1964 AUAA Championship and First CIAU Appearance

Pre Season

The 1963/64 MIAU season would not have playoffs, but instead the Regular Season Champion would represent the MIAU (later the AUAA) at that years' CIAU Finals in Kingston (only the second year they were held). The league did provide the opportunity for the second place team to 'challenge' the first place team provide the second place team had beaten the first place team at least once. If a tie resulted at the end of the year for the top spot, the head-to-head record would be used as the first tie breaker.

UNB was highly motivated this year having lost the MIAU title to St. FX the previous year in a best of three, which saw St.FX win both games at home.

Regular Season

Each school would only play 11 games due to a short winter season, home-at-home matches between intra-division rivals and a single game against the other division's teams with some being home games vs away (home and away games would be swapped each year). In UNB's case, this made each Nova Scotia game worth 4 points and each NB-PEI game worth 2 for a maximum of 32 points in a season. The Nova Scotia teams were also playing for a maximum of 32 points, 4 points for each NB-PEI game (4x4=16) and 2 points for each Nova Scotia game (8x2=16). NB-PEI teams would only play 11 games versus 12 for the Nova Scotia teams.

A key game that year was UNB's 6-2 victory over the St. Francis Xavier X-men, in Antigonish - their first victory in Antigonish in 17 years.

                            NB-PEI        NS
School   GP  Record Pts    W  L  T    W  L  T    GF  GA
======== ==  ====== === | == == ==   == == == | === ===  
UNB      11  9-2-0   26 |  5  1  0 +  4  1  0 |  70  28
SDU      11  8-3-0   26 |  3  3  0 +  5  0  0 |  59  44
STU      11  7-4-0   22 |  3  3  0 +  4  1  0 |  50  38
StFX     10  7-2-1   19 |  2  2  0 +  5  0  1 |  63  31
Acadia   11  5-6-0   14 |  2  2  0 +  3  4  0 |  53  52
DAL      11  5-6-1   11 |  1  3  0 +  3  3  1 |  49  43
SMU      10  4-6-0   10 |  1  3  0 +  3  3  0 |  35  48
MTA      11  2-8-1    8 |  1  3  0 +  1  5  1 |  24  58
NS Tech  12  1-10-1   4 |  0  3  1 +  1  5  0 |  30 100

Some Nova Scotia games were cancelled due to bad weather, but they would not have changed the outcome.

MIAU Title Winner

UNB had a 9-2-0 record for 26pts (5-1 vs NB-PEI teams and 4-1 vs NS Teams) left UNB in a tie for first with St. Dunstan's University of Charlottetown (SDU). The title was awarded to UNB on the strength of a better head-to-head record 2-0-0, two victories over SDU to the tune of 5-3 at home and 6-3 on the island. UNB also had the better Goals For vs Goals Against average. Both of these facts relegated SDU to second. The second place team could challenge the League Champion to a one game final - provided they had beaten them at least once, but SDU's two losses didn't allow for such a challange. The MIAA President, Dr. A. P. Stewart from UNB and both MIAA Vice-President's, Dr. D. O. Snow of Acadia and Prof. Andrew MacKay of Dalhousie voted unanomously to present UNB with the MIAH Hockey Champions title.

The other team in the mix at the end of the season was St. Thomas University, of Chatham. If they had beaten the SDU Saints in their last game of the season they would have been in second. With a 1-1 record against UNB, they could have challenged UNB to a single game final, but the Saints won the game 8-2 and thus eliminated STU from the picture.

