V-Reds overcome Lavigne larceny
Published Thursday October 29th, 2009
Battle of the Hill | UNB pulls out victory in overtime
The St. Thomas Tommies still haven't found a way to beat the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds in 20 meetings over four years, but last night they scored a moral victory at least.
The Tommies were outshot 41-14, but took the defending national men's hockey champions to overtime before falling 2-1 on a fluky goal by John Scott Dickson.
Rookie goaltender Charles Lavigne, whose larceny had enabled the Tommies to secure a point for pushing the game to OT, didn't have a chance on the winner.
Dickson's wrist shot pinballed off a pair of STU defencemen and past Lavigne 44 seconds into sudden death, ending an entertaining Battle of the Hill before 764 fans at the LBR.
"I tried to make a pass to (Kyle) Bailey and the puck came back to me, so I just pulled it back and put it on the net," Dickson said. "It did go off somebody, but I'll take that goal any time."
"It was my first time out there with those red jerseys coming at me," Lavigne said. "You know what, they proved to be what they are (touted to be). They're a really talented team, they move the puck incredibly well. They're the hardest-working team and sometimes the hardest-working team gets the bounces.
"I'm not saying we didn't work hard," Lavigne said. "We battled for 61 minutes. I've never seen the boys battle like that. We're going to scare a lot of teams this year."
Lavigne lamented the bad break in OT.
"(David) Crossman blocked the first shot, it came right back to (Dickson), so he shot again. It hit off Crossman's stick, but it was going wide, so obviously I let it go. But it hit off Cropper's skate (Andrew Andricopoulos) and deflected in. Hockey's one of the funnest games there is, but it's also one of the stupidest games there is sometimes."
And, on this night, one of the best to watch.
"Any time you get a game that goes to overtime, obviously it's exciting for the fans," UNB head coach Gardiner MacDougall said. "That's what this rivalry is all about."
"It's quite a game every time we come into the LBR," Dickson said. "You know what you're going to get from them. They're going to work hard and they're going to be physical. Lavigne is obviously a great goalie. If he sees it, he's going to stop it. Next time we'll have to do a better job getting traffic in front of him."
"Benny MacFarlane, Matt Davis, Greg Hewitt ... St. Thomas has had some great goalies and Lavigne is certainly another one," MacDougall said. "It's a matter of accumulation. With 41 shots, you're bound to get a little luck as you go. John Scott's a fifth-year guy who's battled four-plus years in this rink, so good for him."
"I thought the guys worked really hard tonight," STU head coach Mike Eagles said. "As far as executing our game plan, the only thing we could do is be a little more disciplined in terms of a couple of careless penalties."
The Tommies had two power plays compared to the V-Reds' eight.
"Our penalty killing was very good," Eagles said, "but it wears guys down a little bit and hurts the shot total against, for sure."
The Tommies snapped a scoreless tie midway through the second period. Minutes after UNB goalie Travis Fullerton made a huge glove save off Kenton Dulle, Jason Cassidy pounced on a loose puck after Devan Praught did plenty of good spade work to set it up.
It took the V-Reds almost two full periods - and 28 shots - to beat Lavigne.
After referee Jeff Hopkins sent Scott Judson off for a questionable holding call at 18:24, UNB tied it when Lachlan MacIntosh threaded a pass from the left corner to the slot, where rookie Taylor Procyshen was there to slam the puck home at 19:36.
It was unfortunate Judson was in the box, because he helped kill off UNB's other seven power plays by blocking four shots.
"Unbelievable," Lavigne said of Judson's play on the PK. "I might hand him the trapper and blocker next game. He had a better butterfly than I did."
"Scott's a quiet leader on this team," Eagles said. "Whether he's playing forward or defence, he gives whatever he's got every shift. He's an absolute warrior."
The V-Reds were missing defencemen Josh Kidd and Alex Aldred "to similar injuries," MacDougall said, but Josh Hepditch and Spencer Corcoran stepped up to complement Luke Gallant, Bretton Stamler, Ben Shutron and Jonathan Harty, holding the Tommies to 14 shots.
"Defensively, we did a lot of good things," MacDougall said. "When you only give up 14 shots and one goal, you give yourself an opportunity to have success."
"Every point is big," Eagles said. "Our team is improved but we've got to keep improving. We've got a big job ahead of us this weekend. We've got to go down to Nova Scotia and get some points."
The Tommies, now 2-2-1, play at St. Francis Xavier on Friday and at Dalhousie on Saturday.
The 5-0 V-Reds host Acadia on Friday and Saint Mary's on Saturday, both 7 p.m. starts at the Aitken Centre.
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