Courtesy The Chronicle Herald

Kyle Bailey’s power-play goal at 13:43 of overtime lifted the UNB Varsity Reds to a 5-4 win over the St. Francis Xavier X-Men to capture the AUS men’s hockey championship at Aitken Centre in Fredericton Friday night.

The win gave the Varsity Reds, hosts of the CIS University Cup opening on Thursday, a 3-2 win in the best-of-five final series.

Bailey finished his evening’s work with a pair of goals, while Hunter Tremblay also added a pair of markers and Marc-Antoine Desnoyers chipped in with a single.\

The X-Men, who forced the decisive game by downing the Reds 6-3 in Antigonish on Wednesday, got goals from Bryce Swan, Kevin Undershute, Phil Mangan and Brett Morrison.

Bailey’s first tally of the contest at 2:26 of the third period put the Reds ahead 3-2 before Mangan tied the count just under three minutes later. Desnoyers gave the Reds a lead once again when he scored at 14:17 but the never-say-die X-Men rallied once more to knot the score 4-4 when Morrison scored at 16:43 to send the game into overtime.

Despite the loss, the X-Men will join the Reds in the CIS tourney as the AUS representative.