Team Picture - 1963/64

BACK ROW: Pete Kelly (coach), Ted Bedard (asst. coach), Garnet Stairs, Claude McKinnon, Cy Miller, George Oke, Jim Morell, Jack Drover, Ed Grant,
Trev Isherwood, Doug Cain, James Crocker (manager), Ed McLean (asst. manager).
FRONT ROW: Bob Sherry, Bob Vailleres, Dave Peterson, Bob Naylor, Ken Marchant, Darrell Leblanc, Don Ciotti, John Wrigley, Rollie Belliveau.
MISSING: Austin Duquette and Mike Ross
(Photo Credit - UNB HIL Special Collections)

Third Title in 5 years

This title marked the end to UNB's dominance in Hockey in the early Sixties. With 3 titles in 5 years UNB had reestablished themselves as a hockey contender. UNB's first title in 1960, their first since '34, broke a 26 year drought and ended St. FXs string of consecutive titles at nine. They would then win again in '62 and lose in the finals in '63 to St. FX but return again in '64 with their third title. UNB would not win another title until 1984, 20 years later to the weekend. The third title also allowed the team to play in the National Tournament - something that wasn't available in '60 and '62.

All-Star Game

A two game All-Star series was arranged, as a warm-up for the Red Devils, the weekend before leaving for Kingston. The All-Stars were comprised of players from the NB-PEI teams.

Coach Pete Kelly added 5th year UNBer, and former team captain, Richard Clark to the roster before leaving for Kingston. Richard had played the previous 4 years with UNB, but was now ineligible to play in the MIAU and had played the past hockey season (as a UNB student) with the Fredericton Capitals. (other participating conferences in the CIAU allowed 5th year players and as such UNB could add Richard to their roster for the CIAU tournament).

(Front Cover of the Event Booklet - courtesy of Ted Bedard)

CIAU Finals - Queen's University, Kingston - Ontario

Four teams were invited to the 2nd CIAU Intercollegiate playoffs in Kingston: MIAA Champions (UNB), Western Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Association Champions (Alberta), Ottawa-St. Lawrence Intercollegiate Athletic Association Champions (Sir George Williams, now known as Concordia University) and the Ontario-Quebec Athletic Association Champions (University of Montreal). An interesting point is Montreal were not the league champions - the Universoty of Toronto Blues were the league champions, but choose not to attend due to exams. U of T wouldn't win their first of 10 titles until '66.

The tournament was a traditional one game semi followed by a one game final. UNB would meet Alberta and UoM would meet SGW in the semi-final round. The first round losers would meet in a consolation final to determine third and fourth place.

(Photo Credit - UNB HIL Special Collections)

UNB vs Alberta - CIAU Semi-Finals, 3-5 Loss

There was no scoring in the first and the teams traded goals in the second with Alberta scoring first and Jack Drover countering. The third period saw Alberta score two fast goals, one at 1:48 and the other at 3:36. UNB countered at 9:15, but Alberta regained their 2 goal lead 27 second later. UNB cut the lead to one at 12:56 on a goal by Dave Peterson, but Alberta sealed the game with 30 seconds left. UNB was out shot 28-20.

UNB vs U. of Montreal - CIAU Consolation Finals, 8-6 Win

UNB showed determination in game two versus the University of Montreal Carabins, who had lost 5-1 to SGW the night before. Not wanting to loose two games in the row, UNB took the lead twice in the first only have the Carabins tie. The Carabins took the lead with 1 second left in the period to end the period 2-3. UNB Goalie John Wrigley was injured on a shot above the pads in the first period and was replaced by UNB Backup Bob Vallieres.

UNB tied the game in the first minute of the second period and regained the lead at 7:45 on a goal by Darryll Leblanc only to have the Carabins come back and tie the game 5 minutes later. UNB would regain the lead on a goal by Eddie Grant and extend the lead to two on a goal by Bob Naylor. The Carabins would strike one more time before the end of the second leaving the score 6-5 for UNB with one period left.

UNB would extend their lead on goals by Garnet Stairs and Bob Naylor with the Carabins answering with a lone goal with 3 seconds left in the period. UNB out shot the Carabins 38-36.

Tournament All-Stars

Three UNB players were named to the Tournament All-Star team; Jack Drover on Defence, Ed Grant and Darryll Lebanc up front. Ken Marchant was voted to the Second Team.

Jack Drover
B.PE. '65

Ed Grant

Darrell Leblanc
BA '65

Ken Marchant
B.PE. '64

(Photo Credits: Drover - UNB Yearbook, Marchant - UNB Yearbook '65 & UNB HIL Special Collections (Team Picture '64)