V-Reds looking for a golden finish

University Cup | It's the 50th anniversary of CIS hockey's title tourney

The University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds hope to successfully defend the University Cup for the first time in program history this week when they host the 50th anniversary edition of the CIS men's hockey national championship at the Aitken Centre.

The six-team tournament gets under way on Thursday and concludes Sunday with the gold medal final at 8 p.m. Atlantic Standard Time, live on Rogers Sportsnet and ssncanada.ca.

Rogers Sportsnet will also have live coverage of the last pool play matchup Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Atlantic (except on Sportsnet West), while SSN Canada will have live webcasts of all seven contests from the tourney. The Daily Gleaner sports editor Bruce Hallihan and staff writer Jamie Ross will also provide extensive coverage.

The V-Reds captured their third University Cup title in five seasons - and the fourth in school history - a year ago with a 4-0 win on home ice over the McGill Redmen. UNB had previously triumphed in 1998, 2007 and 2009.

The last team to claim back-to-back CIS men's hockey banners was the Alberta Golden Bears, who prevailed at home in Edmonton in 2005 and 2006.

For the second straight year, UNB (AUS champs) and McGill (OUA champs) are seeded 1-2 heading into the national championship. They will be joined by the No. 3 Saskatchewan Huskies (Canada West champs), No. 4 Western Mustangs (OUA finalists), No. 5 Moncton Aigles Bleus (AUS finalists) and No. 6 UQTR Patriotes (OUA bronze medallists).

UNB, Western and UQTR will battle in Pool A in the preliminary round, while McGill, Saskatchewan and Moncton skate in Pool B. The firstplace finishers from each group advance to the University Cup final.

The Redmen and Aigles Bleus face off in the tourney opener Tuesday at 2 p.m. while the V-Reds and Patriotes kick off Pool A action at 7 p.m. The Huskies and Mustangs take the ice on Day 2 against the losing teams from opening day.

The V-Reds roster includes 19 re­turning players from last season's championship squad, and a pair of impact rookies in forwards Tyler Carroll and Shayne Wiebe.

After reaching the national final for the first time in program history a year ago, No. 2 McGill will settle for nothing less than a first CIS title this time around.

'We have built-up good momentum and are peaking at the right time,' says Kelly Nobes, a former McGill star who has racked up a 68-17-2 overall record during his two seasons as head coach of the Redmen. 'We're fairly healthy, have a veteran team with nine seniors and are very hungry after losing in the gold medal final last year. We're going to Fredericton with only one objective.' Like UNB, the Redmen are riding an impressive win streak heading into their fifth straight University Cup appearance. The Montreal-based powerhouse is on a 10-game winning streak entering the tournament McGill, in the midst of its 136th season of hockey, makes the trip to Fred­ericton with a less explosive but more balanced team than a year ago.

This season, Marc-André Dorion became the first defenceman in program history to lead the team in scoring with 39 points as McGill settled for the 11th best offensive record in the nation with 3.64 goals per night, but tied Alberta for the best goals against average (2.20). While Verreault-Paul was still brilliant with 21 markers in 23 outings, the Redmen received goals from no less than 22 different skaters during the regular schedule and from 15 players, including eight rearguards, in their seven post-season contests.

In Canada West, the No. 3 Huskies emerged from a dog fight... no pun intended.

Saskatchewan finished third in the conference standings, only two points behind Manitoba and one in arrears of Alberta. After sweeping Lethbridge in the first round of the playoffs, the Huskies erased a one-game deficit in each of their subsequent series, both best-of-three affairs, edging Alberta in the semifinals and Calgary in the conference final. Against the Golden Bears, they won the last two games in overtime, while against the Dinos, defenceman Brett Ward ended the longest game in Canada West playoff history with a goal at 46:33 of overtime (3OT) to give the Saskatoon squad its first conference banner since 2007.

The Huskies are led by the line of Derek Hulak (11-33-44), Kyle Bortis (17-22-39) and Kyle Ross (16-17-33), who combined for 116 points in the regular season. Hulak won the Canada West scoring crown and finished second in the country with 44 points in 28 games.

'We feel pretty fortunate to be representing Canada West and the University of Saskatchewan at the University Cup,' said Dave Adolph, in his 19th campaign behind the Saskatchewan bench. 'After failing to qualify for the last three years, our team has no members with national championship experience but we've surprised a few favourites along the way. So we're not sure what to expect from this group.' His counterpart from Western, Clarke Singer, also hopes that the playoffs prepared his team well for Nationals.

'It's always a tremendous privilege to compete on a national stage with the best university hockey teams in the country,' said Singer, the veteran head coach. 'There are six very good hockey teams competing in the tournament and we know that we will have to be at our very best for three days to have a chance to win it.' Western is led by CIS scoring champion Keaton Turkiewicz, who tallied 47 points, including 20 goals, in 28 league games. He also won the OUA playoff scoring title with 5-9-14 in eight contests.

Fifth-seeded Moncton is a pleasant surprise this season. After missing the playoffs a year ago with a 10-15-3 mark, the Aigles Bleus rebounded with a 19-8-1 campaign, good for third place in the AUS standings, then eliminated both StFX and Saint Mary's to reach the conference championship series against UNB.

'We want to make our presence felt at the Nationals,' said Serge Bourgeois, les Aigles Bleus head coach.

'We want to make our presence felt at the Nationals,' says Serge Bourgeois, in his third season as Moncton head coach after three years as an assistant. 'We've worked hard all season with one goal in mind, to represent the AUS at the CIS championship. We have a good blend of veterans and rookies, and our guys know what's at stake. We'll need a complete effort from each member of the team to be successful.' Finally, the sixth-ranked UQTR Patriotes could offer fans some of the most entertaining hockey this week. Led by Félix Petit, who finished fourth in the country with 42 points in 28 games, the Patriotes scored a CIS-best 123 goals for an average of 4.39 per game, but ranked 21st in the nation on defence with 3.40 goals against per match.

'We've had an exceptional season when considering we started the season with 14 freshmen and will have 11 rookies on our roster for the University Cup,' said coach Jacques Laporte, in his 13th season with UQTR.