X-Men drop 6-2 decision to Reds

(FREDERICTON, NB) The UNB REDS scored goals on the first two shots of the game on route to a 6-2 win over the STFX X-Men, Friday night at UNB's Aitken Centre.

Left alone in the slot, Cody Morgan (Gilford, ON) fired a wrist shot, the first shot of the game, past X-Men goalie Joseph Raaymakers (Chatham, ON) just 75 seconds in.

Kale McCallum scored on a point shot, the second shot of the game, at 2:22 as the REDS built an early 2-0 lead.

The X-Men rallied on goals by Liam Hawel (Arnprior, ON) and Matthew Struthers (Milton, ON) less than three minutes apart before Sean McGurn (Ottawa, ON) restored UNB's lead with less than two and a half minutes to play in the opening period.

The REDS took a 3-2 lead into the first intermission.

"I thought it was a big goal for us to score, Gurnsey with a big effort there to put us back up by one," said REDS' head coach Gardiner MacDougall. "Then, in the second period, we had our territorial advantage, which we like to play with."

"Second period in this rink is a long change and they're good when they have teams in their own zone," said Struthers. "They're a good second period team."

UNB added to their lead early in the second.

Camaryn Baber (Sault Ste. Marie, ON) won a faceoff directly to Michael Petizian (Mississauga, ON) who fired a quick shot past Raaymakers to put the home team up 4-2.

Petizian, named Tim Horton's Player of the Game, scored again mid-way through the third period, and Cole MacKay (Sault Ste. Marie, ON) scored UNB's sixth goal with less than three minutes left on the clock.

"We've got good opponents every night here," said Coach MacDougall. "You've got to be ready to go and ready to get better and we had a chance to do both tonight."

Along with his goal, McGurn had two assists. Emmett Sproule (Collingwood, ON) registered two assists as well.

With the win, the REDS improve to a U SPORTS-best 19-0-0-0 (W-L-OTL-SOL) while the X-Men fall to 10-8-1-0.

"It's a tough game coming back," said Struthers. "That's a good team, obviously, and in their own rink, and maybe it's indicative of the fact that they had an exhibition game and we didn't."

Samuel Richard (Ste. Catherine, QC) stopped 23 of 25 X shots for the win in goal.

Raaymakers gave up six goals on 49 UNB shots.

The REDS continue to lead the Atlantic University Sport standings while STFX sits fourth.

UNB is back in action on Saturday afternoon, playing host to the Dalhousie Tigers in a 4:00pm start. The X-Men visit Moncton. Game time is 7:00pm.

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Recap courtesy Andy Campbell, UNB Athletics