Reflecting on the Axemen First Half
Coach Burns prepped for stretch run
Welcome to 2017! We’re looking forward to a terrific 2nd half of the AUS Men’s Hockey season. The Axemen resume regular season AUS play on Friday night as they take on the Saint Mary’s Huskies in Halifax, and then host the U de M Aigles Bleus on Saturday night in Wolfville.
But before we look ahead, we need to reflect on the first half, where the Axemen finished in 2nd place, in the always competitive AUS conference, with an 11-6-1 record in 18 games.
Acadia hit the ice this season with some major changes in their lineup from the 2015-16 season; gone was perennial scoring leader Mike Cazzola, high scoring threat Zach Franko, & key two way players Dylan Anderson and Travis Randell.
The Axemen had a strong recruiting off-season, adding major size to their lineup with 6’6 defenseman Marc McNulty and 6’4 Alex Lepkowski. Up front 6’5 Nick Betz arrived in Wolfville following a camp invite to the New York Rangers camp, along with 6’3 Stephen Harper who attended the Ottawa Senators main camp. Also added to the lineup were former captain of the STU Tommies Brendan Childerley, Kris Hodge, and Chris Clark.
One of the major recruits was netminder Devin Williams, who starred with the Erie Otters of the OHL with a 41-10-1 record and a 2.36 GAA in 2015-16.
The Axemen struggled out of the gate going 5-5 in their first 10 games, before going 6-2 in their final 8. The early struggles were a team trying to gel, while being hampered by injuries. The biggest struggle of the first half came on the power play where for the first dozen games, the team could not find a way to score with the man advantage. The jinx seems to have been broken and now have edged the pp % to 12.5% after 18 games.
Acadia ended the first half with a 7-1 record on home ice at the Andrew H. McCain Arena, but struggled with a 4-6 record on the road.
Axemen head coach Darren Burns reflected on the first half saying, “I was happy with our recovery from a slow start in the first half. However, the first half is a thing of the past. The reality of our league, especially with only 12 games in the second half, is the teams that kept in shape and are focused, will be successful. Playoffs will begin before you know it and you don’t have as much time to create and maintain structure and work habits.”
The Axemen are led in points by Boston Leier, who notched 18 points, including 8 goals. That tied him for the team lead in goals with Harper and Remy Giftopolous who were 2nd and 3rd in team scoring with 17 and 16 points respectively.
Matthew Pufahl had 14 points in 17 games leading team blue-liners, with Geoff Schemitsch putting up 13 points. Schemitsch was named to the CIS All-Star team which faced off against the Team Canada World Jr team hopefuls in two exhibition games in December. Pufahl had the same honour of being selected to the CIS All-Stars last season.
In terms of injuries, the Axemen lost key contributors Chance Braid for 12 games, Daniel Pettersson for 6 games, Marc McNalty for 7 games, Kyle Farrell for 6 games, Sam Fioretti for 4 games, Stephen Harper for 4 games, Nick Betz for 2 games, and netminder Devin Williams for 4 games. First year forward Kris Hodge missed all but the final 3 games of the first half with injury.
Plenty of man games missed due to injury, but Acadia did not use it as an excuse as they used their deep lineup, relying on all 4 lines to gut out wins.
The Axemen began the season with Devin Williams marked to be the starting netminder, with Brandon Glover and Robert Steeves battling for the backup position. Williams faced some injury issues which opened the door for Robert Steeves. Steeves ended up putting up a 5-2 record with a 2.44 GAA, and a .912 SV%, edging out Williams numbers of 5-4 record with 3.10 GAA and .882 SV%. Brandon Glover also pitched in with a 1-1 record in the first half.
Only time will tell which netminder will take ownership of the title of starting goalie, but the Axemen are pleased to know that no matter who starts in goal, they have confidence in their netminders giving them a chance to win every night, against any opponent.
With the 5 week break, and many of the nagging injuries having time to heal, the Axemen sit poised for a great run in the second half of the AUS season.
Coach Burns added, “We like the make-up of our team, and we like a lot of the intangibles of our team, but we are very well aware of how the intensity will rise in the second half.”
Catch the Axemen live in action at the Halifax Forum on Friday, January 6th at 7pm against the SMU Huskies, or watch live online on AUSTV.ca.