Clapperton Returns, Leads V-Reds To Victory

(FREDERICTON, NB) On the night of their second annual teddy bear toss, the UNB Varsity Reds had a whale of a game.

The V-Reds scored six second period goals, on route to an 8-1 win over the visiting UPEI Panthers.

Chris Clapperton(Cap d'Espoir, QC), playing for the first time since October 27^th, led UNB with a pair of goals and assist. He was named the Subway Player of the Game.

"I was ready to play," said Clapperton. "The first one was a great pass by Brace, and I just, it was a one-timer on a good pass, and the breakaway was a good pass by Gaz(Randy Gazzola) and I just put it in."

Clapperton had been sidelined with post-concussion symptoms after being hit in the head during a game against Acadia four weeks ago.

"It's been a long process for me, it just felt great to be back with the boys."

"It's great to have him back," said Varsity Reds defenceman Matt Murphy(Woodstock, NB), who had a goal and an assist in Friday's win. "Obviously he's one of our better players and he helps us offensively a lot, but we had the whole team going tonight. It was nice to see some guys get rewarded."

Peter Trainor(Fredericton, NB), Stephen Anderson(Morell, PE), Dylan Willick(Prince George, BC), Chris Caissy(Campbellton, NB) and Cam Brace(Etobicoke, ON) also had a goal and an assist each.

Tyler Boland(St. John's, NL) had three assists for the Varsity Reds, and Kris Bennett(Brampton, ON) added two helpers.

Marcus Power(St. John's, NL) scored the Panthers' lone goal.

"It's extremely disappointing, you never want to see a score like that," said Panthers' captain Brent Andrews(Hunter River, PE). "I thought our start was really strong. We had a lot of guys that were battling through the pain and through the exhaustion, but you never want to see a score like that."

The Panthers iced just 13 skaters, and lost one to an early injury.

"We're not going to try and make excuses of having a short line-up, we obviously made mistakes, but I'm still proud of the way we worked," said Andrews.

Alex Dubeau(Mascouche, QC) made 26 saves on 27 shots to earn the win in the UNB net.

Connor Wilkinson(Ajax, ON) took UPEI's loss, giving up seven goals on 32 shots.

Matt Mahalak(Monroe, MICH) allowed one goal on 13 shots.

Murphy credits Dubeau for helping UNB through a bit of a slow start.

"We came out a little slow and they had some scoring chances, but Dubs stopped a lot of big pucks and made some nice saves to keep us in it and let us get going. That was great," he said.

With the win, UNB is now 13-0-2.

The Varsity Reds visit Moncton on Saturday. Game time is 7:00pm.

The Panthers fall to 4-11-1. They visit Acadia next Friday.

RECAP AND PHOTOS BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics