(FREDERICTON, NB) The UNB Reds watched the St. Thomas Tommies raise their 2019 Atlantic University Sport championship banner, then went out and beat their cross-campus rivals 3-0, on Saturday night at Fredericton's Grant-Harvey Centre.
Lily George (Garden Village, ON) scored twice to lead the Reds and Kendra Woodland (Kamloops, BC) stopped 23 shots for the shut-out.
"It's never going to get old, playing STU," said Woodland, who was named Subway Player of the Game. "It doesn't matter what rink we play in, we're always going to put up a fight."
Myah Bowal (Terrace, BC) opened the scoring at 7:40 of the first.
She took a Paige Grenier (Olds, AB) pass in the slot and beat Tommies goalie Marandee Hunter (Chatham, ON) glove side.
"One of our goals for the game was to score first and we accomplished that," said Bowal. "It got everybody on the bench pretty pumped up."
The Reds went up 2-0, just 50 seconds into the second period when George fired a hard wrist shot over Hunter's right shoulder.
The teams settled into a bit of a tug of war through most of the remain 40 minutes.
The Tommies put significant pressure on the Reds in the third period, peppering Woodland with shots.
The Reds held the reigning champs off, even killing a 5-on-3 situation mid-way through the final frame.
George's second goal of the game, into an empty net, came with just 24 seconds left on the clock.
"They helped a lot," said Woodland. "When I gave up a rebound, they were there to clear the front of the net, I have to give a lot of props to my team tonight. You can't win a game without putting goals on the board too."
Reds head coach Sarah Hilworth feels having to watch the Tommies celebrate last season's championship, ahead of the opening faceoff, paid dividends.
"We wanted to send a strong message today that we're going to be that team that's going to be vying for an AUS Championship," she said. "They've seen that banner and now we just have to keep pushing them to be competitive and be tough."
The Tommies, 0-1, are off until Friday, when they host St FX.
The Reds, now 1-1, welcome Moncton to the Aitken Centre on Wednesday. Game time is 7:00pm.
RECAP AND PHOTOS BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics