Men's Tommies Lose Heartbreaker to UNB

Steve Sanza, with two goals on the night.

The Tommies played in the annual Mark Jeffrey Memorial game at the AUC tonight against cross campus rivals, UNB. The game which celebrates the life of former player and coach for the then UNB Red Devils. The 2100+ fans were treated to a great game which unfortunately ended up with the Squirrels coming out on top.

The Tommies were missing a few regular faces at the puck drop, with D-man Jordan Thomas still out with a lower body injury, Jason Trott was not in tonight's line-up, and Colin Martin came out with the team for warm-ups but was scratched before the game began.

The first period was full of excitement as the Tommies came out and scored two goals off the stick of rookie forward Matt Bissonnette, the first one scored at 1:57 into the game unassisted and the second on a power play at 3:49 assisted by Jonathan Bonneau and Brendan Childerley. UNB did lead the shots on goal though doubling the Tommies, 12-6. STU's goaltender Jonathan Groenheyde kept UNB off the board turning away all 12 shots.

The second period started with a goaltender change, with UNB pulling former Tommie, Charlie Lavigne and replacing him with back-up, Joel Vienneau. Steve Sanza(Yuri Cheremetiev & Alex Leduc) came out and scored less then a minute into the frame making it a 3-0 hockey game, UNB not to be outdone scored shortly after making it a 3-1 game still in favour of the Tommies. UNB would add another on a power play but 0:21 seconds later, Steve Sanza(Sebastien Bernier) added his second goal of the night, 4-2 Tommies at this point. UNB would add another marker though before the end of the period making it a 4-3 game going into the third period. UNB had doubled the Tommies again in the shots on goal category 10-5, for a two period total of 22-11.

The Tommies hung in turning away UNB in the third period until 12:49, when the Squirrels tied the game up, they would then add another a little over three minutes later and an empty net goal with 1:20 left on the game clock. The final score of the game was 6-4 for the Squirrels. UNB lead the shots on goal 16 to STU's, 1. The final shots on goal were 38 to 12. The Tommies did better the Squirrels on the power play though, scoring on 2 of 6 chances, while UNB scored on 2 of 9 chances.

The Tommies are back in action Saturday evening at the GHC and the game time is 7pm. Come on out and cheer on the Green and Gold!

Rookie forward Matt Bissonnette to the right of the picture scoring on former Tommie, Charlie Lavigne. Matt had two goals on the night.