Acadia falls 4-3 to St. FX

Chris Owens Makes his Axemen Return in Loss

The CIS #3 ranked Acadia Axemen suffered their first loss of the young AUS regular season tonight, as they fell 4-3 to the St. FX X-Men. Previous to tonight, the X-Men had been winless on the season, with an 0-3 record, however they came out of the gates hungry tonight.

Just 50 seconds into the first period, Robert Slaney gave X the early lead, putting the puck behind Axemen goalie Brandon Glover. Before the Axemen could right the ship, the X-Men added another, less than a minute later as Cole Grbavac put X up 2-0. Acadia was able to cut the lead to one at 5:55 on a 5 on 3 powerplay goal from Daniel Poliziani; assists went to Sam Fioretti and Travis Gibbons. That would be all for the scoring in the first period. X went to the dressing room with a slim 7-6 shot on goal margin after one period of play.

Acadia tied things up at 05:26, while shorthanded in the second period, as newly added Axemen Chris Owens scored on a tremendous individual effort to knot things up at 2. But the X-Men answered right back on the same penalty, the X-Men were able to  convert as Jarrad Struthers scored at 06:05. With the Axemen back in penalty trouble just 2 minutes later, St. FX made Acadia pay again, as Cole Grbavac got his second goal of the night, this one on the powerplay, to make it a 4-2 score. That score held for the rest of the 2nd period. After 2 period, X outshot Acadia 25-16.

Acadia carried much of the third period play, and were rewarded with a goal just 1:47 into the period as Zach Franko was able to score, with Boston Leier picking up the assist, to make it a 4-3 score. But that was all Acadia could put by X-Men goalie Drew Owsley. The final shots on goal for the game were  were Acadia with 24 and St. FX with 32. Brandon Glover took the loss for Acadia in goal.

The X-Men were able to keep the high scoring line of Heelis, Cazzola, and Thompson off the score sheet; a big reason they were able to come out with the victory. Acadia was 1 for 4 on the powerplay, while the X-Men were 2 for 7. With the win, St. FX improves to 1-3 on the season, while Acadia falls to 3-1.

The Axemen now return home for a tough weekend of home games, with CIS #2 ranked UNB in town on Friday, and #8 ranked Moncton visit Wolfville on Saturday.

As mentioned Chris Owens returned to Acadia University today to persue his education, and will play this season, his fifth and final year of CIS hockey eligibility. Owens’ veteran presence will be a huge factor on a somewhat young and inexperienced CIS backend for Acadia.