Hepditch looks to continue winning ways
Published Friday November 27th, 2009
Josh Hepditch and the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds are both on winning streaks they would dearly love to prolong.
The V-Reds, the top-ranked university men's hockey team in the nation, are riding the crest of an 11-game winning streak to start the Atlantic University Sport Men's Hockey Conference season, a mark they'll hope to stretch tonight when they face the Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleus and through Saturday night when they host the St. Thomas Tommies at the Aitken Centre.
Faceoff time in each instance is 7 p.m.
Hepditch is part of that winning formula, of course, a valuable and versatile member of the reigning national champions who would like to keep his personal winning streak intact too.
The 24-year-old Fredericton native has been to four straight national championship finals, beginning with the 2006 Memorial Cup final with the Moncton Wildcats, and the last three in a row with the V-Reds.
Hepditch can stretch the streak to five if the V-Reds make it to Thunder Bay, Ont., in March to defend their title. Next year would make it six straight since the V-Reds are guaranteed entry as the host team in the national tournament. He's 2-2 and counting in national championships. But Hepditch is more to the Reds than a rabbit's foot.
"He's one of those glue players, both on and off the ice," UNB head coach Gardiner MacDougall. "He just finds a way to make positive things happen. When you think about it, he's the ultimate overachiever."
Hepditch considers that a tremendous compliment.
"I take a lot of pride in being an overachiever," he said. "It means I've earned everything I've got and I've had to work to get it. If I'm called an overachiever, that just means I'm working hard and obtaining some of the goals I set for myself." One he's set this season - in addition to another national championship - is to achieve academic all-Canadian status.
"That's something I'm trying to earn right now," said Hepditch, working toward a kinesiology/education degree that will see him graduate in the spring of 2010.
"It doesn't come easily. I think you need a 3.5 for a full year. My first year, I think I was a 3.2 or 3.3. I think I'm at a 3.0 right now. It means a lot to me, because it means you're not just doing the work to get by, you're doing the work you can do to be the best you can be in the classroom."
Of course, the evidence abounds that the V-Reds are doing what's necessary on the ice.
Hepditch, for one, feels the V-Reds, perfect on paper, still have room for improvement.
"I definitely do," he said. "There were games that we've gone into overtime, and we've found a way to get that one goal, but there are games where we haven't played up to our standard. Our standard is where we want to be and we know that we have to work hard every day in practice to reach them, that they're not just going to come easily."
Hepditch knows all about things not coming easily. He takes pride in the fact that, after a midget AAA career in which he excelled as a smallish defenceman with the Fredericton Darcy Simon Midget AAA Canadiens, he went to Moncton and made the Wildcats as a walk on.
He worked his way from a utility role with the Wildcats into a position as a swing man, on the blueline or as a forward as required. He's carried on in that role with the V-Reds.
"He brings a lot to the table," MacDougall said. "The biggest thing about him is, he responds to challenges. He played one game as a forward for us this year, in Providence, and he played very well for us."
This year, however, he's found his niche on the blueline.
"That's where I've got to fit in this year," Hepditch said. "Right now, I'm really enjoying defence in this league. I think it's a little different than in junior. Guys are bigger and guys are smarter and you can read the play a little bit more. It's more of a structured game."
Hepditch has fond memories of Moncton. He played on a Presidents Cup winning team with the Wildcats and in the Memorial Cup final against Patrick Roy's Quebec Remparts in 2006, then helped the V-Reds nail down the national championship against the host Aigles Bleus in 2007.
After a tough loss to the University of Alberta in 2008, Hepditch and the V-Reds rebounded to reclaim the crown last season, and they look like a team on a mission to defend this year. And then there's next year.
Playing for the title on home ice, in his home town?
"That's something that's been ticking in my mind ever since we realized that we got the nationals," Hepditch said. "It stays inside you no matter what you're doing or who you are. It's easy to put it off to the side right now. We focus on this year because we have such a good team and a good chance at getting better and going forward today. But it's something that's always in the back of my mind."
Hepditch hopes to play some pro in Europe after graduation, returning to Fredericton to perhaps teach school. MacDougall is confident he'll be successful.
"He has a good charisma to him . . . the guys enjoy him," said MacDougall. "He has a great personality. Right now, hockey's his thing, but he's going to be very successful in life. You can see the growth and the maturity in him over his career at UNB."
The V-Reds return from Moncton to host the Tommies in the latest edition of the Battle of the Hill.
The V-Reds have won 20 straight exhibition and regular season meetings between the teams, extending back to October, 2006.
The Tommies host the University of Prince Edward Island Panthers tonight, hoping to snap a five-game losing streak. Goaltender Charles Lavigne and forward Tyler Dietrich are expected back in the lineup for the 7 p.m. faceoff at the LBR.
According to AUS executive director Phil Currie, the one-game suspensions to forwards Kenton Dulle and Corey Banfield assessed by AUS hockey chair John Ryan were dismissed by an appeals committee on a matter of procedure.
Ryan apparently erred in not giving the student-athletes a chance to respond to the complaint launched by Saint Mary's. Therefore, the judicial committee dismissed the suspensions. Saint Mary's resubmitted to women's hockey chair Pierre Arsenault of Mount Allison University.
He had 48 hours to review the video, and the athletes have three days to respond in writing.
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