Category: Game Recaps

Farrell with his first as an Axemen

The Acadia Axemen opened up homecoming weekend at Acadia University with a 4-3 overtime win over the visiting U de M Aigles Bleus on Friday night in Wolfville. It was first year forward, Kyle Farrell who turned out to be the hero for the Axemen, scoring in the extra frame to send the Axemen faithful home happy.

The teams battled the first period to a scoreless tie, with Axemen netminder Brandon Glover turning aside 13 Moncton shots, while his counterpart at the other end of the ice, Brandon Thibeau turned aside 14 shots from the Axemen.

Acadia broke out on the scoreboard early in the second period as Axemen captain Mike Cazzola snapped a shot past the Aigles Bleus goalie to make it 1-0. Michael Clarke and Brett Thompson picked up assists on the goal. The score stuck until 15:10 of the middle frame when Dylan Anderson took a feed from Remy Giftopoulos and slid the puck by a sprawling Thibeau to make it 2-0. Michael Clarke added the second assist on the goal. Just over two minutes later, it was Cazzola scoring again, as he brought the puck across the front of the net and out waited the goalie before making it 3-0. Boston Leier and Kyle Farrell had the helpers on that tally.

As the second period closed it looked like Acadia had the game well in hand, outshooting their opponents 15-9 in the second period.

But Moncton showed its resilience in the third period, just 46 seconds into the period as Victor Beaulac scored from Robbie Graham and Allain Saulnier to make it 3-1. Then at 4:43, Alex Saulnier beat Glover with a snap shot to cut the lead to one. The Aigles Bleus managed to tie the game at 11:44 as Mitchell Robillard converted on a nice passing play to square things up. That’s the way regulation time ended, despite Acadia outshooting Moncton 11-4 in the period.Read more »

St. FX with a 3-1 Win over Acadia

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – The StFX X-Men spoiled the party at Acadia’s season opener dropping the Axemen 3-1 despite outshooting the X-Men 36-28.

The X-Men jumped on the scoreboard first seven minutes into the opening period when forward Eric Locke (Toronto, Ont.) scored an unassisted goal from a shallow angle to the side of the net that was deflected high by an Axeman defender.

With a 1-0 StFX lead into the first intermission, the Axemen finally scored after a 16-12 shots on goal advantage in the first period when second year forward Sam Fioretti (Calgary, Alta.) deflected a Daniel Pettersson (Toronto, Ont.) shot from the point to tie the game at one on the man-advantage at 10:44 in the second period.

Seven minutes later, first year forward Holden Cook (Oshawa, Ont.) netted the eventual game winner at the end of a powerplay when Holden sent the puck to the back of the net on a beautiful feed from X-Man Nathan Chialitti (Maple, Ont.).

X-man Kristoff Kontos (Penetanguishene, Ont.) scored the insurance goal 32 seconds into the third period to grab a 3-1 win on the road in Wolfville.

Drew Owsley repelled 35 Acadia shots and was rewarded with the Subway First Star of the Game and Acadia goaltender Brandon Glover posted 25 saves on 28 shots.

The Axemen host the Universite de Moncton next Friday night at 7pm and St. Thomas on Saturday night, while the X-Men travel to UNB and UPEI next weekend.

Giftopoulos & Steeves lead the way for the Axemen

The Acadia Axemen finished up their weekend road trip to the northeastern United States by winning by a 2-1 decision over the University of Vermont Catamounts.

In a penalty filled gamed, which at times left on watchers of both teams shaking their heads, the Axemen prevailed on the strength of two goals from second year forward Remy Giftopoulos. Giftopoulos, who also had a goal on Saturday against BU, showed great skill deking the Vermont goalie to find the back of the net.

Meanwhile back in the Acadia net, second year netminder Robert Steeves played a brilliant game, stopping numerous point blank chances from Vermont, ending up stopping 35 of 36 shots which came his way.

The Axemen now return home to prepare to face St. FX X-Men in their AUS season opener at 7pm on Saturday night at the Andrew H. McCain Arena in Wolfville.

See the video recap of the game here:

Giftopoulos and Franko score for Acadia

The Acadia Axemen were in Boston, Massachusetts on Saturday for an exhibition game against the Boston University Terriers. The final result wasn’t what the Axemen had hoped as BU knocked off the Axemen 4-2. The Terriers were the #3 ranked team in the NCAA last season, and all indications are that they will be one of the top teams again this season.

BU opened the scoring at 9:53 of the first period as Danny O’Regan sent a pass from behind the net that deflected off the leg of sliding Axemen defenseman Tyler Ferry and through the legs of Acadia goaltender Brandon Glover to put BU up 1-0.

