V-Reds with four-point weekend with 4-1 win over Dal Tigers
Coming off a hard-fought 5-3 win against a top-10 opponent the night before, the University of New Brunswick kept up the intensity Saturday night, capping a four-point weekend with a 4-1 win over the Dalhousie University Tigers.
Cam Braes' second goal of the first period stood as the game winner, and Chris Culligan tallied three assists finishing the weekend with five points and extending his team scoring lead to 26 points.
Braes stretched his point streak to five games – in which he's scored three goals and five assists – said the V-Reds came off an "emotional high" against Acadia on Friday night.
"Whenever you sweep the weekend it's a good weekend," Braes said. "It wasn't our best game. Coming off the Acadia game we played a little bit better, but you're going to have some bumps in the road along the way. We're going to watch some video this week with the strike still going on. So we have extra time to clean up the little errors."
Braes opened the scoring five minutes into the game, but the goal was entirely set up by Nick MacNeil who took the puck into the Dalhousie zone, and patiently waited out the Dalhousie's Ben MacAskill to get out of position, before sliding a cross-crease pass to Braes for an easy tap-in.
UNB struggled on the power play all weekend, going a combined 1-for-11 through both games, with Braes scoring the lone goal with the man advantage, redirecting a Culligan one-timer for his second goal of the game.
Mike Thomas opened a three-goal lead four minutes into the second period, following up his own backhand shot and netting the rebound for his sixth of the season.
Dalhousie's lone goal came on the power play as UNB got caught on a bad line change and Brad McConnell capitalized with a wrap-around for his fourth on the year.
Jordan Murray, who battled a tough flu bug all weekend, restored the three-goal lead in the third period, firing a point shot past Tigers goalie Bobby Nadeau with less than five minutes to go.
Nadeau stopped 38 shots in a losing effort and was named the second star. Braes and Culligan earned first and third star honours, respectively.
On his birthday Joel Vienneau got his second start of the season – though head coach Gardiner MacDougall said his birthday had nothing to do with him getting the start – and stopped 16 shots to improve to 2-0. His best of the night came by way of a glove save on a first-period breakaway by Fabian Walsh.
The rookie goaltender from Hearst, Ont., said it was just fun for him to get some playing time and gave him motivation to start some more games.
"It's hockey, that's what we play for so it's fun," Vienneau said. "You gotta practice hard every day and then once you get a start you just have to have fun. That's the main goal."
The V-Reds will travel to Orono, ME., for an exhibition game Tuesday, before returning to the Aitken Centre Friday for the annual Mark Jeffrey memorial game against the St. Thomas University Tommies.
Nick Murray for UNB Sports Info
Photo Sports Info files