UNB Wins CIS University Cup Against St.F.X.

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It’s been a long road to get to the top for the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds after losing to the Alberta Golden Bears in last year’s edition of the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Championship.

Despite the challenges the team has faced over the last number of years, they’ve captured the top prize in Canadian University hockey for the sixth time in the Universities’ history.

6:53 into the first period against the St. Francis Xavier University X-Men of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Christopher Clappert would open the scoring for UNB on a wraparound with assists coming from Jordan Murray and Cam Braes.

 

Despite back-to-back powerplay chances for the Nova Scotia team playing in front of a packed Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, St. F.X. wouldn’t be able to find the back of Etienne Marcoux’s net for the majority of the first period.

It would come late in the first, but eventually St. F.X. would give the predominately X-Men-favouring crowd something to cheer for, as with just 11.6 seconds left on the clock, Zack MacQueen would tip a shot from Nathan Chiarlitti on the point to tie the game at 1-1.

The Varsity Reds would begin the second period with the momentum, and they wouldn’t look back.

At the 9:02 mark, Francis Beauvillier would bang his own rebound to put UNB up 2-1. The assists would come from Randy Gazzola and Philippe Halley.

Just 17 seconds later, Tyler Carroll would make it 3-1 after the Reds crashed the X-Men’s net. Dylan Willick and Matt Boudens would get credit for the assists.

UNB would continue to dominate the game, only allowing six shots in the third period.

St. F.X. would pull goalie Drew Owsley for the extra attacker with two minutes left in the game, but the Reds would continue to play well defensively and denied the X-Men any scoring opportunities in what was a rather tense last few minutes of the game. UNB would moments later raise the University Cup, which became their second CIS championship in four years.

The Varsity Reds have had a winning formula ever since 2007, when they took the Canadian University circuit by storm, winning five of their six University Cups in the years since.

A History Between The Two Schools

This isn’t the first time the two clubs have met in the championship game either.

The first came in the 2004 CIS Championship with the X-Men beat UNB 3-2 on the Reds’ home ice in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

If that wasn’t good enough, the head coach of the Reds, Gardiner MacDougall is actually a graduate of St.F.X.

This win is MacDougall’s fifth CIS Championship, just one win shy of the all-time record for the most championship wins by a head coach, which is currently held by  Clare Drake, who won six CIS Championships with the University of Alberta.

Halifax Representing University Sport Well

A total of 43,513 fans attended at least one of the eight games of the CIS Championship, which is a CIS record. The previous record was set by Saskatoon that saw 41,089 fans take in a game.

The host St. Mary’s Huskies won the Bronze Medal.

The tournament will now head out to New Brunswick where none other than the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds will be the host team, and now defending champions.