V-Reds need overitme to beat Tigers
January 29, 2012
FREDERICTON – Saturday night the first place University of New Brunswick men’s hockey team needed overtime to defeat the Dalhousie Tigers 3-2 in an exciting match in front of a sellout crowd of 3650 at the Aitken University Centre. First year forward Tyler Carroll scored the winner at 3:09 of extra time for his second goal of the game. Travis Fullerton got the win in the UNB nets, his eighth in eight starts in conference play this season.
It was a noisy night at the AUC, with over 1000 excited school kids in attendance as guests of the Varsity Reds for “Northside Elementary School Night”. Maybe helped by the large crowd, the game was played at a fast pace, with UNB certainly having the early edge in territorial play. The first goal came at 4:50 when Chris Culligan (Howie Center, NS) took a hit to make a play to linemates Tyler Carroll (Stathroy, ON) and Shayne Wiebe (Brandon, MB) who raced into the Dal zone on an odd man rush with Wiebe beating Tigers netminder Wendell Vye (Moncton, NB).
Both teams got a bit of a breather when there were troubles with the clock around the 15 minute mark, but there was no more scoring in the period. UNB outshot Dal 11-3 in the first period and clearly had the better scoring chances.
Dalhousie had their first power play at 5:27 of the second period, but they didn’t get a shot on goal and twice Vye had to come far out of his net to win races for loose pucks just ahead of UNB penalty killers. The Tigers got another power play later in the period, and this time they kept the puck in the UNB zone after the faceoff win and got the puck back to captain David MacDonald (Baddeck, NS) on the point who rifled a shot from the high slot that beat Travis Fullerton (Riverview, NB) at 17:13. Shots in the second period were eight apiece.
The third period was less balanced, as once again UNB dominated puck possession. The V-Reds were all over Dal in the early going, and after the Tigers iced the puck to relief pressure, Culligan won the draw back to Jonathan Harty (Oromocto, NB) who blasted a shot on net that was redirected by Carroll at 1:19 to put UNB back in front. The lead was to be short lived, as the V-Reds got into penalty trouble soon after. The Tigers were on a five-on-three power play when Fullerton lunged out to the side of his net but couldn’t cover a loose puck that was then quickly passed to Brendon MacDonald (Sydney, NS) in the low slot for an open net goal at 2:54.
UNB got two power plays of their own in the period, but they couldn’t beat Vye. Fullerton’s best save of the game came on Dal’s only other shot in the period on an odd man rush at 13:23. Carroll almost put his team back ahead at the 15 minute mark when he deked through two Dal defenders and put a snapshot over Vye’s shoulder that rang off the crossbar. UNB outshot Dal 8-2 in the third period and 27-13 in the first 60 minutes.
UNB was buzzing early for the winner in the four-on-four ten-minute overtime and at the 43 second mark Culligan was held up at the Dal blue line by Pierre-Alexandre Vandall (St-Louis-de-France, QC) who was whistled for interference on the play. V-Reds head coach Gardiner MacDougall used his timeout to plot a strategy for the four-on-three power play, and UNB did put five shots on Vye in the two minutes, but they just couldn’t score. However the Varsity Reds kept the pressure on and at 3:09 Tyler Carroll came down the left side of the ice and forced Vye to make a big save. Unfortunately for the Dal goalie the big rebound went right back to Carroll and from a bad angle he quickly put the puck back on the net, and just off and over Vye, to win the game. It was the seventh shot of the period for UNB, while Dal did not get a shot on net and barely got out of their own zone in extra time.
Dalhousie was 2-for-5 on the power play while the hot and cold UNB special teams were cold, going 0-for-5 with the man advantage.
Dal head coach Chris Donnelly was pleased with his team’s play, despite the loss. “We came in and competed with those guys. We’ve been playing well in the second half and we feel we don’t have to take a back seat to anybody. We came in, we challenged them in their rink and played a tough game against them and we look forward to seeing them next weekend at Dalhousie.”
Regarding the close game between the first and seventh place teams in the conference UNB head coach Gardiner MacDougall said, “It’s the AUS. Obviously we had a lot of emotion in your preparation for your Friday game [7-1 win vs. Acadia] and you get a different opponent that lost a heartbreaker to PEI. The thing about the AUS is the resiliency of each team. You lose a game and it seems to be a stepping stone for the team to come up with a better performance. So you know that going in, but until you get out there … The bottom line is to find a way to get four points, especially at home.”
Player of the game Tyler Carroll complemented Dal on their game plan and the way they came out hard. As for own team, he said, “Gardiner said it best, we’ve got to have passion. We came out in the third and we definitely showed that. A few unlucky bounces and we seemed to pull it out. I guess when the games get big and the times get tough we stepped up our game, so that’s nice.” Carroll smiled when asked to describe the winning goal, saying “I just threw it on net.”
