UNB wins Pete Kelly Cup

Tommies Captain, Felix-Antoine Poulin

In a rather lopsided victory the UNB Varsity Reds defeated the Tommies 9 to 1 in the annual Pete Kelly Cup.  UNB did not play any of their guys (Desnoyier, MacNeill, Culligan, and Carrol) that participated in World University Games and STU was without standout goaltender Jon Groenheyde.

UNB scored three goals in each period and Randy Cameron (Martin, S. MacDonald) scored the Tommies lone goal at 8:44 of the third period to make it 6 to 1 at the time. Alex St-Arnaud played the full game for St. Thomas.

Game notes:

This was the first exhibition game between STU and UNB in over 3 years. I think the last game was pre-season in 2009 at Willie O'Ree Place.  That was an 8 to 1 thumping.

New recruits Matt Bissonnette, Ian Saab, and Sawyer Hannay were in line up this afternoon.  Michael Beaudry was not.

New Maryland native Mike Thomas does not like STU. The guy is a chirpaholic and spends more time in the penalty box than he does on the ice.  That said, he must have had 3 points in this afternoon's game including a goal and two assists.  No boxscore was available at the time this was written to verify.

Final shots on goal were approximately 35 - 26 for UNB.  At least 4 of UNB's goals were caused by bad turn overs by the Tommies in their own end.  They paid dearly for those transgressions.

UNB goalie Charles Lavigne, who started in goal for the Varsity Reds, picked up his first career win at the Aitken Centre when STU and UNB were opponents.

St. Thomas has developed a very strange trend this year.  Every third game they get beat SOUNDLY!  Game #3 - 7 to 2 vs Acadia.  Game #6 - 10 - 2 vs UPEI.  Game #9 - 9 to 1 vs SMU.  Game #12 - 9 to 2 vs Moncton.  Game #15 - 9 to 1 vs. UNB.  Take those games out and our biggest loss was a 4 to 1 defeat to U de M.  All the other games have been one goal losses or wins.   Are we allowed a few mulligans?….perhaps a few do-overs?

STU will prepare for a big home weekend this coming Friday and Saturday versus first place Acadia and last place Dalhousie.

Tommies fill final roster spot with big D-Man

We announced it back in August but we don't mind doing it again, Sawyer Hannay is a St. Thomas Tommie.  I know STU fans are going to be excited by this news, as Sawyer played one game back in a September for us and everyone was well pleased with what they saw.  

The rugged defenceman had a good AHL training camp with Chicago and was offered a contract to play pro.  It must have been a tough decision but knowing that returning to school in January was still an option, he chose to play the first half of the season professionally.  Hannay certainly wasn't out of place in pro hockey either, scoring 1 goal and adding 3 assists in 22 games for the Evansville Icemen of the ECHL.  On top of the four points he tallied, he was also a +4 and had 54 PIMS.

A bonus to Sawyer returning mid season after playing pro is the fact that he is game ready.  There won't be much of an adjustment time.  His size and defensive abilities are really going to be a big plus for the Tommies playoff run.

Welcome back knuckle head, we missed ya.

Tommies add more scoring punch for second half

Michael Beaudry - Courtesy QMJHL

The St. Thomas Tommies have added forward Michael Beaudry to the line up for the second half of the AUS season.  This is the third recruit that Coach Pat Powers has acquired recently in addition to Matthew Bissonnette and Ian Saab.

The 5'8" Beaudry is from St. Jerome, QC and is a left handed center that will help spark STU's offensive numbers immensely.  Last season he split his playing time between Val-d'Or and Acadie-Bathurst scoring 34 goals and 47 assists for a total of 81 points.  His previous season in 2011-12 he led the Foreurs in points with 70, including 20 goals and 50 helpers.

Look for Michael to have good chemistry with new recruit Matt Bissonnette, as the two of them teamed up in the second half of last season putting up lots of points with Bathurst.  This latest addition should have STU fans excited to have three solid scoring lines now and a legitimate top line that will have opposing teams looking at the Tommies a little bit differently than the first 14 games.

With all the recent additions Coach Powers will have a few more options at his disposal for STU's up coming playoff push.

Round 3!

