(FREDERICTON, NB) The UNB Varsity Reds extended their home-ice unbeaten streak to six games with a 5-0 win over the visiting Saint Mary's Huskies, Saturday night.
Stephen Anderson(Morell, PE) scored twice and Matt Petgrave(Brampton, ON) had three assists to lead the Varsity Reds.
"I didn't think we got off to the start that we wanted," said Petgrave. "But we had ET(Etienne Marcoux) in net, holding the door for us and that allowed us to get going."
Marcoux(Terrebonne, QC) was forced to make two saves, from almost point blank range, in the opening minutes as the Huskies looked to score early.
"Right away, I had two good saves to make. That got me into the game," said Marcoux.
The two teams played a scoreless first period.
Francis Beauvillier(St. Hyacinthe, QC) opened the scoring, at 6:11 of the second period.
Powering down the left wing, he took a pass just over the blue line and hammered a shot past Cole Cheveldave(Calgary, AB) in the Saint Mary's net.
At 12:33, Cam Critchlow(Summerside, PE) got two chances with a loose puck to Cheveldave's left, pushing the second into the net.
Anderson scored his first, late in the second, on a nifty backhand. That gave UNB a 3-0 lead.
Dylan Willick(Prince George, BC) made it 4-0 at 15:07 of the third, beating Cheveldave with a quick wrist shot from the slot.
Anderson's second came about a minute later, off a nice cross-ice slap pass by defenceman Matt Murphy(Fredericton, NB).
"I didn't expect to get the puck," said Anderson. "I made a quick little move on the goalie and beat him upstairs, but it was all just a bit of a panic move, but in the end I guess it worked."
The game was a homecoming for Huskies' forward Noah Zilbert(Fredericton, NB).
"It's not the way we wanted the game to turn out," said Zilbert. "It's one of those things you've got to deal with and move on from, pretty quick."
"Sometimes you get a few unlucky bounces, and things just don't go your way," he said.
Not much went Saint Mary's way.
They were outshot 41-17 and see their record fall to 3-6-1 with the loss.
"I thought they had a great start, our opponent," said Varsity Reds head coach Gardiner MacDougall. "I thought our goaltender was the big difference in the game. He made a couple of key saves early. There weren't many shots in the first, but they were quality shots."
With the win, UNB improves to 8-0-2, good for a four point lead in the Atlantic University Sport standings.
Despite being perfect on home ice, and unbeaten in regulation, Matt Petgrave feels there's room for the Varsity Reds to improve.
"I still think there's more," he said. "There's always room for improvement, we're just striving to be better every day, and that's what everyone's working in the room for."
For his three point effort, Petgrave was named the first star and Subway Player of the Game.
Both teams are now off until Friday, when Saint Mary's visits Moncton, and the Varsity Reds will be at St. FX. Both games are scheduled to start at 7:00PM.