Tremblay sets another UNB record in victory

HALIFAX – Saturday night the No. 1 ranked University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds cruised to a 5-2 win over the Dalhousie Tigers, led by Hunter Tremblay (Timmins, ON) with two goals and two assists. Tremblay entered the game needing only one point to surpass Rob Hennigar's UNB record of 212 total career points in regular season and playoff games, including Nationals. Tremblay already set a new UNB standard for total career regular season points back on December 3; that record now stands at 201 points. Winner of the AUS scoring title last year, Tremblay finishes the regular season tied for first place in the points race with UPEI's Matt Carter (Mississauga, ON).

The final hockey game of the regular season for both teams had no impact on the AUS standings which could be why the match at the Dalhousie Memorial Arena got off to a fairly slow start, but picked up as play went along. The best scoring opportunity of the first period for either team came with about six minutes to go, when Hunter Tremblay was stopped on a breakaway by Josh Disher (Burlington, ON) . There was no scoring in the first frame, with shots favouring UNB 12-5.

Just over five minutes into the second period, the V-Reds had an odd man rush after a Tigers turnover and Nick MacNeil (Creignish, NS) had several chances to knock in his own rebound past Disher, assisted on the goal by Taylor Procyshen (Emerald Park, SK) and Chris Culligan (Howie Center, NS). A minute later Brett Theberge (Sunridge, ON) got in behind the UNB defence and received a long outlet pass for a breakaway, but Derek Yeomans (St. Albert, AB) stoned him, and then worse, Theberge took a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct after the play.

UNB was unsuccessful on the resultant power play, and with just two seconds left on the man advantage Jeff Lee was called for hooking. The V-Reds penalty kill, tops in the AUS, then took over and didn't take long to score. Culligan and Tremblay broke into the Dal zone on a two-on-one while shorthanded and Culligan dished the puck cross ice to Tremblay who hammered the pass into the right side of net. This goal, coming at the midpoint of the game, was the point that gave Tremblay his new UNB record, for that moment at 213 total career points.

Dalhousie did respond on the power play. They were on a 5-on-3 man advantage at 10:34 when Shea Kewin (Guelph, ON) tipped in a pass from Ben Breault (St. Jean, QC). Dal had two more opportunities to score five minutes later when a sloppy UNB power play gave up two shorthanded breakaways, but Yeomans made the saves.

After a strong second period, the V-Reds kept up the pressure in the third. Just 27 seconds in MacNeil went to the net and deflected the puck past Disher, on a play from Tremblay and Bretton Stamler (Edmonton, AB). A tired Tigers team started taking “speed” penalties trying to slow up the V-Reds and UNB added two power play goals in the period. On the first, Tremblay was playing the point when he wired a pass from Stamler past Disher on the blocker side. On the second, and with graduating senior Chris Wall (Halifax, NS) now in the Dal nets, Tremblay went quickly to the net from the offensive zone faceoff and fed linemate Culligan for the redirect goal.

To Dal's credit, they took advantage of a UNB turnover in the last minute to create an odd man rush, with defenceman Benoit Gervais (Val-d'Or, QC) jumping up and scoring on the play, but UNB completely dominated the final 40 minutes of play. The V-Reds outshot the Tigers 38-15 in the decisive 5-2 victory.

With the win, UNB improves their road record to 9-5-0 to go along with their perfect 14-0-0 record at home this season. The first place V-Reds will have the bye in the first week of playoffs and will await the lowest seeded survivor of the StFX-Dalhousie and Acadia-UPEI best-of-three quarter-finals. Saint Mary's gets home ice against the other quarter-final winner. The quarter-finals start Wednesday, and the best-of-five semi-finals the following week.

Game Notes: Lachlan MacIntosh (Perth Andover, NB) was not dressed for the V-Reds with Luke Lynes (Rochester Hills, MI) taking his place in the lineup ... Hunter Tremblay completes the regular season tied for first place in the AUS points race with UPEI's Matt Carter. Tremblay has 22 goals and 22 assists for 44 points in 27 games played, while Carter had 20 goals and 24 assists in 28 games played ... Tremblay's two goals bring his career regular season tally at UNB to 77, good enough for an all-time second place tie with Dax MacLean, and just two goals behind the school record held by Trevor Boland.