Thursday, October 4, 2012



Last night we made the trip down to Portland, Maine. We have a pretty cool weekend coming up here. Today we play the Portland Pirates who are an American Hockey League and affiliate to the Phoenix Coyotes. On the weekend we play two NCAA teams. The first match on Saturday against Boston College, then on Sunday against the University of Maine before we make the trip back to Freddy for Thanksgiving!

These will be three big tests for us as all these teams play at a high level. They will all be perfect building blocks for us as we kick start the regular season next Friday against our campus rivals STU.

It should be a pretty fun few days down here in the USA. I’ll get back to you guys after the weekend for some stories and highlights, and of course our first “Beauty of the Week” will be named.

PS: Bryce Swan wants everyone to know he's a self proclaimed "huge beauty"....  we'll have to see about....

UNB @ Portland 4/10/12
UNB @ BC 6/10/12
UNB @ U of Maine 7/10/1


Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Fresh Meat



Hey guys! I’ll be blogging again for the UNB Varsity Reds Men’s Hockey Team. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Geordie Wudrick. I wear #18 for the V Reds and this is my second year on the squad, some of you may or may not know me as @DoubleCornDogs on twitter. Feel free to leave comments if you wish, or get at me on twitter if there is anything specific that you guys want to hear about.

This year is a big year for the boys. A year for redemption. A year for righting wrongs. A year for washing that sour feeling out of our mouths from they way last season ended. At UNB we pride ourselves on our winning tradition, and we plan to continue to protect that legacy, and build upon it as well, by writing our own story.

After graduating many players and losing some of our best players from the previous years to professional hockey all around the world, we needed to have a great off season and come back better and ready to fill the holes of those who had moved on. It was great to come back to camp and see some new faces around the room. We added some great new players to the mix. We added rookies Cam Braes, Cam Crithlow and Adrian Robertson. We also added two fifth year players who transferred to UNB this year as well: Colby Pridham and Bryce Swan. We also have Mike Thomas who is red shirting with the squad for a season after a year in pro hockey, before he is eligible to play for the VReds.

Cam Braes comes from out west. He grew up in Shawnigan Lake, BC, a city just outside of Victoria on Vancouver Island. He played five years in the WHL, four and a half of them with the Lethbridge Hurricanes and then finished the last part of his WHL career with the Moose Jaw Warriors. He finished off his last season with 41 goals and is looking like he is going to be a big weapon up front playing with Chris Culligan and Tyler Carroll. Braiser loves a good movie quote and an old school Markus Naslund wrist shot, and for any Harry Potter fans this guy bears a striking resemblance to Ron Weasley. You can find Cam rippin around the ice donning #10.

Cam Crithlow #23, comes to UNB after playing fives season in the QMJHL with Acadia, Lewiston and the Halifax Mooseheads where he served as team captain. Critch is somewhat of a local guy, who spent time in Freddy playing minor hockey as a kid and is now from Moncton. This guys also a friend of the show, and by that I mean he’s on a personal basis with TSN beauties Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole. Critch also scored 4 goals in one playoff game once.. pretty impressive.

Adrian Robertson, a Toronto native, comes to UNB after finishing off his OHL career with the Sarnia Sting. He also spent time with Peterborough and Windsor where he served as Captain. This big D-Man has a big shot from the point. A-Rob is looking like he might be a wizard in the classroom. It looks like he’s putting #24 to good use following Bretton Stamler who was a 4 time Academic All Canadian. This guy isn't going to chat your ear off, but you'll definitely come out the the conversation really liking this guy.

In addition to our three new rookies, we were able to add two great players from the AUS who were fifth year transfers, in Colby Pridham and Bryce Swan. Prids comes to us from St Mary’s University while Swanny joins us from St Francis Xavier. Both these guys bring a lot of leadership and a lot of skill up front for us. They’ll be looked upon to be a huge part of our team this year. These guys come to UNB looking to obtain their MBA’s and to win a National Championship. You can’t argue with that! You used to have to cheer against these guys but for one year you better embrace these guys with open arms!

Mike Thomas, a local legend around Fredericton, unfortunately has to sit out this year, aka known as red shirting a season, as he played pro hockey in the AHL and ECHL last season. Thommer played 5 years in the QMJHL all for the Saint John Sea Dogs. He highlighted that time in the Q by winning the Memorial Cup as team captain in 2011. He’ll be keeping his skills fresh playing up in Newfoundland during the year while working on his kinesiology degree here at UNB. We look forward to having him playing next season.

I have to say that this is one of the best groups of guys I have ever played with. A group of guys who is as close on the ice as they are off the ice. It’s always a good time to be with the boys and I look forward to our journey to winning a CIS National Championship in Saskatoon in March.

It’s going to be a long and eventful ride to Nationals and I look forward to giving you guys an inside eye and ear on everything the V-Reds are up to!