4-3 win.

The player of the game was UNB defenceman Bretton Stamler. UNB was 1-for-10 on the power play while STU was 1-for-6.

Next up for the Varsity Reds is the UPEI Panthers in Charlottetown Saturday night.

Source:

Maureen Sparks, Coordinator
2011 & 2012 CIS Men's Hockey Championships
UNB Varsity Reds Athletics Coordinator