Axemen route Huskies 8-3
Fioretti, Farrell, & Harper each with a pair
It took the Axemen over 26 minutes to get on the board on Friday night, but once they did, they just kept coming. Acadia went on to tally 8 goals enroute to a 8-3 victory over the Saint Mary’s Huskies in Wolfville.
The opening period was a slow moving 20 minutes with many whistles, very little game flow, and just 13 total shots on goal; including the first shot of the game for either team coming after 7 minutes of play. Acadia first year netminder Devin Williams and SMU goalie Cole Cheveldave kept the game scoreless through the opening period.
The second period was a different story. The Huskies opened the scoring on the powerplay, just 44 seconds into the middle frame, when Bronson Beaton was able to beat Axemen netminder Williams. However, at 6:21 the Axemen answered back while shorthanded, as Sam Fioretti chipped a puck passed a pinching SMU defender, leading to a 2 on 1, where he found Kyle Farrell alone at the side of the SMU net, to square the game at 1. Just over 3 minutes later, Axemen freshman Stephen Harper scored his first of two on the night, and under two minutes later, 5th year forward Brett Thompson got on the board, showing great patience holding onto the puck before beating Cheveldave, to make it 3-1 Acadia.
With the Huskies still reeling, Harper added his second of the night at 15:36 of the period, and Sam Fioretti rounded out the period scoring at 19:06, to cap off 5 unanswered Acadia goals in the second period leading to a 5-1 Axemen lead after 2.
With the large lead it appeared Acadia took their foot off the gas peddle momentarily as Saint Mary’s cut the lead to 2 when Hunter Garlent and Stephen Shipley each scored to make it 5-3 with under 9 minutes to play in the third. That seemed to wake the Axemen back up as Boston Leier scored on a beautiful solo effort, as he broke in on a breakaway with SMU defenceman Alex Cord draped all over him and being taken down to the ice, Leier still managed to roof the puck over Cheveldave to make it 6-3 Acadia.
Sam Fioretti tacked on his second of the game just 1:14 later, with Michael Clarke picking up his third assist of the game on the marker. Rounding out the night’s scoring was a scorcher from Kyle Farrell, as he drove down the left wing and blasted a shot over the outstretched glove of the SMU goalie into the top corner of the net to make it 8-3.
Some rough stuff ensued late in the game as Acadia’s Taylor Makin and SMU’s Alex Cord dropped the mitts, with Makin getting a clear decision over Cord, landing a number of large blows.
SMU struggled with the man advantage going 1 for 8 on the night, while Acadia continued their season long powerplay woes going 0 for 2. With the win, Acadia improves to 5-3 on the season while Saint Mary’s falls to 2-6-1. The Axemen travel to Moncton to face the Aigles Bleus on Saturday night.
The Axemen welcomed Daniel Pettersson back to the lineup Friday night. After a strong pre-season, he was injured in exhibition play while facing NCAA teams and played his first regular season game of the year tonight. Chance Braid and Marc McNulty were out of the lineup for Acadia with injuries.