The STU Tommies Men's hockey team are facing the UNB Squirrels in their annual after Christmas Pete Kelly Challenge at the Squirrels Nest (Aitken Centre) on December 29th at 4pm. 

This is a great opportunity to see the Tommies in a rare Sunday afternoon exhibition game during the holiday season, also a chance to cheer the Green and Gold on to victory again as the last game was a 3-2 win for STU. 

Merry Christmas from everyone here at STUTommies.com and have a Happy New Year!! Go Tommies!!

Canada earns GOLD at FISU games

(TRENTINO, Italy) – Team captain Chris Culligan from the University of New Brunswick had two goals and an assist as Canada dominated Kazakhstan 6-2 to capture its fourth Winter Universiade men's hockey title, Saturday afternoon at the Gianmario Scola Arena in Canazei, Italy.

The team of all-stars from the Atlantic University Sport conference, which edged defending two-time champion Russia 2-1 in Friday's semifinals, wraps up the biennial tournament with a 5-1 overall mark. The only blemish on its record was a 4-2 round-robin loss to Kazakhstan last Sunday.

Today's final was also a rematch of the 2011 bronze-medal game in Erzurum, Turkey, won 3-1 by Canada.

The Canadian men, who have now claimed 13 medals (4-3-6) in 14 all-time appearances at the event, had previously triumphed at the FISU Games in 1981 in Jaca, Spain (University of Alberta Golden Bears), 1991 in Sapporo, Japan (senior national team) and 2007 in Turin, Italy (AUS all-stars).

"It's an unbelievable feeling. What can you say?," said Team Canada head coach Gardiner MacDougall from UNB, who was an assistant coach with the 2007 gold medal-winning squad. "We had a slogan BIW and the guys figured it out as we went on our journey – be the best in the world. How often do you become the best in the world in anything you do? In this case, this is a Canadian passion, hockey. The guys should be very, very proud.

"AUS coaches should be very proud of their players that represented our conference, CIS and the country. To add to that, it's a special time of year, it's Christmas. December is synonymous in Canada for international hockey and hopefully we can set the trend for the world juniors and the Olympics because we have 28 proud Canadians here in Italy that's for sure."

Culligan, a forward from Howie Center, N.S., scored five minutes into the second period to give Canada a commanding 4-1 lead and sealed the victory early in the final frame with his third of the competition.

"Like I said yesterday, the last two games we've been coming along really well as a group, the chemistry's been great both off and on the ice. We came out and made it simple for ourselves, took advantage of our chances probably as good as we have had all tournament. For us to do that in this tournament is pretty special.

"It's great to be a world champion. It's one of those things where everyone has to come together in such a short time, one of those things you can't really explain. It's a feeling you get, it's something you'll never forget and to do it with these guys and to be the person that represents them as their captain is such an honour. I'm really, really trilled right now!"

Tyler Carroll of Strathroy, Ont., who had a goal and a helper in Friday's semifinal win, set up his UNB teammate on Culligan's first of the contest.

"It's amazing what we've accomplished in these two weeks, it really is. We all come from different schools, from rival schools, but we all came together and made it happen. We will be rivals again next month but this two-week journey has been quite something, now we are world champions. It's a feeling you can't really describe, I'm just happy to have been a part of it."

The gold-medal final was a stark contrast to Friday's defensive battle against Russia.

Kazakhstan stunned Canada with a goal only 14 seconds in but the AUS standouts responded with three markers in a span of three minutes and 37 seconds to take a 3-1 lead after only 7:16 of play.

The Canadians all but put the game away with two more unanswered goals in the second period and added one more early in the third before their rivals found the back of the net again.

Taking advantage of its opponent's lack of discipline, the Red & White connected twice on 11 power-play opportunities, both times with two men up, and finished with a 54-21 advantage in shots on goal, including a 26-10 margin in the first, 18-5 in the second and 10-6 in the third.

Unfortunately, things got out of hands in the final stanza and when it was all said and done, eight players had received game misconducts, including three Canadians. Kazakhstan's head coach and his assistant were also sent back to the locker room early.

The ice was barely dry when Yevgeniy Rymarev sent a pass from the right corner to Alexandr Shin, who opened the scoring with his first of two on the afternoon.

