(FREDERICTON, NB) The UNB REDS opened defence of their Atlantic University Sport men's hockey championship in impressive fashion Friday night.
Simon Pinard (Drummondville, QC) and defenceman Kade Landry (Gowanstown ON) each had a pair of goals and assisted on another, and team captain and SUBWAY Player of the Game Jason Willms (Kitchener, ON) had a goal and three assists. Brady Gilmour (Grafton, ON) and Ross MacDougall (St. Stephen, NB) each scored a goal and an assist as the REDS skated to an 8-3 win over the Université de Moncton Aigles Bleus in the first game of their best-of-five semi-final series before 2,541 fans at UNB's Aitken Centre.
Macauley Carson (Midhurst, ON) had the other goal for UNB. Amid the offensive onslaught, it was Carson's marker which was the most timely.
The REDS had opened up a 3-0 lead after the first period and looked in control, based on goals by MacDougall at 13:29, Gilmour on a one-timer at 15:40, and Pinard's first of the pair with 28 seconds left in the frame.
"Obviously, that start is something we wanted," said Willms. "We've really been keying on getting off to good starts, and to be up three in our home barn is definitely what we wanted."
Moncton inched back to within one with a couple of their own, a power-play tally by defenceman Edouard St. Laurent (Levis,QC) at 1:50, and an Alexandre Couture (Granby QC) shot that found its way past REDS goaltender Samuel Richard (Ste. Catharine, QC) at 9:25.
REDS' head coach Gardiner MacDougall quickly called a timeout, and Carson connected just 22 seconds later to give the REDS some breathing room.
"Whenever a team has a bit of a pushback, we're pretty confident in throwing our line out there, at least to get in on the forecheck and get the momentum back on our side," said the first-year forward. "I think Gardiner just wanted to settle us down a bit. We started running around a bit and had some careless mistakes. Going out there, we just wanted to get it in deep and have a good offensive zone shift."
Willms made the pass to Carson in the slot and he converted.
The REDS cruised from there.
"I liked the response from our group in the third and late in the second," said Willms.
They dominated play the rest of the period, but for a 64 second 5-on-3 power play by the Aigles Bleus, during which Thomas Cusson (Cowansville, QC) scored to close the gap to 4-3.
Willms banged home a juicy rebound at 16:28, and Pinard connected just 28 seconds later to make it 6-3 through 40 minutes.
It was more of the same in the third.
The Aigles Bleus couldn't muster so much as a shot on goal until the period was almost 15 minutes old and had just two in the frame.
The REDS, who won their 15th straight AUS regular season pennant and hadn't played a game since February 11th, picked up right where they left off, outshooting the Aigles Bleus 43-15.
The Aigles Bleus finished the regular season in sixth place in the final standings, but upset the third place UPEI Panthers in quarter-final play to set up the semi-final against the REDS.
The teams square off again Saturday night in a 7:00pm faceoff at the Aitken Centre, with the series switching to Moncton for Game three, next Tuesday night.
RECAP BY: Bill Hunt/for UNB Athletics
PHOTOS BY: Rob Blanchard/for UNB Athletics