Just over two minutes later, Acadia tied things up as Remy Giftopoulos tipped home a point shot from Tyler Ferry. But the Axemen didn’t stop there as exactly three minutes later, Zachary Franko took a breakaway pass and went in alone on the Terrier goalie. The Axemen second year sniper went forehand to backhand and roofed the puck under the crossbar, to give Acadia a 2-1 lead.

The Axemen took that lead to the intermission, but BU didn’t take long to tie things up in the 2^nd period as Shane Switzer put home the equalizer at 2:09. That was all the scoring for the second period as the teams started the third period knotted at 2.

BU scored just over 5 minutes into the third period as first year forward Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson put his team ahead to stay by making it 3-2. The Axemen pressed for the tying goal, with three powerplays, but were unsuccessful at finding the back of the net. At 13:15 of the period, BU’s Forsbacka-Karlsson took a breakaway pass as he exited the penalty box and went in alone on Glover, but was interfered with from behind by Axemen defender Daniel Poliziani. A penalty shot was awarded, and the lanky BU forward made no mistake, beating Glover with a clever deke to put his team up by a score of 4-2.

Final shots on goal in the game were 30 by Boston, 29 by Acadia. The Axemen were 0 for 4 on the powerplay while Boston was 0 for 2.

Acadia heads to Vermont to play the NCAA’s University of Vermont Catamounts before returning home to prepare for their regular season opener next week.

Cazzola with 3 point night to lead the way

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – Fourth year forward Mike Cazzola scored two goals in the Axemen’s 3-1 win over the visiting Brock Badgers. Cazzola had two goals in last night’s 4-3 win over Brock.

Sixteen seconds after the opening faceoff, Cazzola gave Acadia a 1-0 lead on the first shot on starting netminder Real Cormier. The one goal lead would change to two at 13:32 of the second period when Cazzola netted his second of the night coming on the Acadia powerplay.

With a 28-15 shots on net lead, the Axemen stretched the margin to 3-0 early in the final frame when second year winger Zachary Franko scored his first goal of the preseason.

Brock finally broke the goose-egg with just under 12 minutes remaining in the game when defenseman Dan Trodel scored on the man-advantage.

Out-shot 39-21, Badger Real Cormier posted a well-respected loss with 36 saves, while Robert Steeves was tested with 20 shots in his first start of the preseason.

The Badgers will head to Moncton to take on the Aigles Bleus on Sunday, while the Axemen will prepare for a road trip to the U.S.A. this coming weekend to take on Boston College and Vermont University on Saturday and Sunday respectively before their season opener against StFX on Saturday, October 10.

Maaaskant nets the game winner

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – The Acadia Axemen hockey team extended their exhibition winning streak to two with a 4-3 win over the visiting Brock Badgers. The Axemen picked up a 6-3 win earlier in the week against the Moncton Aigles Bleus in Bouctouche, N.B.. They improve to 2-0 in exhibition play.

After a scoreless first period and a 17-7 shots on goal Acadia advantage, the Axemen posted the first of four goals when Mike Cazzola notched in the game opener in the second frame. The Badgers responded just over seven minutes later on a Brody Silk goal and then took a 2-1 lead when Mitch Nardi scored on the powerplay. Cazzola scored his second of two goals while the Axemen were shorthanded to end the second period in a 2-2 tie.

The Badgers, despite being out-shot 32-13 after two periods, pushed to a 3-2 lead only two minutes into the final period on a Mack Lemmon goal assisted by Badger Brody Silk.

First year forward Daniel Petterson scored his second goal of the exhibition season just over three minutes into the third period to tie the game at three. First year defenseman Liam Maaskant netted the game winner at the halfway point of the final period to give the Axemen a 4-3 win over Brock.

Brock goaltender Clint Windsor stopped 45 of 49 shots, while Acadia’s counterpart Brandon Glover repelled 20 of 23 shots for the win.

Brock and Acadia will play their second of two games this weekend tonight at 7:00 pm. The Axemen head south of the of the border next weekend to take on Boston University on Saturday Oct. 3 and Vermont University on Sunday Oct. 4. The Badgers will swing through Moncton on Sunday to take on the Aigles Bleus before returning home to Ontario.

Acadia falls 6-5 to UQTR in Overtime

The Acadia Axemen dropped a heartbreaking 6-5 overtime defeat at the hands of the UQTR Patriotes on Friday afternoon in Halifax. The game was the third of four University Cup quarterfinal matchups, with the winner moving on to the semi finals, and the loser going home.

