2 BIG Wins

It was a huge weekend for the boys with two wins at home against Acadia on friday and Dalhousie on saturday. After a tough weekend the week before, we needed a big weekend to regain our spot as "Canada's Number One Team" a quote made famous by Benny Shutron himself.

Friday night the Aitken Centre welcomed the Acadia Axemen, the number one team in the AUS at the time. In a large 7-1 win for the V-Reds, led by a few huge performances by Chris Culligan (4 assists), Kyle Bailey (2 goals) and Mr. Nasty himself Thomas Nesbitt (1 goal 2 assists), the boys were able to reclaim first spot in the AUS. It was great to see Fully (Travis Fullerton) back in the pipes after missing the last few games due to injury, he looked phenomenal as always.

2750 fans battled some nasty weather conditions to be apart of the Pink in the Rink event to support and raise money for breast cancer, as part of the "Think Pink" weekend at UNB. After a big win it was nice to see Harty get that flow buzzed off at centre ice. Props to him for letting those ladies shave off a years worth of growth for a great cause.

Chris Culligan looking Pretty in Pink with 4 assists.

Saturday saw the Dalhousie Tigers roll into Freddy as one of the hottest teams since Christmas. As apposed to Friday, it took the boys a few extra minutes to get the 3-2 win. At 3:09 in the extra frame, Tyler Carroll buried his second goal of the game in a crazy rebound shot from below the goal line off the tigers goalie and in. The line of Culligan, Carroll and Wiebe led the way with all 3 goals with Wiebes opening the scoring for the V-Reds at 4:50 of the first period.

It was an electric building on saturday night with over 1000 kids watching the game as it was the "Northside Elementary School Night". It was great to have all the kids there with their posters and high pitched screaming! For a select group of kids it was an extra special night for them as they were able to come spend some time with the guys in our locker room and get some autographs and pictures as well.

Beauty of the Week: Trading in his famous black for pink was Jon Harty and his work with the Think Pink weekend in support of breast cancer, making him my beauty of the week.

Countdown to Nationals: 50 days

Think Pink

Pink in the Rink

Its "Think Pink" weekend here at UNB and tomorrow night at the Aitken Centre is the "Pink in the Rink" event, in support of breast cancer. Come watch us take on the Acadia Axemen and donate money to have the chance to shave #40 Jon Harty's luscious blonde locks.

Not only is this a great cause... but who wouldn't want to see this head shaved!!!

So come and fill the rink in all your pink gear and help raise some money!!

Heres some more information on the event:

http://varsityreds.ca/news/2012/1/25/GEN_0125123834.aspx

Week in Review

This week we had three games on the schedule with the rare Wednesday night game thrown our way.

As a western boy in his first time out east in the Maritimes, its exciting to see some new cities and check out some new barns (rinks), but on Wednesday’s it wasn’t a new city, it was my first taste of our big cross campus rivals with STU, in the Battle of the Hill. I must say it’s the shortest road trip I’ve ever had, to play an away game. Just a couple minute jaunt down the hill and boom you’re already at the old Lady Beaverbrook Rink. I was in shock, to say the least, when I saw that the end wall of the rink was… well a wall, full of ads to the top of where the glass normally would be. That was a treat for the eyes for sure.

It was a great game by the boys sending home 5 goals for the 5-1 win over our rivals. Bretton Stamler and our captain Kyle Bailey each with a pair of veteran goals to lead the way. Stams would have had the hat trick if he could get some mustard on that muffin. A few pretty sick goals out there to top things off. Shayne Wiebe with some outside speed and a nifty pass cross crease to Stamler for his first of the game, and then we had Bailey and Chris Culligan working the give and go for a hot tally to finish the game off. Great effort by the boys then we headed out for a little post game treat at one of our awesome sponsors, Boston Pizza.

On Friday we were on the buss out to Moncton where we had a tough 5-1 loss, and had a couple tough injuries to top things off. Bails and Jonathan Harty connected for our goal, which was another shorthanded goal for the boys. Harty might not be the prettiest looking guy on the ice, but he sure gets the job done and a lot more, get me fired up when I see him mixing it up out there and throwing the body around. Not sure what he was doing around their net on the penalty kill but we’ll take it.

Saturday nights game at the AUC was quite possibly one of the most bizzare games I’ve ever been a part of. Just a tough start to the game, we found the boys down 6-1 and looking like it was a lost cause from there, but I love the resilience, passion, and “hardcore” mentality in our room. With some outstanding performances and displays of heart we clawed our way back to tie things up at 7 goals a piece. In the midst of this huge comeback, it was great to the #44 Stefan Salituro out there. For a guy who hasn’t got to play much this year he stepped up in a big way, with his first goal and it was a beauty, a quick release in the slot, no chance for the tender there. Dion Campbell also had a beauty of a goal, turning the jets on to roast the dman wide and walking in for a nice breakaway goal. It was a big game for Dion in many reasons as he got to have the Special Olympics floor hockey team that he works with come out for a ceremonial puck drop before the game and come and hangout with us in the dressing room after the game. It was a pretty neat experience getting to meet those athletes and it brought a smile to our faces in the room. Good luck to those guys and girls when they head out west to Alberta looking for a gold medal in February. We ended up losing the game 8-7 in the final minutes of the game, but there were some huge things taken from the game and some things that will help us down the road as we host Nationals in march.

Beauty of the Week: The beauty of the week has to go to Dion Campbell for his work with the Special Olympics floor hockey team, and setting up the pretty awesome experience for them at our game and to come hang out with us in the dressing room. He also kinda looks like Tom Cruise, who you may have heard of, making Dion my beauty of the week.

CIS Nationals Countdown: 58 Days

Let Me Introduce Myself

Hey guys. My name is Geordie Wudrick, one of the newest member of the V-Reds Men’s Hockey Team. I’ll try to give and inside look on how the team’s doing on a weekly basis on our journey to the 2012 CIS National Championships. I’m going try and give a fun look on how things are going, give some game recaps of the week and try to let people meet some of the players from an inside perspective. I’ll try to keep things fairly loose and might have some common slang and nicknames thrown around, and I wont be scared to toss out some Twitter mentions along the way.

I grew up out west in a bunch of cities around Vancouver, but spent most of my time in a city called Abbotsford, and played most of my minor hockey there growing up. I’m definitely a city boy, growing up in Vancouver and am a big Canucks fan. Definitely a new experience for this guy being this far out east, and so far its been pretty good getting to see a new part of Canada and having a team full of beauties from all over the country.

I just recently joined the team at Christmas time after I left the team I was playing for in Germany, the Rosenheim Starbulls. Just a short three month stint at pro hockey over there before I decided the school route was best for me. I’ll hopefully try and continue playing pro hockey somewhere after I win a few championship rings and get my degree here at UNB. I’m a first year business student and just getting back into the swing of school since graduating four years ago. Before I was playing overseas, I played 5 years in the Western Hockey League. I finished my last two years with Kelowna Rockets after I started off with three years in small town Saskatchewan playing for the Swift Current Broncos, where I played with my buddy Bretton Stamler for part of a season before he came out here.

I’m a big social media guy, so follow me on Twitter @DoubleCornDogs. Would love to hear some feedback about the blog and would love to hear what guys you would like to be profiled each week.

Good luck to all the other teams and athletes who are playing this week!

Welcome to the UNB Varsity Reds Hockey Blog ... bloggin to begin soon.