By Daniel Simpkin
The University of New Brunswick Reds men's hockey team beat the Dalhousie Tigers 4-1 at the Forum in Halifax, Nova Scotia on Friday October 29th.
Twelve minutes into the first period, Reds Nicolas Guay (Chataguay, QC) scored the first goal of the game off of an assist from Tyler Boland (St John's, NL).
Building off the momentum, it took James Phelan (Laval, QC) three minutes to pick up UNB's second goal after a squabble for the puck in Dalhousie's end of the rink.
The Reds managed to stifle the Dalhousie offense for the rest of the first period and closed it out with an early 2-0 lead.
The second period was a hard-fought defensive battle that included multiple highlight saves from Reds Goaltender Griffen Outhouse (Williams Lake, BC) and Dalhousie Goaltender Reilly Pickard (Halifax, NS). The aggression was high on both ends of the ice and multiple players were sent off for brief slashing penalties. However, neither team was able to capitalize on the man-advantage during penalty minutes.
The scoring output from the Reds would continue as Austen Keating (Guelph, ON) notched a third team goal with an assist from Tyler Boland (St John's, NL) eighteen minutes into the otherwise gridlocked second period.
Despite numerous counterattacks from the Tigers, the Reds maintained their strong defensive structure and extended their lead to 3-0 by the end of the second period.
To open the third period, Tigers Liam Peyton (Halifax, NS) and Jameson Murray (Kelowna, BC) immediately laid some big hits to ignite morale as their team searched for the first goal of the game. In response, Reds Isaac Nurse (Hamilton, ON) answered back with a hit of his own sending a Tigers defender straight into the boards.
With four minutes left in the third period, Shaun Miller (Enfield, NS) answered the home crowds' prayers and ended the Tigers scoring drought by scoring his team's first goal of the game.
Dalhousie quickly elected to pull their goaltender and hedge their bets on a quick comeback. However, with one second left on the clock Reds Connor Hall (Kitchener, ON) scored a fourth team goal on the empty Tigers net.
The final score was 4-1 Reds.
Reds Nicolas Guay (Chataguay, QC) was awarded Subway Player of the Game honours.
Up next, the Tigers face off against la Université de Moncton and the Reds are matched up against StFX. Both teams are set to play on Saturday October 30th.