(FREDERICTON, NB) Austen Keating (Guelph, ON) and James McEwan (Chatham, ON) each had a goal and two assists as the UNB REDS scored a 5-2 win over the Saint Mary's Huskies on Friday night.
REDS captain Samuel Dove-McFalls (Montreal, QC) added a goal and an assist and was named Subway Player of the Game.
"Often, early on in the year, we play very tight games here. We worked hard and had to earn this win, which is good to see," said McFalls, about how the Huskies pushed the REDS in the game.
The game was played before 1,926 fully-vaccinated and masked fans at Fredericton's Aitken Centre.
The Huskies came out with plenty of jump, hungry for their first win of the season, testing first-year REDS goaltender Griffen Outhouse (Williams Lake, BC) early in his AUS debut.
Outhouse made two great saves on a pair of dangerous chances in the game's opening minutes.
"It was fun getting into it, hopping into the couple shots that were high quality scoring chances, but then after that I thought we played pretty locked down," said Outhouse.
UNB got their first chances at the midway point of the first with James Phelan (Laval, QC) feeding a cross-crease pass to Thomas Casey (Charlottetown, PE) who put the puck just wide of the net.
Tyler Boland (St. John's, NL) also came close a few minutes later, circling into the high slot and putting a point blank shot just over the crossbar.
The Huskies would strike first, at 12:21 of the period, as Cedric Ralph (Peterborough, ON) cleaned up a rebound in front.
"We're really happy with our team and with the way we are playing right now. We just have to keep working hard to put that first win on the board and I think that will come for us," said Huskies' head coach Tyler Naugler of his team's effort.
The REDS would respond two and a half minutes later with Brady Gilmour (Grafton, ON) feeding a pass to Nicolas Guay (Chatauguay, QC), who buried the 1-1 marker.
UNB killed a late SMU powerplay to leave the score even after 20 minutes.
The REDS directed plenty of pucks on the Huskies net to start the second.
However, it wouldn't be until just under five minutes to go in the second that Dove-McFalls would put forth an incredible shift which he capped off by putting home the rebound from a shot from Keating to give UNB a 2-1 lead.
Boland would add to that just 1:49 later to make it 3-1. He also finished with a two-point night for the REDS.
Outhouse would make a pair of great saves in the dying seconds of the period to hold that lead into second intermission.
A huge penalty-kill in the back half of the third period, highlighted by crucial shot blocks from Noah Carroll (Strathroy, ON) and Isaac Nurse (Hamilton, ON), kept the REDS lead at two.
"It was one of those scrambly games, lots of turnovers on both teams, fortunately we got some key saves and our penalty kill was outstanding," said REDS head coach Gardiner MacDougall.
UNB and SMU would trade goals in the final minutes, scored by Keating and the Huskies' Nathan Dunkley (Campbellford, ON), before McEwan would seal the game for the REDS with an empty-netter.
Shots were 38-30 in favour of UNB.
Outhouse made 28 saves for his first career AUS win, while Matt Welsh (Halifax, NS) made 33 stops in a losing effort for the Huskies.
The REDS improve to 4-0 on the season while Huskies are still winless at 0-3.
UNB travels to Antigonish in a week's time to face the STFX X-Men. Game time is 7:00pm. The Huskies stop in Moncton Saturday. That game is also at 7:00pm.
RECAP: Jonathan James/for UNB Athletics
PHOTOS: James West/for UNB Athletics