That's much better
Published Saturday October 31st, 2009
AUS Men's Hockey | V-Reds blow by Acadia to go to 6-0
After barely squeaking past the Acadia Axemen a week earlier, the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds were determined to do better in the rematch.
Consider it done.
The V-Reds beat the Axemen 7-3 at the Aitken Centre, raising their record to 6-0 atop the Atlantic University Sport Men's Hockey Conference.
Seven days earlier in Wolfville, N.S., the V-Reds needed Luke Gallant's 5-on-3 power play goal at 18:19 of the third period to pull out a 3-2 win.
"Every time you play a team you always want to better yourself the second time," said winger Lachlan MacIntosh, who led the Reds with a goal and two assists.
"I guess this week we improved more over last week than they did." Last night, UNB captain Kyle Bailey and Luke Lyons set each other up for power play goals 81 seconds apart midway through the first period for a quick 2-0 lead.
The Axemen killed off a 5-on-3 shortly after that and cut the deficit to 2-1 when Jonathan Laberge buried Chris Bruton's pass by Derek Yeomans at 16:06 of the first.
But the Reds reeled off the next three goals to take a 5-1 lead. Chris Hodgson banged in his first of two goals 3:56 into the second, MacIntosh won a foot race to make it 4-1 with 9.3 seconds left in the period and Nick Layton converted Daine Todd's precision pass 8:35 into the third.
The Axemen, who were being outshot 10-0 in the period and would be outshot 40-19 overall, got back in it briefly.
Scott Tregunna and Andrew Clark, on a shot that changed direction off Gallant and slithered past Yeomans, clicked 95 seconds apart to reduce the Reds' lead to 5-3 with 8:31 left.
Acadia coach Darren Burns pulled Kristofer Westblom with the Axemen down a man, but the move backfired when Gallant hit the empty net with 2:05 remaining. Hodgson ripped a one-timer past Westblom at 19:14 to give him four goals in five games.
MacIntosh's goal was both a beauty and a backbreaker. He caught Acadia on a line change and blew past a defender before knifing a backhander past Westblom.
"They had a bit of a mixup on the change and I just jumped on the loose puck," MacIntosh said.
The Axemen, who drop to 2-3, were playing without two of their top three defencemen, Zack Firlotte (concussion) and Paul Kurceba (mononucleosis). Top-six forward Tyler Whitehead (flu) was also missing, but Burns said that wasn't the reason his team lost to UNB for the 13th straight time, dating back to January 2007.
"You can't give them three or four power plays to start the game," Burns said. "That just zaps energy out of guys who play a lot and, right away, you're down 2-0. We battled back, our guys didn't quit, but the reality is you can't take early penalties against a team of that quality. That's going to backfire on you every time."
"The key to our hockey club is to play good defence," UNB bench boss Gardiner MacDougall said. "We had a pretty consistent effort against a very good opponent. They've got a good offence and good players. Unfortunately, they're missing two of their top D men, but our special teams came up big early. The line of Lynes, Bailey and MacIntosh had a good effort together.
"Once again, we spread the offence out."
Hodgson, a muscular 245 pounds, is trying to make room in MacDougall's lineup by making room for himself on the ice.
"It's great to chip in offensively," Hodgson said. "The more I get on the ice and handle the puck, the more confident I become. I work hard and I play hard. When you do that, you're going to get room on the ice.
"I've got to go to the net and make my presence felt," Hodgson said. "I want to challenge them to move me."
The Reds were supposed to host the Saint Mary's Huskies tonight, but that game has been postponed because an undisclosed SMU player has the H1NI virus and several of his teammates have the same symptoms.
"It's a little bit of a setback," MacIntosh said, "because we love playing against Saint Mary's, but it's another day's rest for us and we'll be ready to go next weekend."
"That's out of our control," MacDougall said. "We'll have a Saturday practice at 11 (a.m.) and try to improve."
UNB plays at St. FX on Friday and Dalhousie on Saturday.
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