Acadia edges St. Thomas 3-2
Axemen stretch win streak to 9 games
The Acadia Axemen (15-2-1) stretched their win streak to nine games, by narrowly defeating the St. Thomas Tommies (1-16-1) 3-2 on Friday night in Fredericton. Just a week after the Axemen routed the Tommies 7-2 in Wolfville, the home team was certain to not roll over in this game, as they put forth a spirited effort that came down to the very last second of the game to decide the final outcome.
The Axemen started 2nd year netminder Robert Steeves in goal, his fourth start on the season, and his first since the holiday break; Steeves getting the start turned out to be a good decision as he turned away 33 of 35 shots from STU. Meanwhile the home team went with Tyson Teichmann, who put in a strong effort, stopping 26 of 29 Axemen shots, but most importantly he made a few key saves on the night that kept his team within striking distance.
The Axemen opened the scoring 2:20 of the opening period, when 2nd year forward Boston Leier ripped home his 10th goal on the season, with assists from Sam Fioretti and Geoff Schemitsch. But St. Thomas would answer on the powerplay, when JC Campagna blasted a one timer by Steeves to tie the game at one. Andrew Fritsch and Brendan Childerley had the helpers on the equalizer.
The Axemen took the lead back early in the 2nd period, when Chance Braid scored his second goal in just his third AUS game. The goal was a powerplay marker at 2:59, with assists from Mike Cazzola and Brett Thompson.
The game remained 2-1 until 8:16 of the third period, when the Axemen got some breathing room as Geoff Schemitsch found a loose puck on the powerplay and beat Teichmann to make it 3-1 Acadia; Zachery Franko and Boston Leier picked up the assists on the goal.
But St. Thomas just wouldn’t go away; with the net empty and an extra attacker on the ice, Matt MacLeod was able to put one past Steeves to close the gap to 1 with just 1:26 remaining in the third period. Spencer MacDonald and JC Campagna had the assists. The Tommies would continue to press and actually hit the post with less than a second remaining, but the Axemen held on for the 3-2 victory.
Acadia was 2 for 4 on the powerplay on the night, while STU went 1 for 7. The Axemen were without the services of Remy Giftopoulos who served his 3rd of a 4 game suspension, along with 1st year defenseman Liam Maaskant who is day to day with an injury.
Acadia moves on to Moncton today to play the Aigles Bleus, however the gametime has been moved from a 7pm start to a 4pm start due to impending bad weather.