The 16-5-2 Varsity Reds finish the weekend all alone in first place, two points ahead of three teams tied for second place: Saint Mary’s, Acadia and Moncton. Next weekend UNB will be in Wolfville Friday night to play Acadia and then they will travel to Halifax Saturday to play Dalhousie.
It was a noisy night at the AUC, with over 1000 excited school kids in attendance as guests of the Varsity Reds for “Northside Elementary School Night”. Maybe helped by the large crowd, the game was played at a fast pace, with UNB certainly having the early edge in territorial play. The first goal came at 4:50 when Chris Culligan (Howie Center, NS) took a hit to make a play to linemates Tyler Carroll (Stathroy, ON) and Shayne Wiebe (Brandon, MB) who raced into the Dal zone on an odd man rush with Wiebe beating Tigers netminder Wendell Vye (Moncton, NB).
Both teams got a bit of a breather when there were troubles with the clock around the 15 minute mark, but there was no more scoring in the period. UNB outshot Dal 11-3 in the first period and clearly had the better scoring chances.
Dalhousie had their first power play at 5:27 of the second period, but they didn’t get a shot on goal and twice Vye had to come far out of his net to win races for loose pucks just ahead of UNB penalty killers. The Tigers got another power play later in the period, and this time they kept the puck in the UNB zone after the faceoff win and got the puck back to captain David MacDonald (Baddeck, NS) on the point who rifled a shot from the high slot that beat Travis Fullerton (Riverview, NB) at 17:13. Shots in the second period were eight apiece.
The third period was less balanced, as once again UNB dominated puck possession. The V-Reds were all over Dal in the early going, and after the Tigers iced the puck to relief pressure, Culligan won the draw back to Jonathan Harty (Oromocto, NB) who blasted a shot on net that was redirected by Carroll at 1:19 to put UNB back in front. The lead was to be short lived, as the V-Reds got into penalty trouble soon after. The Tigers were on a five-on-three power play when Fullerton lunged out to the side of his net but couldn’t cover a loose puck that was then quickly passed to Brendon MacDonald (Sydney, NS) in the low slot for an open net goal at 2:54.
UNB got two power plays of their own in the period, but they couldn’t beat Vye. Fullerton’s best save of the game came on Dal’s only other shot in the period on an odd man rush at 13:23. Carroll almost put his team back ahead at the 15 minute mark when he deked through two Dal defenders and put a snapshot over Vye’s shoulder that rang off the crossbar. UNB outshot Dal 8-2 in the third period and 27-13 in the first 60 minutes.
UNB was buzzing early for the winner in the four-on-four ten-minute overtime and at the 43 second mark Culligan was held up at the Dal blue line by Pierre-Alexandre Vandall (St-Louis-de-France, QC) who was whistled for interference on the play. V-Reds head coach Gardiner MacDougall used his timeout to plot a strategy for the four-on-three power play, and UNB did put five shots on Vye in the two minutes, but they just couldn’t score. However the Varsity Reds kept the pressure on and at 3:09 Tyler Carroll came down the left side of the ice and forced Vye to make a big save. Unfortunately for the Dal goalie the big rebound went right back to Carroll and from a bad angle he quickly put the puck back on the net, and just off and over Vye, to win the game. It was the seventh shot of the period for UNB, while Dal did not get a shot on net and barely got out of their own zone in extra time.
Dalhousie was 2-for-5 on the power play while the hot and cold UNB special teams were cold, going 0-for-5 with the man advantage.
Dal head coach Chris Donnelly was pleased with his team’s play, despite the loss. “We came in and competed with those guys. We’ve been playing well in the second half and we feel we don’t have to take a back seat to anybody. We came in, we challenged them in their rink and played a tough game against them and we look forward to seeing them next weekend at Dalhousie.”
Regarding the close game between the first and seventh place teams in the conference UNB head coach Gardiner MacDougall said, “It’s the AUS. Obviously we had a lot of emotion in your preparation for your Friday game [7-1 win vs. Acadia] and you get a different opponent that lost a heartbreaker to PEI. The thing about the AUS is the resiliency of each team. You lose a game and it seems to be a stepping stone for the team to come up with a better performance. So you know that going in, but until you get out there … The bottom line is to find a way to get four points, especially at home.”
Player of the game Tyler Carroll complemented Dal on their game plan and the way they came out hard. As for own team, he said, “Gardiner said it best, we’ve got to have passion. We came out in the third and we definitely showed that. A few unlucky bounces and we seemed to pull it out. I guess when the games get big and the times get tough we stepped up our game, so that’s nice.” Carroll smiled when asked to describe the winning goal, saying “I just threw it on net.”
The 16-5-2 Varsity Reds finish the weekend all alone in first place, two points ahead of three teams tied for second place: Saint Mary’s, Acadia and Moncton. Next weekend UNB will be in Wolfville Friday night to play Acadia and then they will travel to Halifax Saturday to play Dalhousie.