The Climb to the Top Begins Again Tonight for the Axemen
Regular Season Opener: Dal Tigers Host the Acadia Axemen
It’s go time for the Acadia Axemen! Having been chomping at the bit to get back on the ice after their appearance at the CIS championships last March; the Axemen now begin the long journey to get back to the University Cup tournament, and gain a shot at redemption. Game 1 of the journey is the 2014-15 regular season opener for both the Acadia Axemen and Dalhousie Tigers, on Saturday at 7pm at the Halifax Forum.
Dal starts the season with 11 new faces, including former Moosehead Memorial Cup winner Brendan Duke.They will look to compete for a playoff position after finishing 8th in the AUS last season with a 3-24-1 record.
Tigers head coach Chris Donnelly believes that his team can make some noise this season, saying, “We are returning a strong core of character players and looking around the league, a lot of teams have lost some core players, so this could be a good year for us to move up in the standings.”
Team leader in points from a year ago, (17 points) Fabian Walsh and Pierre-Alexandre Vandall will be heavily relied upon for scoring for Dalhousie. While third year netminder Wendell Vye will more than likely see action for Dal in goal.
The Axemen will look to match their AUS championship season of a year ago, which included a second place 21-4-3 record in the regular season.
Acadia returns the big 3 up front, co-league leaders in points last year Mike Cazzola and CIS MVP Liam Heelis (each with 42 points), as well as 3rd year forward Brett Thompson (33 points). The Axemen secondary scoring will be bolstered by the additions of freshmen forwards Boston Leier, Zach Franko, and Remy Giftopolous, to go along with returning Axemen Michael Clarke, Dylan Anderson, and Alex Beaton. After having 3 key defenseman graduate after last season, and a fourth, Colin Archer was accepted into Medical School, the Axemen have a fresh faced backend with Matt Pufahl, Daniel Poliziani, and Steve Woodworth being added.
Coach Darren Burns knows the key for his team is its work ethic, “We have a lot of new faces in our lineup and last season is last year. This is going to be a very tight league this year. We hope to focus on being a good skating team who moves the puck well and we want to make sure “working hard” is the primary staple of our team”.
For those who cannot make the game on Saturday, it will be webcast live on austv.ca and as always, Len Hawley will have the call of the game on AVR Radio or online at avrnetwork.com.
The Axemen will be home next weekend for a pair of games including their home opener on Friday night against the UPEI Panthers and Saturday against the St. Thomas Tommies.