The UNB Reds (38-0) complete their undefeated season, beating the UQTR Patriotes 4-0 to be crowned back-to-back U SPORTS gold medalists, winning their fifth championship in the last seven tournaments.
Brady Gilmour, the 2024 U SPORTS Men’s Hockey Championship MVP, opened the scoring for the Reds eight minutes into the game on the breakaway, sliding the puck past the outstretched pad of Patriotes’ netminder Alexis Gravel to give the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) Champions the one-goal lead.
“We wanted to come out and have a great game and an impact on it,” said Gilmour in a postgame interview with The Brock Press. “[Austen Keating] made a great pass; lucky enough it went in.”
Shortly after Gilmour’s go-ahead goal, his line added another after a picture-perfect tic-tac-toe passing play found the back of the net of Cody Morgan’s stick to give the number-one seed the 2-0 advantage after the first period.
In the second, Reds goaltender Samuel Richard came up clutch making a flurry of key saves, including a trifecta of sprawling stops while shorthanded, to preserve the two-goal lead.
Richard, the 2023 U SPORTS Rookie of the Year, stopped all 23 shots he faced in the game, extending UNB’s team shutout streak to 298 minutes – nearly five games long. The Reds have not allowed a goal since game one of the AUS Championship against Moncton, while shutting out all three opponents (Brock, TMU and UQTR) they faced in the tournament.
“We always talk about offence, but defence wins championships,” said head coach and AUS Coach of the Year, Gardiner MacDougall. “If you don’t give up any, you’re going to have a chance to have success every night. This group did it three nights in a row.”
Richard’s dominant second period kept momentum in UNB’s favour, leading to Keating scoring a third Reds goal just under five minutes into the third period, to record his third point of the night – one goal and two assists – to extend UNB’s lead.
“Our whole line was clicking,” said Keating postgame. “Brady Gilmour has had a great year … [Morgan] is built for these moments, last year he scored big goal after big goal and this tournament he’s scored so many big goals. It was just fun to get the win.”
Isaac Nurse sealed the gold medal victory with an empty-net goal, marking UNB’s ninth national championship – 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2023 and 2024 –under the reigns of MacDougall, and 10th overall.
“I don’t think a person would dream this up in their wildest dreams,” said MacDougall. “[We] set new standards not only for our program but for U SPORTS.”
The Reds will look to set their standards even higher next season when they compete for their third consecutive U Cup title and 11th men’s hockey national championship in school history.
For more information on U SPORTS men’s hockey, head to usports.ca.