Culligan keys V-Reds' rout
Published Monday October 19th, 2009
Chris Culligan didn't score one hat trick during his entire five-year major junior career with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.
Then again he didn't share a line with John Scott Dickson and Hunter Tremblay either.
Culligan, one of eight fresh faces on this year's UNB Varsity Reds, potted three goals Saturday night as the Reds improved to 2-0 on the season by way of a 9-3 thrashing of the Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleus in front of 1,500 fans at the Aitken Centre.
Tremblay added two goals and two assists and Dickson had three helpers to give the trio 10 points to go with an 11-point night Friday. That's a 21-point weekend for the AUS men's hockey conference's three leading scorers, if you're keeping track at home.
"We have pretty good chemistry and we're really moving the puck pretty well," Culligan said. "It's working to our benefit right now. Guys like John Scott and Hunter make it pretty easy to get into position and get scoring chances. They are just both such solid all-around players. I think more times than not John Scott will have the goals on our line. But when you have good puck movement and linemates like that, it can happen for any guy."
After trouncing the UPEI Panthers 10-0 the night before, the Reds' offence was already firmly in gear by the time the puck was dropped Saturday night and 7:19 in Chris Hodgson beat UdeM goalie Kevin Lachance five-hole on a hard shot from the left face-off circle to make it 1-0.
Then 20 seconds later rookie Ben Shutron took a page from Hodgson's book, getting the puck from Luke Lynes near the face-off circle and firing a shot through traffic, which Hodgson deflected past Lachance.
Tremblay ringed the puck off the crossbar and in on a partial breakaway minutes later and Culligan got his first, inadvertently redirecting a Dickson shot into the net with his shin pad shortly after that for a 4-0 lead at 13:35.
"We don't even look at the score," said Tremblay. "We compare ourselves to each other and we just want to get better every period, every shift, every game, and every weekend all the way until March."
"It's kind of something (being the team to beat) I'm not really used to, but it's something I like," added Culligan. "Everyone wants to beat us for a reason."
In the second period the rout continued with Tremblay burying a rebound two minutes in, Culligan getting a garbage goal of his own off a Tremblay shot midway through the period and Moncton's Christopher Rodrigue accidentally knocking a loose puck past Pierre-Alexandre Marion, who played the final two periods, to make it 7-0.
A bad game had just got worse for the Aigles Bleus, who would score three meaningless goals in a penalty-riddled third period, but never really maintain any sort of offensive rhythm for a prolonged stretch.
Remi Gautreau scored two goals and Guillaume Parenteau the other for les Aigles Bleus, who were outshot 47-23. Taylor Prochyshen and Jonathan Harty had the other goals for the V-Reds while Luke Gallant picked up four assists.
"UNB has a strong team, but we did not play well," new UdeM head coach Serge Bourgeois said. "Some players played well while others did not. UNB has some really good players, but we also have some and they played a lot harder than we did."
"It was a real solid start to the season," said UNB bench boss Gardiner MacDougall. "We tried to establish some things with our group in terms of foundational things and how we want to play, but also the team morale and working together and that really carried on to the ice
"I know it's only early, but I think we have a special group here. There is a lot of leadership in the room and the standards they set for themselves are pretty high."
UNB will be on the road next weekend, playing at Acadia on Friday night and at Saint Mary's on Saturday.
"It's going to be a big weekend for our club," MacDougall said. "Acadia's got their whole team back with some additions and then obviously Saint Mary's is going to be tough."
UPEI 9 STU 4
The UPEI Panthers rebounded from Friday's 10-0 loss to UNB by rolling to a 9-4 victory over the St. Thomas Tommies Saturday night in Charlottetown.
Matt Carter and rookie defenceman Dylan Quaile led the Panthers with three goals and two assists apiece.
Graham McNabb, Greg Paynter and Chad Locke also scored for UPEI. Locke picked up two assists for a three-point night.
Tyler Dietrich, who scored two goals in Friday's 4-2 win over UdeM, scored two more against the Panthers. Max Chamberland and Scott Judson also scored for the Tommies, who were outshot 38-31. Kenton Dulle picked up three assists.
Wayne Savage made 27 saves for the win. UPEI chased STU starter Charles Lavigne with three goals on 13 first-period shots. Ben MacFarlane stopped 19 of 25 shots over the final 40 minutes.
Quaile and McNabb scored 15 seconds apart to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead just 3:29 in and Locke made it 3-0 at 18:39. Dietrich got the Tommies on the board 21 seconds into the second, but UPEI scored the next four goals for a commanding 7-1 lead.
The Tommies will look to rebound this weekend at the LBR.
They host the St. Francis Xavier X-Men on Friday and the Dalhousie Tigers on Saturday, both 7 p.m. starts.
St. FX 4 Dal 2
Matthew Bragg had a goal and two assists to lead the St. Francis Xavier X-Men to a 4-2 win over the visiting Dalhousie Tigers. Murdock MacLellan, Kevin Undershute and Brett Morrison also beat Dal goalie Bobby Nadeau, who made 36 saves. Benoit Gervais and Jeff MacGregor, with 49 seconds to play, replied for the Tigers against Joey Perricone, who stopped 28 shots.
AUS women's hockey
The Dalhousie Tigers edged the St. Thomas Tommies 2-1 in AUS women's hockey conference play Saturday in Halifax. Kaitlyn McNutt scored on the power play with 2:50 left in the second period and Rebecca Sweet put Dal up 2-0 5:56 into the third.
Jillian Coughlin, assisted by Jessica Holt and Dominique Bernier, cashed in on the power play with 7:13 remaining, but the Tommies couldn't beat Ashley Boutilier for the equalizer.
Boutilier made 26 saves while Julia Sharun stopped 20 shots for STU.
The Tommies, who lost 5-1 at St. FX on Friday, are back on the road to play Mount Allison on Saturday and UPEI on Sunday.
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