Axemen route Tommies 10-4
Halloween Provides Some Treats and a (Hat)Trick for Acadia
The Acadia Axemen took to the road on Friday night to face the St. Thomas Tommies in Fredericton, which was also Halloween night. There turned out to be many treats for Acadia and even a (hat)trick, as they went on to route the Tommies by a score of 10-4.
The CIS #2 ranked Axemen (6-1) had a pair of forwards return to the line up to bolster their attack as Boston Leier who missed the last game due to injury was in the lineup, along with freshman Remy Giftopoulos who returned to action after serving a three game suspension.
St Thomas (0-7) opened the scoring in the first period at 5:54 when JC Campagna scored on a nice breakaway deke, a chance created by a shot block from Brendan Childerley at his own blueline, to make it 1-0. The Axemen answered back on the powerplay when Brett Thompson scored his first of three on the night, with assists from Chris Owens and Mike Cazzola.
But before the period ended St. Thomas took the lead at 18:05 when Connor Sanvido scored on a nice pass from Andrew Fritsch, a 2-1 lead that STU took into the second period.
Acadia started rookie goaltender Robert Steeves between the pipes, and he was especially busy in the first period as St. Thomas put 12 shots on net, with Steeves turning aside 10 of those.
The Axemen opened the second period shorthanded, but that didn’t stop Chris Owens from tying the game at 2, with a great solo effort to score an unassisted shorthanded marker. It was his second shortie of the season, in just the 4th game of the season for the Axemen blueliner.
From there, the goals just kept coming for Acadia. Liam Heelis gave the Axemen their first lead of the night at 3:48 from Cazzola and Gibbons. And less than a minute and a half later, Remy Giftopoulos put the Axemen up by 2 where he showed some great moves before putting the puck behind STU’s goalie Luke Lee-Knight.
Boston Leier took a pass from Mike Cazzola and made it 5-2. The Axemen then took advantage of the STU players frustrations, as Stephen Janes was given a 5 minute make and game misconduct for an unwarranted punch to the face of an Axemen player. Alex Beaton made STU pay with a PP goal, from Franko and Poliziani; following the goal STU took another penalty to give the Axemen a 5 on 3 advantage. Brett Thompson took a slick cross ice pass from Chris Owens 20 seconds later to put Acadia up 7-2 to end the 2nd period. A period that saw Acadia outshot STU 17-11.
Acadia continued the scoring barrage in the 3rd period with Liam Heelis scoring from Matt Pufahl, and Brett Thompson recording the hat-trick goal from Liam Heelis on the powerplay. STU’s Colin Martin took advantage of an Acadia turnover to score on a breakaway to finally stop the bleeding, and just 37 seconds later, while on the powerplay Andrew Fritsch added another to cut the lead to 9-4. But the Axemen stopped any hope of a miracle comeback by adding a 10th goal at 15:32 by Travis Randell from Owens and Heelis to round out the night’s scoring. Shots on goal in the third period was 13 for Acadia, 8 for STU, for a 3 period total of 36 for the Axemen and 31 for the Tommies.
Acadia was lethal on the powerplay, going 4 for 5 on the night, while STU converted 1 of 6 chances in the man advantage. Axemen Chris Owens and Liam Heelis each had 4 points on the night, and Brett Thompson recorded the hat-trick.
With the win and Moncton’s loss to Dalhousie on Friday night, Acadia now has sole position of first place in the AUS. Injured Axemen Dylan Anderson and Geoff Schemitsch continue to rehab their injuries and both are now skating with their returns now in sight, which will further bolster the Acadia lineup.
Acadia travels to UPEI to play the Panthers on Saturday night. Catch all the action on austv.ca or listen live to Len Hawley’s call of the game on AVR Radio 97.7FM or online at avrnetwork.com