Category: Game Recaps

Lepkowski with loan goal for Acadia

(FREDERICTON, NB) The UNB Varsity Reds continued their four-game homestand with a 5-1 win over the visiting Acadia Axemen.

Two goals from forward Cam Braes(Shawinigan Lake, BC) led the VReds (7-0-2) to the victory, along with a 19-save performance from goalie Alex Dubeau(Mascouche, QC) and three second period goals, one of them from Braes.

Mike Thomas(New Maryland, NB) picked up a loose puck halfway through the Acadia zone, off a turnover at the hashmarks, and fired it past Axemen netminder Brandon Glover(Victoria, BC) at 3:31 of the first period to get UNB on the board.

Thomas’ goal came on the VReds’ first shot of the game. That goal held up as the lone first period goal.

“I liked a lot of the things we did defensively tonight,” said Darren Burns, head coach of the Axemen. “There were a lot of good things we did, but they have a lot of talent, and they’re a hard team to come back against.”

Both teams came out firing early in the second period.Read more »

Thompson & Harper lead the way for Acadia

The Acadia Axemen flexed their offensive muscles on the weekend, scoring 13 goals in a pair of AUS hockey victories.

On the road Saturday, the Axemen defeated the Moncton Aigles Bleus 5-3.

At home in Wolfville the night before, the Axemen cooled the Saint Mary’s Huskies 8-3.

At Moncton on Saturday, Acadia received three-point efforts from Brett Thompson, with two power-play goals and an assist, and Stephen Harper, with a goal and two assists. Boston Leier, with two points, and Sam Fioretti also scored for the Axemen.

Acadia freshman Devin Williams made 27 saves, while his teammates fired 35 shots at Moncton’s Brandon Thibeau.

Allain Saulnier assisted on all three Aigles Bleus’ goals, including power-play markers from Pierre Durepos and Jean-Francois Plante and an even-strength marker from Alex Saulnier, Allain’s twin brother.

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, 5^th 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.Read more »

Fioretti & Farrell each net a pair in victory

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – Acadia (3-3) snapped a short two game winless streak against the Moncton Aigles Bleus (2-4), that saw 11 goals between the two teams in a 7-4 win for Acadia.

The first period got off to a quick start, with both teams scoring on their first shot of the night.

The scoring was opened by fourth year Axemen forward Michael Clarke (Halifax, N.S), picking up the rebound of third year forward Sam Fioretti (Calgary, Alta.) and burying it into a wide open net.

Moncton was quick to respond, answering with a goal of their own less than 30 seconds later from third year forward and Subway Second Star of the Night, Jean-Francois Plante (Sherbrooke, Que.). Plante sped past the Axemen defense to fire a wrist shot by the Acadia goaltender Brandon Glover (Victoria, B.C.) in tight to tie the game at one.

Acadia dominated the majority of the opening period, outshooting the Aigles Bleus 17-8 by the end of the first frame, but were unable to capitalize until the last minute of the period.

Third year Axemen forward Remy Giftopoulos (Ancaster, Ont.) made a beautiful toe drag around an Aigles Bleus defender at the top of the left offensive zone faceoff dot, in order to dish the puck to Subway First Star of the Night Kyle Farrell (Howie Center, N.S.). Farrell tipped the puck into a wide open net, past Aigles Bleus goalie Brandon Thibeau (Riverview, N.B.) who was out of position. Heading into the second, the Axemen were up 2-1.Read more »

McNalty with lone Acadia goal

(Halifax, NS) The Saint Mary’s University Huskies beat the Acadia Axemen 4-1 in front of 575 fans at the Halifax Forum on Wednesday Oct. 19. The Huskies win gives both teams a 2-3 record on the season.

Cole Cheveldave (Calgary AB) was huge in the Huskies win, coming through with several spectacular saves. He ended up stopping 30 of the 31 shots he faced to pick up his first win of the season.

The Huskies had four different goal scorers on the night, as Bronson Beaton (Springhill, NS), Alex Cord (Toronto, ON), Bradley Latour (Barrie, ON) and Taylor Burke (Halifax,NS) all found the back of the net.

Marc McNalty (Medicine Hat, AB) responded for the Axemen.

The Huskies were in penalty trouble all game but were able to kill off all nine Axemen power-plays, including two separate five-on-three opportunities.

1^st

Cheveldave’s brilliance started just 4:30 in to the game as he made three huge saves in succession to keep the Axemen from picking up an early lead.

The Axemen went on their first power-play 9:23 in. Brett Thompson (Sault Ste. Marie, ON) had a great chance down low to the right of the net but Cheveldave stretched out his left leg and got his skate on it for the save.Read more »

Giftopoulos nets a pair in loss

Wolfville, N.S. – The Acadia Axemen were unable to pull off the comeback, as the Axemen (2-2) dropped their final game of the two game Homecoming weekend, 5-3 to the StFX X-Men (3-1).

The X-Men were quick to get on the board, with third year forward and Subway First Star of the Night, Kristoff Kontos (Penetanguishene, Ont.), scoring on the team’s first shot of the night.

Kontos took a cross ice pass from second year forward, Holden Cook (Oshawa, Ont.), to slide the puck under the right pad of Axemen goaltender, Devon Williams (Detroit, Michigan).

