(FREDERICTON, NB) After three consecutive weekends on the road, the UNB REDS men's returned home Friday and scored three times in the second period on route to a 6-1 win over the Acadia Axemen.
The REDS made a winner of third string goaltender Tanner Somers (Miramichi, NB), who made his UNB debut.
"It's exciting. It was kind of a long road to get here, but it's exciting," he said. "I can't be any happier."
"All week, I built in a calm demeanour, so going into the game tonight I wasn't too nervous. Obviously, getting the first one (shot) out of the way early helped, first touch out of the way. Honestly, not too many nerves, which was great."
The REDS opened the scoring just 8:04 in, when Jason Willms (Kitchener, ON) converted a Noah Carroll (Strathroy, ON) pass, beating Acadia netminder Logan Flodell (Regina, SK).
UNB made it 2-0 just 67 seconds later when Nicolas Guay (Chateauguay, QC) fired a rebound past Flodell at the 9:11 mark.
The REDS blew the game open in the second period with goals from Benjamin Gagne (St-Augustin, QC), Brady Gilmour (Grafton, ON) and Macauley Carson (Midhurst, ON).
Tyler Boland (St. John's, NL) completed the UNB scoring with a power-play goal at 7:42 of the third period, chasing Flodell from the Acadia net. Conor McCollum (Pickering, ON) took over.
The Axemen, working on the power-play, got a late goal from Jack Flaman (Vibank, SK) to make the final score 6-1.
"We knew it was going to be a tough battle tonight, we've been preparing for it all week, so it's not a surprise," said Axemen head coach Darren Burns. "We got smoked, but I don't think our guys quit, they competed. At the end of the day, I'm the coach and we lost 6-1 and that falls on me."
The Axemen came into the game short-handed, dressing just 14 skaters, eight forwards and six defencemen.
"It was a complete team effort," said REDS head coach Gardiner MacDougall. "It was a pretty good 60 minutes overall, all four lines contributing and the D moved the puck well. We had good opportunities, any time you get a chance to score six is a highlight."
"That's a great team there. They're down in numbers as well, which is unfortunate," he added.
Gilmour, one of five REDS to record two points in the game, was satisfied with the win and pleased for Somers.
"To see the work he puts in every day, he's on the ice with us, he's on for morning skates, he does all the workouts, he puts in a lot of work, and a lot of the time not a lot of people see it, so I think everyone in that room is incredibly happy for him," said Gilmour.
"We're confident in his ability. We see it all the time in practice. I just think we wanted to play hard for him and try and get him a win and we're happy that we did that."
With the win, the REDS are now 10-1, while the Axemen fall to 4-8.
Up next for Acadia, a Saturday evening visit to Moncton, while the REDS get set to host the Saint Mary's Huskies. Both games are scheduled for 7:00pm starts.
RECAP BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics
PHOTOS BY: Fran Harris/for UNB Athletics