V-Reds put Axemen away

University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds quelled any thoughts of Acadia Axemen making things interesting in their best-of-five Atlantic University Sport men's hockey semifinal with a 3-2 win in Game 4 here Friday night, wrapping up the series, 3-1.

It was a bounce back win for the V-Reds in the wake of a 3-1 loss to the injury-riddled but game Axemen here Thursday night, and avoided the potential embarrassment of repeating last year's stunning post-season collapse for the No. 1 ranked team in the country.

You had to wonder if the Axemen had managed to pull out a second victory on home ice and force a fifth and deciding game Tuesday night at the Aitken University Centre, what kind of negative thoughts would have crept into the pysche of a V-Reds team that went out in three straight games to St. Francis Xavier X-Men in last year's semifinal on the heels of a 27-1 regular season?

No worries now thanks to goals by Hunter Tremblay at 17:44 of the first, second period goals by Nick MacNeil at 58 seconds and Chris Culligan at 13:22 and scintillating goaltending by Travis Fullerton in the third when Acadia threw all caution to the wind looking for the equalizer, outshooting UNB 16-5 in that final frame.

But Fullerton stood tall, with his best save coming at the halfway point when Adam McIlwraith had the puck put on his stick on a pass from behind the net and his one-timer was stopped by Fullerton sliding across his crease.

"He was awesome for them tonight," mused Acadia head coach Darren Burns. 'Westy (Acadia goaltender Kristofer Westbloom) has been a big part of our success and he was again tonight. But he (Fullerton) came up big for them when he really needed to."

Scoring for the Axemen, minus two of their top offensive stars because of injury (winger Chris. Bruton with a dislocated shoulder suffered in Game 1 and centre Jonathan Laberge with a knee problem), were Zack MacMillian at 15:32 of the first and Chris Owens on a power play at 14:57 of the second. But that was it against Fullerton, who faced 34 shots overall. UNB had 28 shots against Westbloom.

''You never want to lose any game, and especially a series," said Tremblay, indicating last year's loss to St. Francis ''was on the back of our minds," heading into this year's playoff run. ''You learn from an experience like that. It's tough when it happens but what you take away from that is the experience of knowing how it feels and not wanting it to happen again. We certainly didn't want this to go to a Game 5."

''We stepped up tonight," said UNB head coach Gardiner MacDougall.

''We certainly didn't have our best effort last night (Thursday) but tonight we came out strong, and I really thought we played with a lot more purpose in the second period. They came at us hard in the third but we found a way to hang in there. That's what playoff hockey is all about. You hope to win your home games and split on the road and that's what we were able to do."

Axemen coach Darren Burns, in his 10th season at the helm, lauded the character of his team for the way they fought the pennant-winning V-Reds despite missing seven players overall including the aforementioned Bruton and Laberge and front-line defenseman Zack Firlotte, Beau Prokopetz and Jamie Klie.

''That's quite a team in there," said Burns pointing towards his team's dressing room. ''The way these guys stepped against a great opponent. I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't realize what some of these guys were capable of. We're losing a lot of character guys, but we got a pretty good sense in this series that we've got a lot of quality guys who just needed the chance to step up and show what they could do. It's personal integrity and character. I think this series is going to be a program-builder, I really do. in my years of coaching, the last couple of weeks have been the most enjoyable for me."

Axemen were up against it coming home after losing 4-0 in Game 1 and 3-2 in a Game 2 that took four overtime periods to determine a winner. Westbloom made 77 saves in that epic battle which marked the longest game in the 100-year history of the UNB hockey program,

UNB can now sit back and relax as they await their opponent in a best-of-five conference final that will determine seeding at the Cavendish Farms University Cup tournament involving six teams at the AUC March 24-27.

At the very least, UNB is in as the host entry. By eliminating Acadia, the V-Reds also assured a spot for the winner of the other AUS semifinal between the X-Men and defending conference and national champion Saint Mary's Huskies. St. FX leads 2-1 with Game 4 Sunday night in Antigonish. If the Huskies can force a fifth and deciding game, it'll be played Tuesday night at the Halifax Forum.

If UNB goes on to win the conference final, it'll be the No. 1 seed at the nationals in view of the fact it's been consistently ranked at the top for most of the season. But if the V-Reds should happen to stumble against the X-SMU winner, the best it could hope for would be a fifth place seeding.

The V-Reds also have some injury concerns to deal with moving forward, although team officials aren't inclined to reveal just to what extent. Jonathan Harty played last night after ''not feeling well" in the first three games. Ben Wright tweaked a knee in Game 2 and didn't play in either game down here. And winger Taylor Procyshen took a big hit to the shoulder/head area late in the first period and didn't return.