V-Reds sweep Aigles Bleus

V-Reds sweep Aigles Bleus
March 12, 2012

AUS hockey | Fullerton makes 17 saves in 4-0 win

MONCTON - The bad news for the Université de Moncton Aigles Bleus is that they were totally outperformed by the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds in the Atlantic University Sport men's hockey conference championship series.

The good news is that their season isn't over yet. The Aigles Bleus have a week and a half to make sure they're primed and ready for their second life - a trip to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship tournament March 22-25 at the Aitken University Centre.

UNB scored three first-period goals en route to a convincing 4-0 win over Moncton in front of a crowd of 1,539 at the J.-Louis-Lévesque Arena last night to complete a 3-0 sweep in the best-offive conference final.

The win gave the V-Reds their second consecutive AUS championship and their third in the last five years. Because UNB is hosting the CIS tournament, both conference finalists received a berth to the national championship event.

'We're not happy with how we played in this series. We can be a lot better than that and I'm not sure if it's because we're certain to go to the Canadian championship or what,' said Aigles Bleus head coach Serge Bourgeois, whose team came up empty in its chase for its first AUS title since 2007.

'I think our fans deserved a little better and I think we deserved a little bit better. You have to give credit to UNB. That's a good, good team on the other side and we just couldn't do it for this series.

'In two weeks (the CIS final March 25), we want another crack at them - two weeks to the day - and it could be a different story when we get there.' Moncton captain Dean Ouellet said it was difficult to watch the Varsity Reds celebrate their AUS championship in front of his team's fans at the J.-Louis-Lévesque.

'That was tough. All year long I thought we probably had the best fans in the league and it was tough to watch them do that in our building,' Ouellet said outside a quiet Aigles Bleus dressing room.

'The good thing about that is we've got another chance at nationals and we're going to do everything we can to get the cup there.' Shayne Wiebe and Luke Gallant each tallied a goal and an assist and Daine Todd and Jonathan Harty also scored for UNB, which received three assists from Chris Culligan.

The V-Reds outshot the Aigles Bleus 33-17. Riverview native Travis Fullerton recorded the shutout for UNB while Pierre-Alexandre Marion suffered the loss in net.

The Reds turned in a dominating performance in every facet of the game and set the tone early when forward Thomas Nesbitt received a fiveminute major and game misconduct for a hit from behind on Aigles Bleus forward Guillaume Parenteau just 1:50 into the first period. It was a glorious chance for Moncton, but UNB came up with a nearly flawless penalty kill. In fact, the Aigles Bleus only managed a couple of shots on net during the five-minute power play.

Just 17 seconds after Nesbitt's penalty expired, Todd finished off a 3-on-2 rush with a quick shot from the slot that beat Marion to give the Reds the lead. It was their first shot of the game and they never looked back from there.

'That was outstanding. I only had to make a couple saves and the guys were phenomenal,' Fullerton said of his team's penalty kill.

'That could easily have been 2-0 right there and we're behind the eight-ball the rest of the game. That was big and we scored right after and fed off that.' Gallant delivered a power play goal 1:50 later when his wrist shot from the point found its way through a crowd of players and Marion to put the V-Reds up 2-0. The goal came 14 seconds into a Charles Bergeron penalty for charging.

UNB extended its lead to 3-0 on another power play goal at 14:58 of the first. This time, a Gallant point shot was redirected by Wiebe in front of the net and the puck slid across the goal crease right on the stick to Harty, who had an easy tap in.

The V-Reds scored three goals on nine shots in the first period before Wiebe added a second-period goal to put the game out of reach for Moncton, which made numerous trips to the penalty box.

Fullerton, who finished the AUS playoffs with a 6-0 record and 1.82 goals-against average, said it was UNB's best game 'in a while.

'It's a great feeling. We knew it would be a hard series. Moncton has a tough team and to play as well as we did three games in a row, I can't say enough about this group that battles hard right to the end,' said the fourthyear goaltender who backstopped UNB to the CIS championships in both 2009 and last season. 'We played great and hopefully we can carry it into the CIS (tournament).' Moncton forward Christian Gaudet returned to the lineup last night for the first time since suffering a leg injury in a Jan. 14 game.

Montreal's McGill Redmen downed the Western Mustangs 4-1 Saturday in the OUA Queen's Cup final. Francis Verreault-Paul scored once and added two helpers for the Redmen before 1,751 fans at Thompson Arena in London, Ont.

In the OUA wild card game to determine the conference's third representative for the University Cup, the UQTR Patriotes beat the visiting Windsor Lancers 5-3 Sunday. After a scoreless first, the Patriotes opened up a 4-1 lead after the second period.

The Saskatchewan Huskies beat the Calgary Dinos 4-1 Saturday to force a third and deciding game of the Canada West final. The teams were tied 1-1 in overtime late Sunday.