(FREDERICTON, NB) "The key word was next," according to UNB Varsity Reds head coach Gardiner MacDougall. "Next shift, next shot," added the coach.
And… next game.
Two nights after losing 7-4, in Moncton, MacDougall's team got a measure of revenge, skating to a 4-1 win over the Aigles Bleus, on Friday.
UNB scored three second period goals, on route to their tenth win of the season.
The victory came in the Varsity Reds' final game of the first half of their season.
And it came before almost 3300 spectators. The Aitken Centre was buzzing, with hundreds of students from north side elementary schools in attendance.
"It's always uplifting when you've got anybody cheering that loudly. The kids are always so enthusiastic and so happy for it, you feed off that energy, I mean, that's probably why we started off as strong as we did," said Varsity Reds forward Dylan Willick.
That strong start was 21 shots in the first period.
But, it wasn't until Willick's goal, at 5:10 of the second, that UNB got on the scoreboard. He broke down the right wing and moved in unchallenged on Moncton netminder Adrien Lemay, beating him cleanly.
70 second later, Cam Brace scored his 13th goal of the season, giving the VReds a 2-0 lead.
Rob Mignardi's power-play goal made it 3-0, a lead UNB would take into the second intermission.
Victor Beaulac scored Moncton's only goal of the game, before Francis Beauvillier rounded out the scoring.
UNB is now 10-3-2 heading into the Christmas break.
Willick says the timing of the win is perfect. "Ending on a high note is huge for us. Now we can have a few weeks to practice, we're going to focus on what we did right tonight and try to build off that so when we come back we can just keep it rolling."
Coach MacDougall was pleased to see a better effort. "The standards of our program, our work ethic is a key factor and we've got to find ways to get better."
The Varsity Reds return to AUS regular season action on January 8th, when they host the Dalhousie Tigers.
UNB will play exhibition games against the Concordia Stingers on January 2nd and 3rd, in the Peterbilt Pete Kelly Cup, at the Aitken Centre.