No. 5-ranked Huskies post 5-3 home win over No. 2-ranked V-Reds

(HALIFAX, N.S.) – In a battle of the Atlantic conference's top two teams, the CIS No. 5-ranked Saint Mary's Huskies received gutty performances from Ryan Hillier and Jeff Marchand to earn a 5-3 win over the first place and No. 2-ranked UNB Varsity Reds.

In one of the most exciting games of the year, the Huskies jumped out to a 1-0 lead at 10:53 of the first period when Chris MacKinnon (Richmond Hill, Ont.) snapped a shot into the top corner past UNB's Daniel LaCosta.

Then, with less than three minutes to play in the first, Hillier (Halifax, N.S.) and Marchand (Hammonds Plains, N.S.) combined for one of the nicest SMU goals of the season.  The Huskies had a two-on-one opportunity with Hiller coming into the UNB zone at full speed. He skated wide to the right and snapped  a hard pass across the ice to Marchand, where the third-year player tipped the puck into the net before crashing into the UNB goal.

Marchand found the back of the net again, scoring his second of the game and season, to make it 3-0 just 2:42 into the second period.

"When guys like Jeff score, it affects the whole team," said Saint Mary's head coach Trevor Stienburg. "The guys love Marchand…they love the kid, so to have him be successful and working hard and getting those goals, makes everyone on the bench think this is a special night".

UNB was much better in the second period scoring a pair of power-play goals to narrow the gap to 3-2.

Leading the way for UNB was former SMU star Colby Pridham, who scored the V-Reds' first goal after pouncing on a rebound in front of the Saint Mary's net at the 5:30 mark of the second. Tyler Carroll added his team-leading 14th of the season three minutes later to make it a one-goal game.

With under seven minutes remaining in the game, Hillier would make it 4-2 with his eighth of the season  at the 13:44 mark.

The V-Reds didn't give up, and with 1:57 left in the contest , UNB was awarded a penalty shot and Pridham scored five-hole on Anthony Peters (Blyth, Ont.) to once again make it a one-goal game.

With Lacosta on the bench in favour of an extra attacker, Chris MacKinnon added an empty net goal to clinch the 5-3 win for the home squad.

Peters stopped 27 shots in the victory for his league-leading 13th win of the season, while Lacosta suffered his first loss of the year to drop to 10-1-0.

Saint Mary's, now 14-5-1, moves to within one point of UNB (15-5-0) in the first place battle in the AUS.

Afterwards Coach Stienburg said he was pleasantly surprised with his team's effort. "The guys stepped up. We had some key players out of the line-up and some of the guys that usually just chop wood carried it tonight".

Saint Mary's will be back in action at the Forum this Wednesday when they are the guests of the Dalhousie Tigers, while the Varsity Reds will host the St. Thomas Tommies in the annual Mark Jeffrey Memorial game at the Aitken Centre in Fredericton, N.B.

Game notes: UNB was 2-for-6 on the power-play while Saint Mary's was 2-for-5…AUS leading scorer Lucas Bloodoff picked up an assist in the game to extend his point scoring streak to nine games…Pridham has scored five of his 11 goals this season against his former team…The V-Reds and Huskies can each clinch playoff berths with wins over cross-town rivals St. Thomas and Dalhousie on Wednesday night.

Source: Saint Mary's Sports Information
Photo courtesy of Nick Pearce