Willms Scores REDS Winner

(CHARLOTTETOWN, PE) Jason Willms' (Kitchener, ON) goal late in the second period was all the scoring the UNB REDS needed in Saturday night's 1-0 Atlantic University Sport men's hockey victory over the UPEI Panthers.

At 18:06 of the second, Brady Gilmour (Grafton, ON) took a loose puck from the neutral zone and dropped it for Austen Keating (Guelph, ON), who found Willms barrelling down the slot, where he wired a wrist shot by Panthers' rookie netminder Joe Ranger (Carp, PE).

After Friday's scoring barrage against the Moncton Aigles Bleus in which they scored eight times, the REDS proved Saturday they can win in different ways.

They held the Panthers to just 17 shots behind a strong defensive effort, and they captured their second straight shutout, with goalie Griffen Outhouse (Williams Lake, BC) earning the clean sheet.

UPEI had the best early scoring chance a little over three minutes in when Kurtis Henry (Garden River First Nation, ON) found Kaleb Pearson (St. Mary's, ON) leaking behind the defence for the breakaway, but his backhand attempt was denied by Outhouse, who made an athletic kick save.

Both teams flexed their defensive muscle in the first 20 minutes, as the period yielded just 10 shots overall.

UNB started putting pressure on the Panthers six minutes into the second period and almost scored on a clear shot attempt, but rookie defender Cameron Morton (Kingston, ON) sacrificed his body to make a block.

But the defending U SPORTS champions would finally break through on Willms' game-winning goal at 18:06.

Ranger gave his team a chance in the third and kept it a one-score game, but the UPEI offence couldn't solve Outhouse. Ranger finished with 31 saves in his Atlantic University Sport debut.

The Panthers will face another tough test in the Saint Mary's Huskies on Wednesday night.

The REDS return home to host the Dalhousie Tigers on Friday.

RECAP BY: Thomas Becker/UPEI Athletics

PHOTOS BY: Janessa Vanden Broek/for UPEI Athletics