2012 University Cup: Thursday Roundup

The players, fans and media survived record-setting temperatures in Fredericton (27C!) that made for increasingly worse ice conditions as the day played out. It didn't help that there were sellout crowds of 3750 for both games, and every time the fans stepped out of the Aitken University Centre at the intermissions they just allowed more hot air into the building.

Michel Belanger produced the CIS game stories on the McGill-UdeM afternoon game and the UNB-UQTR evening game, so I won't bother repeating his excellent coverage.

In summary, Moncton learned a hard lesson about taking strong physical play over the edge to undisciplined penalties, and those two goals on both ends of the 5-on-3 power play by McGill had les Aigles Blues in a hole they never got out of, even with their strong push-back second period. The Redmen capitalized on every Moncton mistake, and two bad giveaways in the second unfortunately ended up behind P.A. Marion and pretty much squashed their comeback attempt.

Patriotes head coach Jacques Laporte said it succinctly, "They're a big machine." UNB rolled over and through UQTR with a strong forecheck right off the hop. Daine Todd proved, again, how much a big-game player he is by sliding into the injured Shayne Wiebe's spot on the right side of V-Reds' top line and coming away with two goals and a assist and UNB player of the game honours. The turning point of the game was probably at 11:15 of the second period when the V-Reds had to kill off a two-minute 5-on-3 situation with UQTR in their zone the whole time. And then as the penalties ended Travis Fullerton made a jaw-dropping save on Pierre-Luc Lessard that earned him a standing ovation from the partisan crowd.

UNBHockeyFans.com has all sorts of game tee-up stuff that you should read today.

Vreds.ca continues to re-post Daily Gleaner stories that are normally behind their paywall:
Nationals turned into learning opportunity by Jamie Ross
V-Reds off on the right foot  by Bruce Hallihan
Bailey richly deserving of all the accolades Bill Hunt's weekly column and a must-read

Darren Zary made the trip from Saskatoon and is filing for PostMedia: V-Reds, Redmen win CIS openers

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