(FREDERICTON, NB) The UNB REDS overcame an early deficit to beat l'Université de Moncton Aigles Bleus 3-1 in game one of their best of three Atlantic University Sport men's hockey championship series, Saturday night at a sold out Aitken Centre.
Cole MacKay (Sault Ste. Marie, ON) scored UNB's eventual game winner.
"Where we want to go, there's going to be games like that where we get the other team's best game," said MacKay. "I thought they played really well tonight, give them credit. We need games like that and to get the 'W' out of that is great."
The visitors put a scare into the large and pro-REDS crowd just 1:58 in when Denis Toner's (Saint-André, NB) shot from the blue line got past Samuel Richard (Ste. Catherine, QC) in the UNB net.
"We know how this rink can get heavy on you," said Toner. "There was a sold-out crowd, so when you get the first goal, it calms everyone down and brings everyone on the same page, but sadly we didn't build off that."
In fact, the Moncton lead didn't last long.
About three minutes later, just past the five-minute mark, Brady Gilmour (Grafton, ON) tipped Colton Kammerer's (Brooklin, ON) shot as the REDS drew even 1-1.
The only goal of the second period came off MacKay's stick. He came from behind the Moncton net to take a pass and scored easily from the side of the goal at the 6:17 mark.
"Mikey Petizian had a hell of a forecheck," said MacKay. "He got it out to Kade Landry and he quick-sticiked it to the net and I was lucky enough to stick around. It popped right on to my stick, so I'll take those any day."
UNB held the 2-1 until Austen Keating (Guelph, ON) scored into an empty Moncton net with just one second to play.
"There was no panic," said MacKay, about playing from behind early on. "We've been there a few times earlier in the year. We trust in our abilities and how we play when we play the right way, it was just back to square one. There was lots of game left to play at that point in time, so we just went back to work."
"We knew it was going to be a battle and we were ready for that battle," said Toner. "I think tonight, we showed some great effort, our goalie kept us in it, we didn't give them a lot of 'Grade A' chances and we had our own chances that if we could've capitalized on it would've been a different outcome, but we're going to build off that."
"The beauty of playoff hockey is that you move on to the next one and we're going to be ready on Tuesday," he added.
Richard made 24 saves on 25 Moncton shots and was named the Tim Horton's Player of the Game.
Olivier Adam (Drummondville, QC) stopped 40 of the 42 shots he face, taking the loss in the Moncton net.
Game two of this series goes Tuesday night, in Moncton, at the J. Louis Lévesque Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00pm.
"Any time there's a game to close somebody out, that's going to be your toughest one," said MacKay. "We have to take it up a notch on Tuesday. We're prepared to do that. We'll play the same way we have all year, just elevate it a little bit. Obviously, it's playoff time, goals are tougher to come by, so we'll have to work a little bit harder."
RECAP BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics
PHOTOS BY: James West/for UNB Athletics