No. 1-ranked V-Reds open second half with 5-2 win over X-Men

(FREDERICTON, N.B.) - The CIS No. 1-ranked UNB men's hockey team got off to a good start Friday night to open the second half of the season with a 5-2 win over the visiting StFX X-Men in front of 2,376 fans at the Aitken Centre.

The first period got off to a bit of a tentative start, as the two playoff foes looked for an advantage. The Varsity Reds scored their first goal of 2012 at 4:56 when Thomas Nesbitt (Ottawa, ON) took advantage of a turnover in the neutral zone to fly down the left side of the ice and snap a shot from the top of the circle that beat Joey Perricone (San Juan Capistrano, CA) high on the short side and sent his water bottle flying through the air.

Shayne Wiebe (Brandon, MB), playing in his first game as a V-Red, appeared to score at 11:41 on a lacrosse-style tip-in off the shaft of his stick, but the goal was waved off as Wiebe's stick was ruled to be too high. There were no more goals in the close checking first period that saw UNB edge StFX 10-9 in shots on goal. The X-Men's best scoring chance came three-quarters through the period when Dan LaCosta (Labrador City, NL) stopped StFX captain Murdoch MacLellan (Mabou, NS) on a two-on-one.

Early in the second period Dion Campbell had a breakaway from centre ice, but he couldn't beat Perricone's glove. A few minutes later for CIS rookie of the year Jason Bast (Reginsa, SK) forced LaCosta to make a big save after the X-Men killed off a checking from behind penalty to Derek Claffey (Red Deer, AB).

At 7:14 Gabriel O'Conner (Beloeil, QC) rang a heavy shot off the post. A couple of minutes later Campbell had another breakaway, this time shorthanded, but again he was stopped by Perricone's glove. Midway through the period UNB was the beneficiary of a quick whistle when the puck trickled through LaCosta's squeezed pads but a goal was waved off by referee Thayer Doyle.

After dodging that bullet, UNB extended their lead at 16:15 when, after losing an edge in the V-Reds zone, defenceman Josh Kidd (Sundridge, ON) passed the puck from his knees to Antoine Houde-Caron (Trois-Rivières, QC) in the neutral zone, who then quickly got the puck to Nesbitt who in turn beat Perricone with another top shelf shot for his second goal of the game. Shots in the second period favoured StFX 8-6.

After killing off a penalty to start the third period, UNB extended their lead to 3-0 at 3:33 when Tyler Carroll (Strathroy, ON) was at the bottom of the faceoff circle to redirect a slap-pass from Bretton Stamler (Edmonton, AB). There were penalties a few minutes later however, when after d-man Harty had a good scoring chance driving the net he got into a spirited tussle with X's Bryce Swan (Alder point, NS). Both earned slashing penalties and Harty got an extra minor for roughing after the whistle. The X-men took advantage of the power play to get on the board when Brett Morrison (Sydney, NS) was all alone at the side of the net for an easy tap-in off a rebound at 9:45.

Less than a minute later, UNB got that goal back when Perricone made an initial save off new V-Red Geordie Wudrick (Abbotsford, BC), and then an acrobatic move to twist and knock away the bouncing rebound, only to have the puck go right out to Houde-Caron at the edge of the blue paint for a relatively easy goal. Seconds later UNB took another penalty and the X-Men cashed in again. This was to be a controversial goal, as the V-Reds players on the ice, their bench and the home fans argued that Jarrad Struthters (Glace Bay, NS) had kicked in the puck at 11:01, but the goal stood.

It didn't take UNB long to get that goal back either, as Todd responded at 12:55 on a second effort mere seconds after the V-Reds killed off another penalty.

The rest of the period saw the home side forced to kill off another penalty but really not allow the X-Men to get back in the game. Shots were 12-8 for UNB in the period, with six of the StFX shots coming on their four power plays. Overall the V-Reds outshot X-Men 28-25 in the game. StFX was 2-for-7 with the man advantage while UNB was 0-for-3 on the power play.

On his two snapshot goals in the game, first star Thomas Nesbitt said, "A lot of nights I'm just trying to get shots on net and sometimes they go in and sometimes they don't. I think I was just trying to get it off as quick as possible. I wasn't wasting any time and I might have got lucky and caught the goalie off guard."

When asked about his team's first win of the half, Nesbitt replied, "Overall I think we're happy, but we know we can play better."

First place UNB will host the Saint Mary's Huskies Saturday night while StFX will travel to Charlottetown to play UPEI.

Game Notes: Three stars – 1. Thomas Nesbitt 2. Antoine Houde-Caron 3. Bretton Stamler...Geordie Wudrick and Shyane Wiebe each had an assist in their first game for the V-Reds...UNB netminder Travis Fullerton is out of the line-up with a minor injury and Matt Davis was on the bench as backup...StFX was missing defenceman Mark Louis, serving the first game of a three-game suspension for a contact to the head major and match penalty for a hit on SMU's Stephen Johnston back on November 30...UNB captain Kyle Bailey was not dressed as he had to serve an automatic one-game suspension for a contact to the head major on Ottawa's Matt White in an exhibition game on New Year's Eve.

Source: David Kilfoil / UNB Sports Information