George's Hat-trick Leads REDS

(FREDERICTON, NB) Lily George (Nipissing First Nation) scored three times to lead the UNB REDS in a 6-2 win over the Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleues Wednesday night at UNB's Aitken Centre.

George scored goals in each period and was named Tim Horton's Player of the Game.

"We had a message we wanted to send to the league, and that's no matter what the score was of our last game that we're going to bounce back and be stronger than ever and that's what we did tonight," said George, who takes over the lead in the Atlantic University Sport scoring race.

The REDS were coming off a 6-2 loss at STFX on Saturday.

"It's a regroup," said George. "We know what we're capable of. We just have to take those skills and bring them each night, consistently."

George opened the scoring at 5:22 of the first period when she was sprung on a breakaway and beat Moncton netminder Annick Boudreau (Memramcook, NB).

That lead was short-lived though as the Aigles Bleues drew even less than four minutes later, on a goal by Maritza Labrie (Saint Quentin, NB).

The REDS exploded for three goals in the second period.

Sydney Oitomen (Mississauga, ON) began the push, scoring on a breakaway just 59 seconds in.

George got her second of the night less than six minutes later and Lauren Toner (St. Catharines, ON) made it a 4-1 game less than 90 seconds after that.

Erica Plourde (Pigeon Hill, NB) cut UNB's lead to two with an early third period goal before George tallied her third and Melanie Drost (Nepean, ON) rounded out the scoring.

"They're a good team," said Aigles Bleues' head coach Marc-André Côté. "We knew they'd struggled on Saturday a little bit and that they would come out strong and we never came close to matching their intensity tonight."

Katelyn Scott (Almonte, ON) had three assists for the REDS while Cassie McCallum (Rothesay, NB) made 20 saves on 22 shots for her sixth win in six starts this season.

The win was the first for UNB over Moncton in three tries.

"I guess the girls weren't on tonight," said Coach Côté. "We weren't just not on, we were off."

With the win, the REDS solidify their hold on first place in the AUS standings.

UNB is now 12-3-0-0 (W-L-OTL-SOL) while Moncton falls to 9-4-0-2. The Aigles Bleues are in a tie for second place.

"We're excited and ready to keep it rolling," said George.

Up next for Moncton, a Friday night home game against the STFX X-Women. The REDS return to action Saturday when they host UPEI. Game time is 7:00pm.

RECAP BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics

PHOTOS BY: James West/for UNB Athletics