As a defender for the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds last season, Todd skated with the team in a preseason exhibition game against the Portland Pirates at the Portland Ice Arena.

One year and on national championship later, Todd is one of those aspiring professionals. Wednesday, he got the chance to dole out some hits against his former mates as UNB again skated against the Pirates in a preseason contest.

“It’s a little different, being on this side now, trying to make the team rather than knowing I’m already on it,” Todd said.

The Pirates took control in the third period of the game and rolled to a 4-0 victory.

“The great thing about UNB, they come in here, they work really hard, they’re structured,” Portland coach Ray Edwards said. “It’s a good test, and you have to be on your game or you’ll get beat.”

Todd was one of six defensemen dressed for the Portland group as it played its first real game action of the team’s training camp, just two days after the first on-ice session. He was one of a handful looking to make an impression with the Portland — and Phoenix Coyotes’ — hockey operations staff.

“We’ve got some free agent kids we wanted to look at,” Edwards said. “It’s important to me to get some of the guys who didn’t play games (at Coyotes camp) into the lineup … just to get them some game time. It gives us a chance, also, to see the young guys we’ve brought in as free agents to see them in a game situation.”

Todd was the only player in his unique situation of playing against his former team, though many of the players for both teams know each other quite well, having been either adversaries or teammates in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. No fewer than 18 of the players scattered across the rosters had at least a stop in the QMJHL, including three — Mathieu Brisebois of Portland and Cameron Critchlow and Antoine Houde-Caron of the Varsity Reds — who played for the Lewiston Maineiacs.

For Todd, setting aside his personal feeling and the camaraderie he built with his UNB teammates a year ago was tough, but imperative.

“On this side of things, it’s a tryout,” Todd said. “You want to give it your all; you want to show all you can do. Even though I know a lot of those guys, and I’m pretty friendly with them, it’s kind of a business mentality out there for the game today. I’m pretty sure it’s that way for all of the guys here.”

Todd and several other young want-to-be Pirates made strong first-game impressions on Edwards and the team’s staff.

“I was impressed with some of the young guys who are fighting for a job,” Edwards said. “I really liked (Philippe) Halley today, obviously (Josh) Currie had a goal and an assist. The big kid, (Keven) Veilleux is interesting. There’s obviously some work there, but he has talent. Those kids are interesting. You can never have too much depth in the organization.”

Neither team connected in a back-and-forth first frame in which Portland was more physical, but during which UNB managed a few chances.

The Pirates’ biggest disconnect early was an expected communication lapse or two on defense and between skaters and goalie Louis Domingue, most of whom had never played together before Wednesday.

Halley, who notched 78 points a year ago with the Victoriaville Tigres of the QMJHL, put the Pirates on the board at 7:37 of the first with a wrist shot over UNB keeper Charles Lavigne’s glove-hand shoulder. The assist went to former Chicoutimi Sagueneens skater Karill Tulupov, who played last season in the Russian Kontinental Hockey League. Both players are tryout invites.

Kyle Hagel, a veteran camp invite, added the Pirates’ second goal with 11:46 to play in the game. More noted for his pugilistic skills in recent stints with Hamilton and Rockford of the AHL, Hagel pounced on a rebound at the right post on an Ian Schultz shot.

Brenden Walker, who played last season with the Memorial Cup host Saskatoon Blades of the WHL, made it 3-0 for the home team with a nifty backhand move on a breakaway from the blue line, and Currie capped the scoring with a goal at 18:50 of the third period.

“I thought the first was good,” UNB head coach Gardiner MacDougall said. “I don’t know if we controlled the play, but we just didn’t have the belief that we could initiate on the offense. In the second, we kind of hung in there and in the last five we got going a little better, but we have to be better in the third.”

UNB won the CIS championship last season, the Canadian national collegiate championship. For Todd to have a chance to move on to professional hockey, MacDougall said, gives his players some added motivation.

“Some of our players, it’s their goal to finish university hockey and, similar to Daine Todd here, go to the American Hockey League and see what they’ve got,” MacDougall said.

“For Gardiner, that’s one of the selling points,” Edwards added. “His guys are playing against a guy they played with last year. That’s a pretty good recruiting tool.”

As for the Pirates, the roster is getting pretty deep as Phoenix continues to make cuts at the NHL level. Edwards said there are now 31 players assigned to Portland, with the possibility of more on the way. That means some players might find themselves victims of a number crunch sooner than expected.

“We don’t have to be down to anything yet, but from a standpoint of being efficient, we need to get to one group,” Edwards said. “You can’t really practice 31 in one group. We’ll have to make some decisions over the next day or two. We’ll talk about it (Wednesday) night, and we’ll probably be shrinking the group (Thursday) morning.”

Portland continues its preseason game schedule Saturday with a home game at the MHG Ice Centre at the OA Sports Center in Saco against Manchester. That game, and Sunday’s road trip to New Hampshire are the team’s only two remaining preseason games.

“We only have two exhibition games, so we’ll start to piece our group together,” Edwards said. “And we don’t play opening weekend, so there’s a lot of emphasis on those two games, just to try to get a sense of who might be good to play together, some line combinations, see how our structure looks.”