Couture with 39 saves in net for the Axemen

(FREDERICTON, NB) Cole MacKay (Sault Ste. Marie, ON) scored twice, including the game-winner, as the UNB REDS beat the Acadia Axemen 5-3 in Atlantic University Sport men’s hockey action, Friday night, at UNB’s Aitken Centre. 

The game was played before a sellout Aitken Centre crowd of 3374. 

MacKay’s first goal, just 3:13 into the opening period, unleashed UNB’s 8th annual Teddy Bear Toss, and more than 2200 stuffed animals flew from the Aitken Centre stands onto the ice. 

A ten-minute delay ensued as the stuffed animals were removed. 

The Salvation Army will distribute them to children and families in need during the holiday season. 

UNB’s first lead lasted a bit more than three minutes. 

Cam Whynot (Kentville, NS) tied the game 1-1 at 6:23 and the teams went to the first intermission even. 

Macauley Carson (Midhurst, ON) restored UNB’s lead less then three minutes into the second period, but the Axemen battled back on a goal by Cam MacDonald (Hammonds Plains, NS) a short time later. 

Tied 2-2 through 40 minutes, the REDS erupted with two power-play goals in 1:41 span of the third, including MacKay’s game-winner, and added an empty-net goal in the final minute. 

Cody Morgan (Gilford, ON) finished the night with three assists for the REDS while Benjamin Corbeil (Granby, QC) had a pair. 

Despite allowing four goals, Thomas Couture (Levis, QC) was a difference-maker for the Axemen. He stopped 39 of the 43 shots he faced and did so under constant pressure. 

Samuel Richard made 11 saves on 14 shots to earn the win for the REDS. 

Not only did the REDS win their Teddy Bear Toss Game, they won on Gardiner MacDougall Appreciation Night too. 

The long-time REDS head coach, who led UNB to nine national championships,  was honoured in a pre-game ceremony, and a banner citing his accomplishments was raised to the Aitken Centre rafters. 

UNB is now 15-1-1-0 (W-L-OTL-SOL) atop the AUS standings. The Axemen fall to 8-7-0-1 and sit fifth. 

The REDS skate back into action on Saturday afternoon when they host the Saint Mary’s Huskies in a 4:00pm start. 

Acadia visits Moncton on Saturday night. Game time is 7:00pm. 

RECAP BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics 

PHOTOS BY: James West/for UNB Athletics 

Axemen fire 69 shots on net in OT shootout loss

The Dalhousie Tigers beat the Acadia Axemen 3-2 in a shootout at the Halifax Forum on Saturday night. 

The Axemen started the game on the front foot and the pressure never faltered. The Axemen dominated the puck and took a whopping sixty-nine shots. The Tigers struggled to mount any offence with sixteen shots but scored two late third-period goals to bring the game to overtime. 

The Axemen came out the gate quickly with twenty-seven first-period shots. After constant pressure, with 11:45 left in the period, Adam MacMaster (Beamsville, ON) gave the Axemen an early 1-0 lead with a whipping snapshot setup with a slick feed from Corson Hopwo (Duncan, BC). Tiger’s goalie, Nicholas Chenard (Tecumseh, ON) kept the game close by saving twenty-seven shots in the first frame. 

After the break, the Axemen continued their offensive pressure. Initially, the period was end-to-end, but a Tigers penalty would dissipate all their momentum. With 11:11 remaining in the period, while on a powerplay, Axemen forward, Peyton Hoyt (Lincoln, NB) would double the lead to 2-0. Two minutes later, the Tigers would commit another costly penalty. The Tigers committed three penalties in the second period. The Axemen finished the second in full control, but Chenard made twenty-two saves in the period (forty-nine up to that point) to keep the Tiger’s hope alive. 

The final frame continued in the Axemen’s favour with them comfortably protecting their lead. Suddenly, the Tigers sparked a comeback. With 3:36 left, Tigers rookie defenseman, Zach Welsh (Halifax, NS) would fire the puck top left and beat the Acadia netminder to cut the lead to 2-1.  

Inspired, the Tigers kept the pressure going, and then, with 2:00 minutes remaining, Jack Harper (Guelph, ON) found the equalizer and miraculously tied the game at 2-2. 

The game would go into overtime, where both teams would go back and forth. Chenard was a man-possessed in overtime, willing the Tigers to a shootout. 

The Tigers would complete the comeback and win the shootout 3-1. 

In a breakout performance, Nicholas Chenard made sixty-seven saves with a 97.1% save percentage to earn himself the player of the game. 

The Tigers will look to go back-to-back wins next Wednesday when they travel to Antigonish to face the X-Men. The Acadia Axemen return against the first-seeded UNB Reds this Friday at 7:00 pm AST. 

Written by Sam Goldstein 

Acadia downs StFX 3-2 in overtime

ANTIGONISH, NS - The Acadia Axemen needed overtime and a goal from second year defender Tyler Deline (Peterborough, ON) to earn a hard fought 3-2 win over the STFX X-Men on Friday night at the Charles V Keating Centre in Antigonish. Deline made a nifty move after getting the puck from Cole Nagy and buried the game winner top shelf just over a minute into the extra period. 

