UNB's Fullerton gets another Golden opportunity
March 22, 2012
When the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds went through a rare stumble in January - losing four of five games - perhaps it was just a coincidence it came at a time when goaltender Travis Fullerton was sidelined with a knee injury.
Perhaps it was not.
Fullerton, a 24-year-old from Riverview, after all, had already backstopped the Varsity Reds to two Canadian Interuniversity Sport men's hockey championships in the past three years.
He returned to the lineup in late January for the first time in a month and UNB got back on track. The V-Reds have won 12 of 13 games since then (regular season and playoffs combined) en route to capturing the Atlantic University Sport conference title. They enter this week's CIS Cavendish University Cup championship tournament as the No. 1 seed and the favourite to defend the national title they won on home ice a year ago.
Fullerton has carried the load for UNB down the stretch, starting in 12 of his team's last 13 games. The fourthyear netminder finished the AUS playoffs with a 6-0 record and 1.82 goals-against average and celebrated a conference championship in his hometown, beating the Université de Moncton Aigles Bleus in the AUS final. 'I think our team in general just started playing better. I don't know how much it had to do with me,' Fullerton said of his return to the Varsity Reds crease in late January.
'It was more our team game starting to come around and we started to get guys back healthy. I just think we started playing really well and the coach kind of said to take the ball and run with it. We had a good finish to the season, so that helped me, but it was good the team was playing much better.' Fullerton has one year of eligibility remaining, but has not yet decided if he'll return to UNB next season.
Perhaps it was not.
Fullerton, a 24-year-old from Riverview, after all, had already backstopped the Varsity Reds to two Canadian Interuniversity Sport men's hockey championships in the past three years.
He returned to the lineup in late January for the first time in a month and UNB got back on track. The V-Reds have won 12 of 13 games since then (regular season and playoffs combined) en route to capturing the Atlantic University Sport conference title. They enter this week's CIS Cavendish University Cup championship tournament as the No. 1 seed and the favourite to defend the national title they won on home ice a year ago.
Fullerton has carried the load for UNB down the stretch, starting in 12 of his team's last 13 games. The fourthyear netminder finished the AUS playoffs with a 6-0 record and 1.82 goals-against average and celebrated a conference championship in his hometown, beating the Université de Moncton Aigles Bleus in the AUS final. 'I think our team in general just started playing better. I don't know how much it had to do with me,' Fullerton said of his return to the Varsity Reds crease in late January.
'It was more our team game starting to come around and we started to get guys back healthy. I just think we started playing really well and the coach kind of said to take the ball and run with it. We had a good finish to the season, so that helped me, but it was good the team was playing much better.' Fullerton has one year of eligibility remaining, but has not yet decided if he'll return to UNB next season.