CIS men's hockey Sunday roundup: Tremblay's hat-trick leads No. 3 V-Reds over Tommies

Photo credit UNB Athletics

UNB 4, St. Thomas 0  Final Boxscore

FREDERICTON, N.B. - UNB's Hunter Tremblay, the reigning CIS Player of the Year, registered a hat-trick Sunday afternoon in a 4-0 shutout win over the St. Thomas Tommies as the No. 3-ranked V-Reds improved to 10-2-0 on the season. Tremblay's three points in the contest also tied him with former V-Reds star Rob Hennigar for the most points in school history with 177.

Travis Fullerton (Riverview, NB) improved to 7-2-0 and picked up his second shutout of the season for UNB, while at the other end of the ice STU netminder Charles Lavigne (St. Bernardin, ON) did his best to keep his team in the game, making 36 saves and putting on a show for the 2,302 fans at the Aitken University Centre in the losing effort.

The early play favoured the V-Reds, but at 6:25 of the first period, power forward Jeff Lee (Calgary, AB) had to leave the game with a leg injury and didn't return from the locker room. Fifteen seconds later Jordan Clendenning (Fredericton, NB) rang a shot off the crossbar behind Lavigne, the first of four times that UNB would clang the iron in the game.

At 8:11, after several saves, Lavigne was finally beat by Tremblay, who had been held pointless his last two games. Seven minutes later Tremblay got past STU captain Erick Tremblay on a two-on-one rush, but Lavigne anticipated the pass well and made a great save coming across on Chris Culligan (Howie Center, NS).

UNB kept the pressure on, with Nick Layton (Salisbury, NB) hitting the crossbar about a minute later, and then, in the last minute of the period, Lavigne made saves on both Tremblay and Clendenning in close. Shots in the first period were 16-4 for UNB.

The second period started off with a bang when Kyle Bailey (Ponoka, AB) drilled a puck from the slot that hit Lavigne square in the face mask, but the STU netminder shook it off. As the period rolled along, the Tommies were playing a close-checking game for the most part and the V-Reds started to get away from their normal high tempo attack, and at times were fortunate that the STU forwards weren't converting their opportunities.

UNB head coach Gardiner MacDougall used his timeout at 5:10 which he later acknowledged was to renew his team's focus and get them to stop "playing shinny".

UNB was on the power play at 8:34 when STU's Scott Judson (Riverview, NB) was assessed a double-minor for high-sticking Jonathan Harty (Oromocto, NB). UNB did not produce many scoring chances on the 1:23 of five-on-three play, nor for the remainder of the Judson penalty.

Some excitement came in the last minute of the period when two Tommies tried to stand up Bailey in the neutral zone, which in turn created an opening for Nick MacNeil (Creignish, NS) to break in alone on Lavigne who was forced to make a big save. Seconds later, MacNeil had the puck again and rang a shot off the post. UNB managed to get a line change in during this attack and it was Luke Lynes (Rochester Hills, MI) scoring what seemed like an inevitable goal at the 19:38 mark.

Just 25 seconds into the third period, Lynes was charging the STU net again and was called for goaltender interference. After UNB killed off the penalty, coach MacDougall made some adjustments to his lines, including moving Tremblay to a new line with Lachlan MacIntosh (Perth Andover, NB) and Ryan Seymour (Fredericton, NB). It was a combination that paid off at 8:33 when Tremblay scored on the backhand.

The nicest goal of the game came at 14:57 when Harty, who passed up a good scoring chance earlier in the period, was in the middle of some tic-tac-toe passing with Seymour that found Tremblay all alone at the open side of the net. Not only was it a hat-trick goal, but his third point of the night tied Tremblay with Rob Hennigar for UNB's career record, at 177 points. In Tremblay's rookie yea, he played on Hennigar's line and helped him set the record that he has now tied, and will likely pass.

Less than a minute later UNB's Bailey got into a heated neutral ice skirmish with STU's Judson that drew a crowd of V-Reds players. Bailey was assessed a double-major for head-butting in the fracas, and STU would essentially finish the game on the power play.

The V-Reds outshot the Tommies 40-14 in the game.

Despite the loss, STU head coach Mike Eagles felt that his team was improving and at least laying the foundation to win hockey games, whereas he didn't feel they competed hard enough in the first seven games of the season. While not making excuses, he offered that "I've never had so many man-games lost as we have had this term" due to all the player injuries and suspensions.

As for UNB, while Gardiner MacDougall wasn't happy with the V-Reds' power play (now scoreless in three straight games), he was pleased for Hunter Tremblay's big night, as he said his passion for the game and caring for his teammates is unmatched in the locker room.

Subway Players of the Game: 1. Hunter Tremblay 2. Charles Lavigne 3. Nick MacNeil

Source: UNB Sports Information