Axemen cap weekend road trip with loss to UPEI

Giftopoulos & Leier with Axemen goals

Charlottetown, PE – The UPEI Panthers defeated the Acadia Axemen 3-2 to take home 2 important points in AUS Men’s Hockey action before 950 fans at MacLauchlan Arena.

Panther Cody Payne opened the scoring on the power play with 2:19 remaining in the first period, assisted by Ryan MacKinnon and Marcus Power, but Axemen Remy Giftopoulous evened the score shortly after with 53 sec remaining, helper going to Daniel Pettersson.

Defensemen Brock Beukeboom gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead mid-way through the second.  Drawing assists were Cody Payne and Kurt Etchegary.

Subway Player of the Game Marcus Power scored the eventual game winner with 12:16 remaining in the third assisted by RT Rice and Casey Babineau.

On the power play Axemen Boston Leir closed the gap to one from Sam Fioretti with 3:28 remaining but it wasn’t enough as the Panthers held on for a 3-2 win.

Matt Mahalek made 19 saves for the win, while Robert Steeves turned aside 28 shots in the loss.

The Panthers return to action Friday night on the road when they travel to Halifax to play the Dalhousie Tigers, game time 7:00 pm.

The Axemen’s next game is Tuesday when they host the Dalhousie Tigers, puck drop is 7:00 pm.