Mike Cazzola, an Acadia University forward from Guelph, Ont., put Canada on the board at 3:39, sliding the puck between Andrey Yankov's pads at the end of a breakaway.

StFX's Josh Day, a defenceman from St. John's, sent a rebound past Yankov at 5:25 to give the Canucks their first lead of the game and UPEI rearguard Matthew Maione of Unionville, Ont., made it 3-1 at 7:16 when his long-range shot was deflected to the back of the net.

Culligan made it a three-goal affair 5:24 into the middle frame on a one-timer off a perfect feed from Carroll. Seven minutes later, during a 5-on-3, it was the captain's turn to set up one of his UNB teammates as he assisted on Nick MacNeil's tournament-leading seventh at 12:03.

Culligan scored Canada's second 5-on-3 goal of the day 8:32 into the third, and Shin rounded out the scoring for Kazakhstan with a power play marker at 12:27.

Saint Mary's netminder Anthony Peters of Blyth, Ont., turned aside 19 pucks for his fourth win in as many starts at the competition. Yankov was spectacular in a losing cause with 48 saves.

GAME NOTES: Rymarev (7-7-14), Shin (4-9-13) and MacNeil of Creignish, N.S. (7-3-10) finished 1-2-3 in tournament scoring... Moncton forward Éric Faille (5-5-10) also tallied 10 points during the six-game event... In three appearances at the tournament, AUS all-stars have now claimed to gold (2013, 2007) and one silver (2001)... The Canadian men's triumph came 24 hours after Canada's 5-0 win over Russia in the women's hockey gold-medal final... The entire red and white women's hockey team, led by head coach Howie Draper from the University of Alberta, was among the many Canadian in the crowd for the men's final.

Team Canada website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/universiade/winter/2013/indexTrentino 2013 website: http://www.universiadetrentino.org/en  

TEAM CANADA RESULTS

Dec. 10: Canada 12, Japan 1
Dec. 13: Canada 11, Ukraine 0
Dec. 15: Kazakhstan 4, Canada 2
Dec. 18: Canada 6, Slovakia 0 (quarter-final)
Dec. 20: Canada 2, Russia 1 (semifinal)
Dec. 21: Canada 6, Kazakhstan 2 (final) 

SCORING SUMMARY (official boxscore: BOXSCORE)

Canada 6, Kazakhstan 2

FIRST PERIOD

SCORING:

1. KAZ Alexandr Shin (3) (Yevgeniy Rymarev), 0:14
2. CAN Mike Cazzola (3) (Michael D'Orazio), 3:39
3. CAN Josh Day (2) (Lucas Bloodoff), 5:25
4. CAN Matthew Maione (1) (Cory Tanaka), 7:16   

PENALTIES:

Viktor Ivashin (KAZ) hooking, 8:58;
Alexandr Lipin (KAZ) interference, 9:44;
Chris Desousa (CAN) interference, 12:32;
Matthew Maione (CAN) boarding, 14:17. 

SECOND PERIOD

SCORING:

5. CAN Chris Culligan (2) (Tyler Carroll, Éric Faille), 5:24
6. CAN Nick MacNeil (7) (Chris Culligan, Christopher Owens), 12:03 PP2 

PENALTIES:

Alexandr Kaznacheyev (KAZ) tripping, 2:16;
Alexandr Kaznacheyev (KAZ) checking to the head, 5-minute major, 7:28;
Alexandr Kaznacheyev (KAZ) game misconduct, 7:28;
Tyler Carroll (CAN) cross-checking, 7:28;
Mike Cazzola (CAN) hooking, 8:06;
Alexey Vorontsov (KAZ) spearing, 5-minute major, 10:54;
Alexey Vorontsov (KAZ) game misconduct, 10:54;
Alexandr Lipin (KAZ) charging, 15:46;
Konstantin Savenkov (KAZ) hooking, 18:11;
Alexandr Shin (KAZ) 10-minute misconduct, 18:11. 