Acadia opened the scoring five minutes into the first period, with Ethan Ernst (Weyburn, SK) snagging the puck near the home team blueline, skating in on a two-on-one, and firing one low to the short side. Assists went to Marc Boudreau (Toronto, ON) and Luke Zazula (Langley, BC). Things were rough and tumble at times, with plenty of big hits and both teams enjoying multiple powerplays. The visitors held a 17-10 advantage in shots after 20 minutes.     

Alex Christopoulos (Richmond Hill, ON) tied the game up with his ninth goal of the season four minutes into the second period, picking up a pass from Zack Trott (Mulmur, ON) in the slot and sending it to the back of the net.  

Jacob Maillet (Dundas, ON) gave the X-Men the lead seven minutes later, shoveling home his own rebound after getting a pass from first star of the game Ethan Burroughs (Georgetown, ON). The lead didn’t last long though, as Bailey Peach (Falmouth, NS) wristed one in from the point on the powerplay two-minutes later, making the score 2-2. Charlie Deroches (Days Corner, PE) and Cam Whynot (Kentville, NS) had the helpers. 

It was a tense, back and forth third period with officials waving off what appeared to be a STFX goal due to a kicking motion with five minutes gone. Both teams pressed to take a lead, but strong play from STFX goalie and second star Lucas Pfeil (Owen Sound, ON) and Acadia netminder and third star Thomas Couture (Levis, QC) kept the game even through 60 minutes, setting the table for Deline’s decided goal.   

The X-Men return to action tomorrow night, when they take on the Saint Mary’s Huskies in Halifax at 7 p.m. The Axemen also hit the ice tomorrow night, when they face-off with the Dalhousie Tigers in Halifax, also at 7 p.m.   

-30- 

Recap courtesy Matt Draper, STFX Athletics 

Burns, Nagy, Kidney, & Hoyt tally for Axemen

By UPEI’s Reegan MacAulay 

The UPEI Panthers (5-9-0-0) still have yet to solve their problems against the Acadia University Axemen (7-6-0-0), who claimed their third win against UPEI this season in a close 4-2 match at the MacLauchlan Arena on Saturday night. 

Despite keeping things tight throughout the game and attempting a comeback rally in the third period, the Panthers couldn’t catch any puck luck in what could’ve been a “third time’s the charm” result had things gone their way. 

Brady Burns opened the scoring only a minute and three seconds into the first period; after a Liam Kidney shot was denied by Panthers goaltender Joe Ranger, the puck bounced back to Kidney, who fed a backhand pass to Burns in front of the net, and he buried a rebound goal into an open net to make it 1-0 Acadia. 

The rest of the first period went scoreless albeit both teams getting opportunities on the man advantage. Early in the second period, UPEI finally got on the board with a wonky game-tying goal at the 5:45 mark. Cole Larkin fired a shot toward Axemen goaltender Thomas Couture from the red line, and the puck took a weird bounce and landed on the stick of Patrick LeBlanc, who rushed to the net and fired a knuckle puck far-side rebound over Couture’s glove for his fourth goal of the season. 

Each team continued to exchange penalties for about the next 10 minutes, with one being fatal for UPEI; after a Cole Nagy shot was blocked by Keiran Gallant, the puck bounced to Charlie DesRoches in the high slot, who fired a low shot on Ranger and was denied, which was then rebounded into the net along the post by Nagy to give Acadia a 2-1 lead at the 17:07 mark. 

The first half of the third period saw the Panthers do a solid job consistently staying in the Axemen zone and firing everything they had at Couture. Unfortunately, nearing the halfway mark, the momentum was broken by a Derek Pys turnover in the neutral zone, which sent Kidney and Adam McMaster on a 2-on-1 rush toward Ranger, and Kidney sniped a far-side shot past Ranger’s blocker to give his team a 3-1 lead at the 9:11 mark. 

A few minutes later, UPEI found some luck with two Axemen penalties within 1:21 of each other, and the first power play gave the Panthers hope; Ben McFarlane rushed up the center of the ice, fed a pass to Kaleb Pearson at the blue line on the right-wing side, and Pearson fired the puck to the low slot which deflected off McFarlane’s stick and over Couture’s glove for McFarlane’s 10th goal of the season at the 12:50 mark, extending his goal streak to four games (five goals within that stretch). 

Sadly, that’s all the Panthers had left in the tank for the rest of the game. Their late rally was cut short by a scrum at the 18:03 mark after a big hit by Pearson on Burns in an Axemen zone corner, and, later, an empty-net goal by Peyton Hoyt. 

Couture denied 24 of 26 shots for his sixth win of the season, improving his record to 6-5-0, while Ranger stopped 14 of 17 shots, dropping his record to 1-6-0. Brett Bressette was named the Panthers Player of the Game. 

The Panthers look to end their two-game losing streak at home next Wednesday, Nov. 20, but it will come with a tough match against the league-leading UNB Reds. The Axemen remain on the road for the rest of the month, with their next trip (second of five consecutive away games) being to St. FX on Friday, Nov. 22.