Going into the third period Acadia held a 4-1 lead but UQTR would outscore the Axemen 4-1 in the third period to tie the game at 5 to force sudden death overtime, where UQTR’s Vincent Marcoux, took the puck from his own blue line, moved in on a 2 on 1, and decided to shoot, ripping a shot short side on Axemen goaltender Brandon Glover to send his team to the University Cup semifinals.

The Axemen came out of the gate hot, firing 15 shots at UQTR starting goalie Francis Desrosiers, with only a powerplay marker, at the 10 minute mark, off the stick of Acadia 5^th year quarterback defenceman Chris Owens beating the goalie. Before the period ended an ugly play, as UQTR forward Carl-Antoine Delisle took a clear run at Axemen Captain Liam Heelis, as Heelis came around the net with the puck, sending Heelis to the ice. Delisle was given a 5 minute major for a hit to the head and a game misconduct for the infraction, while Heelis got up woozy and did not return for the remainder of the game. The Axemen would take a 1-0 lead into the dressing room after a period. Axemen goalie Brandon Glover turned aside all 9 shots he faced.

The second period was all Axemen, as Remy Giftopoulos fired home a powerplay goal just 1:22 into the frame, and before the goal could be announced, fellow first year forward Boston Leier scored another to put Acadia up 3-0. The goals came just 43 seconds apart.Read more »

UNB downs Acadia 4-2, Wins Series 2-0

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – After an 8-2 loss to the Varsity Reds in game one in Fredericton, Acadia had hope to pull off a home rink win to tie the best of three series at one game apiece.

Facing elimination, the CIS No. 3 ranked Acadia Axemen fell short in pushing the series to a third and final game, losing 4-2 to the eventual AUS champions and CIS No. 2 ranked UNB Varsity Reds.

In front of a capacity crowd of 2100 at the Andrew H. McCain arena, the Axemen struck first on an even handed goal at 3:53 by second year Axeman Taylor Makin (Lethbridge, Alta.). On a giveaway by a UNB defenseman, Makin capitalized on the opportunity.Read more »

UNB takes Game 1 of Subway AUS Men’s Hockey Championship final series with 8-2 win over Acadia

(FREDERICTON, N.B.) – UNB put on an offensive show on a busy night at the Aitken Centre taking the first game of the 2015 Subway AUS final series over the Acadia Axemen by a score of 8-2 in front of a paid attendance of 3,119.

“We’ve been close, but it’s nice to break through,” said UNB’s head coach Gardiner MacDougall on the goal-scoring outburst.

Acadia won the opening faceoff but things would go down-hill quickly for the Axemen as UNB would score on their first two shots of the game.

The first, a backhand shot from Philippe Maillet (Lachenaie, Que.) on the power play and the second from Cam Brace (Toronto, Ont.) who slid the puck under the pad of starting goalie Brandon Glover (Victoria, B.C.).

UNB added another power play goall to tally eight minutes into the first period as Maillet scored his second goal in as many shots.

Goalie Robert Steeves (Moncton, N.B.) stepped in for the Axemen at that point and went on to play well in relief. Acadia turned up the intensity after the goalie change and managed to capitalize on one of many UNB turnovers in the period with a goal from Travis Randall (Twillingate, N.L.) that would bring Acadia within two goals.

From that point, the Axemen had momentum on their side and they were able to produce several nice scoring chances. UNB, however was able to grab it back when Dana Fraser (Tatamagouche, N.S.) got into the opposition zone on an odd man rush where he fed Jordan Murray (Moncton, N.B.) for the Varsity Reds’ fourth goal of the game.
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Acadia Punches Ticket To CIS University Cup Tournament

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – The CIS No. 5 ranked Acadia Axemen topped the No. 3 Saint Mary’s Huskies 3-2 in game five of the best of five semi-final series, punching their ticket to not only an AUS championship best of three series against the UNB Varsity Reds, but also they will have their second consecutive “kick at the can” at this year’s CIS University Cup championship held in Halifax.

In a sold out Andrew H. McCain Arena, the Huskies drew blood first on a goal by Gerrad Grant (Halifax, N.S.) on the man advantage at 5:41 of the first period.

Saint Mary’s forward Gerrard Grant put a back door pass from Stephen Johnston (Guelph, Ont.) past Brandon Glover (Victoria, B.C.). Steven Beyers (Orangeville, Ont.) added the second assist on the play.

Midway through opening period, a Huskie goal was disallowed due to a kicking motion, keeping Acadia within one.Read more »