THIRD PERIOD

SCORING:

7. CAN Chris Culligan (3) (Marc-Antoine Desnoyers, Josh Day), 8:32 PP2
8. KAZ Alexandr Shin (4) (Rodion Zharkikh, Yevgeniy Rymarev), 12:27 PP  

PENALTIES:

Artem Ignatenko (KAZ) slashing, 3:58;
Konstantin Savenkov (KAZ) boarding, 5:41;
Leonid Metalnikov (KAZ) delay of game, 7:49;
Konstantin Savenkov (KAZ) slashing, 8:16;
Michael D'Orazio (CAN) holding, 11:16;
Cory Tanaka (CAN) charging, 12:27;
Rob Slaney (CAN) hooking, 14:23;
Chris Desousa (CAN) roughing, 5-minute major, 14:23;
Chris Desousa (CAN) game misconduct, 14:23;
Georgiy Petrov (KAZ) roughing, 5-minute major, 14:23;
Georgiy Petrov (KAZ) game misconduct, 14:23;
Rodion Zharkikh (KAZ) roughing, 5-minute major, 18:05;
Rodion Zharkikh (KAZ) game misconduct, 18:05;
Nick MacNeil (CAN) roughing, 5-minute major, 18:05;
Nick MacNeil (CAN) game misconduct, 18:05;
Marc-Antoine Desnoyers (CAN) boarding, 19:11;
Marc-Antoine Desnoyers (CAN) roughing, 5-minute major, 19:11;
Marc-Antoine Desnoyers (CAN) game misconduct, 19:11;
Damir Ramazanov (KAZ) roughing, 5-minute major, 19:11;
Damir Ramazanov (KAZ) game misconduct, 19:11;
Andrey Yankov (KAZ) delay of game, 19:11. 

GOALS (by period)

CAN: 3-2-1: 6
KAZ: 1-0-1: 2 

SHOTS ON GOAL (by period)

CAN: 26-18-10: 54
KAZ: 10-5-6: 21 

POWER PLAY:

CAN: 2-11
KAZ: 1-6 

GOALTENDERS

CAN – Anthony Peters (W, 4-0, 21 shots, 19 saves, 2 GA, 60:00)
KAZ – Andrey Yankov (L, 4-1, 54 shots, 48 saves, 6 GA, 60:00) 

REFEREES: Lars Johan Hall (SWE), Marian Rohatsch (GER)

LINESMEN: Gustav Jonsson (SWE), Frederic Monnaie (BEL)

ATTENDANCE: 2,600

Source: CIS Communications

Remembering former Tommie Fred Savoy

We said farewell to our beloved Fred on December 13, 2013 at the QE2 Hospital in Halifax. Born in 1947, Fred grew up in Dalhousie, NB.

He excelled in sports and after high school went to Ontario to play Junior hockey. When he returned to New Brunswick he was a proud member of St. Thomas University's Varsity Men's Hockey Team where he finished as captain. Fred's passion for hockey continued all the way through to Old Timers Hockey and as an active coach with both the Woodstock Minor Hockey Association and the Woodstock High School Team.

Fred also had a well-accomplished baseball career. He is on the Dalhousie Sports Wall of Fame (member of the Dalhousie Dodgers Provincial Championship team) and led the Restigouche Baseball League in hitting averages on several occasions. Fred went on to play in the NB Senior Baseball league in Marysville and Woodstock, winning the provincial championships with Marysville in 1973.

Photo Credit:
E. Fitzsimmons

Fred graduated from St. Thomas in 1972 (BA) and 73 (BEd) and went on to work for 30 years in various roles in the education system, mainly in the Woodstock and Oromocto school districts. He ended his career as principal of Sudbury West School in Fredericton Junction.

Fred was a proud Canadian. He loved golfing, reading, cooking meals for Linda, and watching sports, always cheering for the Maple Leafs and the Dodgers. Most important to Fred was his family. His smile was never as beautiful nor his eyes so bright as when he was with them.

Fred will be deeply missed by his wife Linda, his beautiful daughters Sarah (Mansoor Amir) and Martha (Jason Archambault), grandson Daaniyal Amir, mother-in-law Elsie McCarthy, siblings: Judy, Lynn, Bonnie (Emerson), Joe (Jocelyn), as well as many nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Fred will be greatly missed by his many friends and his in-laws, to whom he was like a brother: Jan (Don), Cheryl (John), Dinah (Mike), Pat (Lucie), Tim (Gwen), Keith (Mary), Paul (Terri).

