Acadia down SMU 4-1 in season opener

4 different Axemen tally to lead the way

It was a game of firsts for many of the Axemen tonight. In their first home game of the regular season, Acadia started first year netminder Devin Williams in goal, and he achieved his first win. Brendan Childerley, who transferred from St Thomas after 3 years, suited up in his first regular season game as an Axemen, and was first star of the game,  and many other first year Axemen got a taste of AUS regular season hockey and more than held their own in the team’s first win of the season.

The Axemen got on the board first when Brendan Childerley picked up a bad rebound off the pad of Huskies netminder Cole Cheveldave and deposited it into the back of the net; Geoff Schemitsch and Matthew Pufahl picked up assists on the goal at 11:08. Saint Mary’s responded with under a minute to play in the opening frame when Taylor Burke snuck a puck past Acadia’s rookie netminder Williams, with assists going to Stephen Johnson and Connor McGlynn.

The Axemen didn’t waste any time getting their lead back in the second period however, as Sam Fioretti sprung 5th year forward Brett Thompson in on a breakaway, and the sniper Thompson made no mistake, beating Cheveldave high to the glove hand to make it 2-1 Acadia. The goal came at 1:45 of the period.

Michael Clarke made it a two goal lead for the Axemen at 11:35 when he was able to knock the puck home in a scramble, Nick Betz and Childerley picked up the helpers.

The scoring stayed that way until late in the third period, with the SMU netminder pulled, second year Axemen forward Kyle Farrell notched a goal with just 1 second remaining on the clock to seal a 4-1 victory for the Axemen, sending the hometown fans to the exits of the Andrew H. McCain Arena happy.

We caught up with Coach Burns following the game, “I thought our guys played extremely well, when we didn’t and SMU had good chances, Devin played outstanding. I thought both goalies played great; we had a total team effort.”

Devin Williams looked sharp in goal for Acadia, stopping 25 of 26 shots on the night, while Saint Mary’s netminder Cole Cheveldave was stellar and kept his team within striking distance. He stopped 34 of 38 shots including a number of grade A chances. Neither team was able to score on the powerplay as Acadia went 0 for 4 and Saint Mary’s went 0 for 3.

Axemen freshman Stephen Harper left the game in the second period and did not return, his status for Saturday’s game is unknown. Acadia heads to Antigonish Saturday to take on the St. FX X-Men, who defeated the Dalhousie Tigers on Friday night by a score of 5-0 in Halifax. Catch the game live online on AUStv.ca or listen to Len Hawley’s call of the game on AVR Radio 97.7FM.