Axemen come from behind to win 3-2

Acadia ends Aigles Bleus 5 game unbeaten streak

The CIS #3 ranked Acadia Axemen came from behind in the third period on Saturday night to defeat the #8 ranked U de M Aigles Bleus 3-2 at the Andrew H McCain Arena in Wolfville.

It didn’t look good for the Acadia Axemen early in the third period after Moncton scored to put themselves up 2-0. Meanwhile, after peppering Moncton goalie Adrien Lemay with some great chances in the first and second period, it looked like the puck just wasn’t going to find the back of the net for the Axmen on this night.

But just like that, the game took a turn, in favor of the Axemen.

The first period was a back and forth tight checking affair, that saw the Axemen get themselves into penalty trouble against the potent powerplay of the Aigles Bleus. Acadia took four minor penalties in the first period, including late in the period with Joel Ridgeway already in the box, Scott Trask took a slashing penalty to give Moncton a 5 on 3. Moncton made no mistake to open up the scoring as the Saulnier brothers played catch with the puck leading to Allain Saulnier getting the opening goal on a blast from the top of the faceoff circle at 18:19 of the first.

That was all the scoring for the first period, Moncton edged Acadia in first period shots on goal 11-9, with 8 of Moncton’s shots coming on the powerplay.

The second period saw many whistles and very little flow, Acadia did muster 16 shots on net, but Lemay turned them all aside. Brandon Glover faced 10 shots in the second for Acadia, but the Aigles Bleus took their 1-0 lead to the dressing rooms after 2 periods.

The third period opened with a quick goal just 1:04 into the frame as Moncton’s Christopher Guay beat Glover, to make it 2-0, and based on the way Lemay was playing, it did not look good for the Axemen.

But 4 minutes later, rookie Zach Franko gave Acadia life. He converted on a nice passing play from Brett Thompson, and roofed a shot to the top corner to cut the Moncton lead to one goal. Tyler Ferry also picked up an assist on the play.

The Axemen pushed had for the equalizer, with Lemay again coming up with save after save. At 11:11 of the frame, with Acadia on the powerplay, they were finally able to get the tying goal as Matt Pufahl sent a slap pass that Mike Cazzola deflected past Lemay to square the game up at 2. Christopher Owens also picked up an assist on the goal.

Just 26 seconds later, before the goal could even be announced to the fans, the Axemen put another puck in the net, as rookie Sam Fioretti took a pass from Travis Gibbons and drove the net beating Lemay to put the Axemen in the lead 3-2. Franko added an assist on the play, for his second point of the night.

That was all for the scoring, as Acadia was able to hold off a late push from Moncton to hold on for the 3-2 win. The win snapped Moncton’s 5-0 regular season winning streak, and along with Acadia’s win, and UNB’s 2-0 loss to SMU, Acadia moves into a first place tie with the Aigles Bleus on top of the AUS.

Final shots on goal were Acadia 35, Moncton 27. Acadia went 1 for 4 on the powerplay, while Moncton was 1 for 6 with the man advantage.

Acadia’s injury woes continued as they were forced to play without Boston Leier, who suffered an undisclosed injury in Friday night’s game against UNB. He joined Dylan Anderson and Geoff Schemitsch on the sidelines, while Remi Giftopoulos was out of the lineup serving his third and final game of a suspension for an incident against STU last weekend. Taylor Makin returned to the lineup from injury for Acadia to bolster the forward position.

Acadia hits the road next weekend to take on the St Thomas Tommies on Friday night in Fredericton, and then travel to Charlottetown to take on the UPEI Panthers on Saturday night.