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Saturday, October 4th at 8pm Atlantic Standard Time

The Acadia Axemen are traveling south of the border this weekend to take on a pair of NCAA Division 1 opponents in exhibition hockey play.

In the first match on Saturday at 8pm Atlantic Standard Time, the Axemen face-off against the Quinnipiac Bobcats at the High Point Solutions Arena at the TD Bank Sports Center in Hamden, Connecticut.

The Quinnipiac University men’s ice hockey team are ranked 15th in the first United States College Hockey Division I Men’s Poll of the 2014-15 season, as announced on Sept. 29, 2014, after finishing the season at #9 last year. The Bobcats were picked to finish fifth in the 2014-15 ECAC Division in Hockey Preseason Polls by the league’s coaches and third by the league’s media. In addition, the coaches chose senior co-captain Matthew Peca (Petawawa, Ontario) as an All-ECAC Hockey Preseason selection while sophomore Sam Anas (Potomac, Maryland) was chosen by the media for the all-league team.

Acadia Coach Darren Burns had this to say about Saturday’s opponent, “We are very excited to play Quinnipiac, as we know they are a very strong team. We will have to be prepared to be at our best defensively, as they are an explosive team, which is well coached.”

The Bobcats are coming off another success­ful season in 2013-14, in which they finished the year with a 24-10-6 record, good enough for third in the ECAC. The Bobcats advanced to their second-consecutive NCAA Tournament for only the third time in the school’s history. Scoring came up and down the lineup for the Bobcats, as eight skaters accumulated more than twenty points on the season. Fresh­man Sam Anas lead the team in goals (22) and points (43) on his way to capturing the Tim Taylor Award, which recognizes the NCAA Division I National Rookie of the Year.

Meanwhile, the Acadia Axemen are following up a season that saw them finish second in the AUS division in the regular season with a 21-4-3 record, trailing only the UNB Varsity Reds. The Axemen turned their regular season success into playoff glory as they captured the Atlantic University Sport championship, and a birth in the CIS National Championship tournament. Acadia comes into the weekend ranked 5th in the initial CIS National Rankings of 2014-15 for hockey.

Acadia is led by reigning Canadian Interuniversity Sport Hockey MVP Liam Heelis, who finished the regular season tied in points with teammate and linemate Mike Cazzola on top of the AUS with 42 points in 26 games. Heelis was awarded the scoring championship as he finished with a league leading 24 goals on the campaign. Rounding out the top line is Brett Thompson who added 33 points in 27 games a season ago. The Axemen will take some tight to adjust and gel as a team as they have added eight freshman faces to the lineup this season, including Boston Leier, Zach Franko, and Matt Pufahl.

You can view the game online by clicking here or entering the following url in your internet browser: http://quinnipiacbobcats.com/sports/mice/2014-15/MIH_vs_Acadia

(Quinnipiac Information source http://www.quinnipiacbobcats.com)