Ready To Defend
(FREDERICTON, NB) The two-time defending national champion UNB REDS men’s hockey team will be the No. 1 ranked team at the 2025 U SPORTS Men’s Hockey Championship in Ottawa.
The REDS will play the host and eighth seeded University of Ottawa Gee Gees in one of two Thursday quarter-finals in the nation’s capital. Puck drop is scheduled for 8:00pm Atlantic.
“Our whole focus is Thursday night at 7 (Eastern),” said REDS’ head coach Rob Hennigar. “That’s all we’ve been talking about. Our whole focus is game one and then we’ll kind of go from there.”
Like the seven other teams participating in this year’s University Cup, the REDS hope to win and advance to Saturday’s semi-finals.
But they’re not looking past Thursday.
“It’s one game at a time,“ said third year forward Benjamin Corbeil. “It’s not a series, it’s one game, so you have to focus on that one, you can’t project yourself too far. We’re just going to be ready for the opponent we’re going to play in the first game.”
The REDS recently won their seventh consecutive Atlantic University Sport championship and were the number one ranked team in the country all season.
After going undefeated in 2023-2024, the REDS suffered just two losses in 2024-2025. One loss in overtime, the other a 1-0 loss on a goal scored with under a minute to play.
Since that regulation time loss, the REDS have won 21 in a row, including playoff series sweeps of Acadia and Moncton.
“I’ve had a lot of fun and I feel like I’ve developed a lot as a player,” said first year forward Oliver Peer. “Obviously, we do a lot of winning here, so that’s been a lot of fun too.”
Peer is one of nine REDS heading to the national championship tournament for the first time.
“I personally don’t feel the pressure. I just go out and play,” said Peer. “I just enjoy playing and I think that’s kind of the mindset we have, we’re not really focused on the stats and our record, we just want to go out and play hockey and win as many games as we can.”
In his first year as head coach of the REDS, Hennigar has guided a UNB team that’s hardly missed a beat after a significant change.
Hennigar succeeded Gardiner MacDougall, who retired following the 2023-2024 season, his 24th behind the REDS bench.
Hennigar says his first AUS title and national championship berth as head coach feel no different than the ones he’s already experienced.
“It actually feels exactly the same,” he said. “I’ve always felt, assistant coach, head coach, player, it’s always just great to win and it’s the same whoever you are on our team. It all feels eerily similar to how it all has in the past.”
UNB will be led by the line of veterans Corbeil and Emmett Sproule, and first year forward Peter Reynolds. The trio was among the country’s top scorers at the end of the regular season.
“Throughout the season, obviously, they were our most dangerous line,” said Coach Hennigar. “There was a bit of a dip and they’ve kind of rejuvenated themselves the last couple of games, they’ve been fantastic.”
Hennigar says goaltender Samuel Richard, a former University Cup MVP, can’t be ignored.
“I think, sometimes, he gets overlooked on our team, nationally, even in Atlantic University Sport, and I thought, once again, he’s proven himself for the third year in a row,” said Hennigar.
In their quest to three-peat, UNB will be looking to do something that hasn’t happened in more than 45 years.
The University of Alberta was the last team to win three consecutive University Cups (1978-80).
“Our focus is now just on the next practice and the next day,” said Peer. “We’re not really focusing on what might be the outcome, we’re focusing on what we can do to be better and what we can do to best prepare ourselves to win.”
“This week will be a build up to the first game,” added Corbeil. “After that we’ll pass to something else and focus on the second game and, if we make it, we’ll focus on the final.”
STORY BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics
FILE PHOTO BY: Normand Leger/for Atlantic University Sport