NB Telegraph-Journal | E-Brief
As published on page D1 on November 4, 2004


BATTLE OF COLLEGE HILL
Varsity Reds turn back Tommies
UNB improves on its first-place record by dropping cross-campus rivals


St. Thomas goaltender Aaron Molnar during action Wednesday night.

BY DAVID KELLY
Telegraph-Journal

FREDERICTON - The University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds stretched their winning streak to four games last night after blanking the host St. Thomas Tommies 3-0 in front of a packed house at the Lady Beaverbrook Rink.

The win, which came largely on the back of UNB's power play, gives the Varsity Reds sole possession of first place in the Atlantic University Hockey Conference and sends the Tommies on a two-game slide.

The Reds drew first blood early in the first.

With Tommies forward Kyle McAllister serving two minutes for elbowing, UNB struck on the power play.

UNB forward Jean-Michel Boisvert took a bad angle shot from the corner and caught STU keeper Aaron Molnar cheating for the pass.

The Reds' power play was back in action with less than two minutes in the opening period when defenceman Troy Turyk was given two minutes and a game misconduct for checking UNB's Kyle Werner from behind.

Less than a minute into the man advantage, Kevin Young walked into the circle and blasted a one-timer from Troy Stonier past Molnar to put the UNB up 2-0.

The Tommies came out strong to start the second hitting any red sweater in sight.

The hard work gave St. Thomas several scoring chances, the best of which came when STU's sometimes forward, sometimes defenceman Ryan Locke tipped a pass with only one hand on his stick toward UNB's open goal.

Luckily for Reds goalie Reg Bourcier, the redirection found nothing but post and he quickly covered the puck for a whistle.

Then in the third, Molnar held the Reds back on another power play, this time killing a five-minute call for elbowing that also landed STU's Bruce Gillis a game misconduct.

Gillis misconduct was the second for the Tommies and the third of the game. UNB's Kevin Werner was also called in the second for hitting rookie Justin Roy from behind.

With Molnar on the bench, UNB's Rory McDade added an empty net goal to seal the win. Molnar's counterpart Bourcier stopped all 35 STU shots he faced while Molnar faced 35 shots of his own, stopping 33.

Both teams are back in action on Friday at St. Thomas travels to Halifax to take on Dalhousie while UNB hosts the Acadia Axemen at the Aitken University Centre.

UNB then welcomes St. Mary's on Saturday while the Tommies head to Antigonish to take on the defending CIS champion St. Francis Xavier X-Men.

The Universite de Moncton also hits the road this weekend for games Friday and Saturday at St. FX and Dalhousie.



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