He was predeceased by parents Cele and Walter.

The Celebration of Life Mass will be held at the Holy Family Church, Hanwell, on Tuesday, December 17th at 2pm with reception to follow.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Brendon Oreto Foundation or the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

We will be ever grateful to the amazing staff at the QE2 and we encourage everyone to be organ and blood donors. The importance of these gifts of life cannot be overstated.

WUG Special: Team Canada Information

Jon Groenheyde in his Team Canada Jersey

We are very excited here at stutommies.com for the 26th World Universiade Hockey Tournament  to begin tomorrow, Decemeber 10th in Trentino, Italy.  We are equally excited to see our Tommies representative Jon Groenheyde represent Canada and St. Thomas University in international competition.

Here are some important links and information that we want to share with Team Canada, AUS, and Jon Groenheyde fans.

Team Canada will begin play tomorrow afternoon December 10th against Japan. The following list shows games at local Atlantic time and Pacific time in brackets.  TIME ZONE CONVERTOR

TUESDAY DEC. 10    - TEAM CANADA vs. JAPAN 3PM ATL (11AM PST)
FRIDAY DEC. 13        - TEAM CANADA vs. UKRAINE 3PM ATL (11 AM PST)
SUNDAY DEC. 15      - TEAM CANADA vs. KAZAKHSTAN 3PM ATL (11 AM PST)

NONE OF THE GAMES IN THE REGULATION ROUND INVOLVING TEAM CANADA WILL BE  WEBCAST.  Streaming Schedule (Excel format)

There will be daily highlights and they will be available at this website…BOOKMARK IT.

http://www.livefisu.tv/

The medal round for hockey begins next Wednesday, December 18th.  Game times have not been determined.  All of the medal round games WILL BE WEBCAST.  Same link as above http://www.livefisu.tv/

WEDNESDAY DEC. 18 - QUARTER FINALS TBD
FRIDAY DEC. 20    - SEMIFINALS TBD
SATURDAY DEC. 21 - BRONZE MEDAL GAME 5:30AM ATL (1:30 AM PST)
SATURDAY DEC. 21 - GOLD MEDAL FINAL 10:00 AM ATL (6:00 AM PST)

We will update the medal round game times as soon as they become available.

Here are some more valuable links.

Comprehensive WUG link with stats, schedules, game rosters, stats, etc..

WUG Hockey Website
CIS Hockey page with Team Canada Roster and information
WUG Hockey Rules, Regulations, Schedules, information (PDF format)

Twitter links to follow.

Us - @STUTommies
Jon Groenheyde - @JonnyG3141
FISU - @FISUnetwork
WU Game Trentino - @WUTrentino2013 
Official CIS - @CIS_SIC
CIS Hockey - @CIS_Hockey

GOOD LUCK to all participants, BEST OF LUCK to Jon Groenheyde and his Team Canada mates. GO CANADA GO!!!!!!

IN JONNY WE TRUST!

Mounties slip past Tommies

The Mount Alison Mounties weathered a first period storm and a third period blitz to hold on for a 2 to 1 victory over the Tommies.

STU dominated the first period but couldn't beat Kate O'Brien in the MTA net and had to settle for out shooting them 11 to 3.

The Mounties were a different team when they came out in the second period.  They scored first at 16:59  and out shot STU 11 to 8.  The Tommies would tie it up with a 1:21 to play when Emily Francis gathered up an Erin MacIsaac rebound for her fifth goal of the season.

The first part of the third period saw MTA control the majority of the play and they would take the lead for good at 3:52 when Lindsay James slid the puck past a sprawling Kristin Wolfe.  The Tommies pressed hard in the final 10 minutes but could not find the equalizer - coming close several times - to tying the game.  STU was perfect on the PK killing all four MTA attempts but they failed to score on five powerplays of their own.

St. Thomas heads into the Christmas break in third spot despite the loss.  STU rookie goaltender Makayla Campbell has left the team and will not be returning.  Currently former STU forward and current Video Coach Carly Critch has been called to active service as back-up goaltender.  We'll see what transpires over the holidays on the goaltending front.