Penalties kill Axemen’s chances, X-Men prevail in a 4-2 win

McMaster & Hopwo score in Axemen loss

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – Penalty trouble killed the Acadia Axemen’s chance at a win on Saturday night, as the team fell 4-2 to the StFX X-Men. StFX had a total of nine power-plays on the night and they capitalized on two of them.

Subway First Star of the Night Jacob Hudson (Antigonish, N.S.) scored the game-winning goal and added a pair of assists for StFX.

Acadia jumped out to an early lead, which turned out to be their only one of the game, on a marker from the second star of the night Adam McMaster (Beamsville, Ont.).

McMaster cut into the offensive zone and wired a wrist shot into the top right corner of the net to make it 1-0 with 17:29 left to play in the opening frame.

However, the Axemen ran into serious penalty trouble in the first frame and gave the X-Men an opportunity to put up two power-play goals.

Josh Nelson (Lockport, IL) scored both goals in the first period for StFX, roughly five minutes apart from each other.

Nelson’s first goal came on a wrist shot from the slot, while his second was from a scramble in front of the net where the puck bounced off the goalie, then the post, and then in.

By the end of the first period, Acadia was down 15-12 in shots.

The second period saw chances on both sides, but Acadia was unable to tie the game.

StFX extended their lead late in the period when Jacob Hudson came out of the penalty box and broke in on an odd-man scoring chance. Hudson buried a wrist shot low glove side to make it 3-1.

By the end of the second period, Acadia held a 24-22 shot lead, despite trailing in the game.

The Axemen made things interesting late in the third after they notched a powerplay goal.

Corson Hopwo (Duncan, B.C.) came out of the corner, protected the puck in front of the net and then flipped the puck over the StFX goalie to make it 3-2.

Liam Hawel (Arnprior, Ont.) sealed the victory for StFX with an empty-net goal with 33 seconds left to play.

Axemen goaltender Zachary Paputsakis turned aside 30 of 33 shots on the night, while his StFX counterpart and third star of the night Joseph Raaymakers stopped 40 of 42 shots.

Acadia drops to 3-5-1 and returns to play on Tuesday, Nov. 8 against the UNB REDS at 7:00 pm. The X-Men improve to 4-5-0-0 and host UPEI on Wednesday, Nov. 9 – at 7:00 pm start.

RECAP By: Joshua Foote, Acadia Athletics Communications