Axemen take 1-0 series lead with 6-3 win over SMU

Axemen Solve Peters In Penalty Filled Affair

You don’t go far in the playoffs without good goaltending.

Good goaltending doesn’t begin to describe what Saint Mary’s Huskies goaltender Anthony Peters has given his team.  In two rounds thus far, Peters has put the Huskies on his back and led them to the AUS Conference Final.  His most impressive feat was almost single-handedly eliminating the top team in the AUS, the UNB Varsity Reds in four games.  Going into Game 1 of the AUS Finals against the Acadia Axemen, Peters sported a 1.67 goals-against-average and an almost inhuman 0.950 save percentage.  The Huskies were considered by many to be a major threat.

Someone forgot to tell the Axemen.  They took Game 1 with a 6-3 victory, a game in which Peters turned in a subpar performance and was outplayed by his Acadia counterpart, Evan Mosher.  Peters managed 17 saves on only 23 shots, while Mosher cae up huge when it counted, recording 25 saves on 28 shots.

Acadia struck first on a power play in the first period, Cullen Morin’s shot finding the back of the Huskies’ goal on a shot from the point.  Less than three minutes later, however, the Huskies scored on a power play of their own, with Lucas Bloodoff beating Mosher.  It was the beginning of a steady stream of penalties, as the two teams racked up 46 minutes in penalties between the two of them.  Earlier in the period, Acadia killed off a five on three advantage in fine style, and the hits just kept on coming after that.

In the second, Acadia broke the game wide open on goals by AUS Conference MVP Liam Heelis, Taylor Makin, and Colin Archer.  The score read 4-1 and the Axemen had only managed 16 shots on Peters, who looked uncomfortable the whole night.

Saint Mary’s came out flying in the third, pounding Mosher with 15 shots and beating him twice on power play goals by Michael D’Orazio and Bloodoff’s second of the night.  But that was all they could manage, as Acadia scored twice on their own power plays, with Christopher Owens scoring both goals to cap off the scoring.  In a period where they had only managed six shots, they scored on two.

In addition to his goals, Owens added an assist to match Heelis with a three point night.  Heelis also added two assists to his goal.  Morin, Makin, and Archer all scored their first playoff goals for Acadia.

Watch the video recap of the game here:

Game 2 goes tonight in Wolfville.  Acadia has a chance to take a stranglehold on the series with another win tonight, and bring them that much closer to Saskatoon and the CIS National championship.  If you can’t make the game, you can follow all the action at www.austv.ca, follow Len Hawley’s expert play by play on AVR (97.7 FM), and receive live tweets from @axemenhockey and @OpeningFaceoff.  Game time is 7:00pm.

Game recap by Justin Halbersma of openingfaceoff.net