The X-Men bookended the period with only 6.4 seconds left to play. Rookie forward Bryson Cianfrone, (Stoney Creek, Ont.) curled in front of the net and waited out a sprawling Williams, before sliding it under Williams’ glove at the side of the net to give StFX a 2-0 advantage.

Despite leading in shots 15-6, the Axemen were unable to find the back of the net in the first frame.

Once again the X-Men opened the scoring in the second period, with second year forward Mark Tremaine (Dartmouth, N.S.) scooping the puck up in an offensive zone faceoff and firing it low blocker side past Williams, to put the X-Men up 3-0.

Acadia finally responded with a hard wrist shot at the top of the left faceoff dot from second year defenseman Liam Maaskant (Clinton, Ont.), to cut the X-Men lead to 3-1. Just like the period before, the X-Men scored within the last minute of the second, when a wide open Holden Cook (Oshawa, Ont.) fired a wrist shot in tight, beating Williams low glove side.Read more »

Farrell does it again in OT!

The Acadia Axemen kicked off the Acadia Homecoming Weekend with a 3-2 overtime win over the Dalhousie Tigers on Friday night at the Andrew H. McCain Arena in Wolfville. The Axemen would have preferred it not take longer than regulation time, but when Dal tied the game with less than 1 minute to play, the desired script needed to change.

The teams battled to a scoreless opening period that featured steady goaltending from Dal’s Corbin Boes and Acadia’s first year netminder Devin Williams. Dal was able to block many shots, keeping them from getting through to Boes which made his job easier in goal as both team registered 9 shots on goal a piece.

The second period saw the Axemen capitalize midway through the frame when Michael Clarke notched his second goal of the young season, with the assists going to Remy Giftopoulos & Chance Braid. The 1-0 lead held up until the 17:06 mark when Acadia freshman Nick Betz made a great play as he made a stop and spin pass on the tape of Chance Braid who deposited the puck into the net past a fallen Boes to put the Axemen up by two goals. The Axemen outshot the Tigers 16-7 in the second period and the game play was heavily controlled by Acadia.

The third period was going according to the Axemen plan until an errand pass through the middle by the Acadia defence, led to Colton Parsons putting the Tigers on the board and cutting the Axemen lead to one. Acadia continued to control the game and looked to have the win when they broke across the Dalhousie blue line on a 3 on 1, with an empty Dalhousie net, but as second year forward Kyle Farrell went to pass the puck to an open teammate for the tap in, his stick broke and the Dal defenceman Andrew Rieder fed the puck up to Colton Parsons, who then found Alex Pawelczyk open to put the puck past Acadia’s netminder Williams, to even the score at 2 with just :54 seconds to play in the third.Read more »

Childerley scores for Acadia in 2^nd straight game

The Acadia Axemen travelled to Antigonish on Saturday night to face the StFX X-Men, but the result they left with wasn’t what they had hoped for. On the strength of three powerplay goals, StFX dropped Acadia by a 4-1 score.

Acadia started the game off well, with Brendan Childerley one timing home a shot, on a nice feed from Chance Braid to put the Axemen up 1-0 at 9:28 of the opening frame. That was the only scoring play of the period and actually held up until nearly midway through the second period.

At 8:42 of the second, Jagger Dirk was able to put a puck past first year Axemen netminder Devin Williams to tie the game at one on the powerplay. Shortly after that, Williams was forced to leave the game as he was injured on a collision in front of the Acadia net. Williams was down on the ice for several minutes before getting to his feet on his own power and heading to the dressing room. Robert Steeves spelled his relief, but was beaten with a shot on the powerplay just minutes later as Holden Cook made it 2-1 StFX.

The Axemen opened up the third period on the powerplay hoping they could find the equalizer, but after not taking advantage, StFX turned the tides and scored their third goal of the night, as Bryson Cianfrone tipped home a Cole MacDonald shot from the point that beat a screen Steeves to make it 3-1.Read more »

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.

Read more »

Axemen return home for Friday Season Opener

story courtesy of friars.com

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The tenth-ranked Providence College men’s hockey team shutout the Acadia University Axemen, 3-0, in exhibition play at Schneider Arena on Sunday afternoon.

Sophomore transfer Scott Conway paced the Friars with a goal and two assists, while sophomore netminder Hayden Hawkey turned away 18 shots for the shutout.

Senior Josh Monk also chipped in offense with two assists.  Kasper Björkqvist and Anthony Florentino also added helpers for the Friars on Sunday.

The Friars got things started just 1:59 into the first as Ryan Tait jammed home a rebound after strong work down low in the zone by freshman Björkqvist and Conway.

Providence extended its lead to 2-0 at 9:57 of the first as Bryan Lemos had a rebound off a Scott Conway shot carom in off his shin pad and into the back of the net.

Axemen netminder Robert Steeves turned away 16 shots in 44:47 of play before giving way to Brandon Glover, who made eight saves.

After a scoreless middle frame, the Friar power play connected in the third period as Conway curled to the top of the left circle and fired a wrist shot off the post and in to make it a 3-0 game at the 5:54 mark of the third.  The Friars controlled the play in the final period, outshooting the Axemen, 16-2.

Matthew Pufahl led the Axemen with four shots on goal, while Josh Monk and Brandon Duhaime each paced the Friars with three shots.