Category: Game Recaps

A tough pill to swallow

Acadia looked like they had done what they needed to do on Wednesday night, come in to Saint Mary’s barn and win in regulation time; which would give them the tie breaker with SMU, & leave them in a great position to move a step closer to the AUS 1^st round playoff bye… it looked good… until the final minute of play in the third period.

Acadia led 3-1 late in the third period, as SMU goaltender Anthony Peters left the ice in favor of the extra attacker, Stephen Johnston was able send a shot past Axemen goaltender Brandon Glover, closing the gap to 3-2 with just 54 seconds to play. As the Huskies maintained possession following the faceoff, Peters again headed to the bench, and the puck found its way to SMU sniper Stephen MacAulay and he made no mistake, beating Glover high to the glove side to knot the game up at 3 with 26 seconds remaining in the third. The goals came just 28 seconds apart.

Overtime saw both teams exchange chances, with Peters making a couple of key saves to keep the game alive. Tyler Ferry went off for a slash, breaking the stick of SMU forward Stephen Johnston, giving the Huskies an overtime powerplay. And they made no mistake as Kyle Pereira’s shot from the point beat Glover to give SMU the win. Stephen MacAulay picked up an assist on the goal, giving him 4 points on the night (2 goals, 2 assists).Read more »

Acadia with Pair of Wins this Weekend

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – The AUS second place Acadia Axemen delivered their second win in a row with a 4-2 victory over the UPEI Panthers, who drop to 9-10-2 and remain in a fight for a playoff spot sitting in fifth place – four points ahead of Moncton. The Axemen, fresh off of a 6-1 win over the struggling St. Thomas Tommies, faced UPEI who looked to rebound from a 2-1 loss to the Dalhousie Tigers one night ago.

Both teams fought for physical dominance in the opening period, combining for 12 minutes in penalties.

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Franko & Giftopolous with 3pts each

The Acadia Axemen defeated the St. Thomas Tommies by a 6-1 margin on Friday night in Wolfville. With the win, the Axemen sweep the season series 4-0, scoring 32 goals in the 4 games to the Tommies 16.

St. Thomas kept things tight early, and were the first on the board, with JC Laflamme tallying an unassisted goal shorthanded at 13:09 of the first period to put the away team up 1-0. With Acadia on the powerplay, the puck hopped over the stick of Axemen defenceman Chris Owens’ stick, as he tried to hold the blue line. That sent Laflamme in all alone, and he found the back of the net, beating Acadia first year goaltender Robert Steeves.

But the Axemen battled back just 1:11 later as Scott Trask buried a shot past Tyson Teichmann to even the score at 1; it was Trask’s second goal on the season and Giftopolous and Poliziani picked up assists. Acadia went to the powerplay and took the lead for good at 16:55 of the opening frame as Zach Franko fired a bullet to the top corner of the net for his 9^th goal on the season; Poliziani picked up his second assist on the night on the goal. Acadia would take the 2-1 lead into the dressing rooms, leading the way in shots by a 19-7 margin.

The second period stayed relatively tight, mostly due to some great goaltending from Teichmann, the Tommies goaltender, as he turned away 16 of 17 shots in the 2^nd period. The only shot to beat him was off the stick of Zach Franko, adding his second on the night. Remy Giftopolous had his second helper on the goal, with Matt Pufahl also getting an assist.Read more »

St. FX score 4 in the third period for the win

Antigonish, NS – The StFX X-Men (12-7) erased a two-goal deficit with four unanswered tallies in the third period to earn a 4-2 win over the CIS No. 3 ranked Acadia Axemen (14-5) Saturday night in AUS hockey action.

On the power play, the visiting Axemen opened the scoring at 10:26 of the first period. Geoff Schemitsch (Thornhill, ON) beat Drew Owsley (Lethbridge, AB) with a one-timer from the right face-off circle. Matthew Pufahl (Saskatoon, SK) and Zachary Franko (Winnipeg, MB) garnered assists on the marker.

Acadia doubled the lead on a goal from Dylan Anderson (Ottawa, ON), who walked out from behind the X-Men net and beat Owsley from the lip of the crease on the forehand. Travis Randell (Twillingate, NL) and Remy Giftopoulos (Ancaster, ON) drew the assists at 7:39 of the second period.

Jarrad Struthers (Glace Bay, NS), from Blake Gal (Lethbridge, AB) and Michael Kirkpatrick (North Sydney, NS) cut the Axemen lead to 2-1 at the 7:48 mark of the third period.

After a sliding Trey Lewis (Aldouane, NB) shot block, one of several on the night for the freshman defender, the X-Men broke into the Axemen zone on four-on-one. Glover made the initial save on a MacIntosh slap shot, but he could not block the second attempt from the junior forward. Craig Duininck (St. Cloud, MN) collected the lone assist at 8:58.Read more »

Owens scores winner to give Acadia come from behind win

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – The first home match up of the New Year was set to be an exciting one as both teams looked to make a push for the top spot in the AUS standings during the second half of the season. Saint Mary’s entered the game only one point behind the Acadia Axemen in the standings. Prior to tonight’s Axemen 5-4 win, the Huskies lead the regular season series of four games 2-0 with both games being won by only a single goal.

The Huskies wasted no time opening the scoring early, two minutes in, capitalizing on an Acadia turn over below the goal line, Alex Cord netted his first goal of the regular season under the blocker arm of Brandon Glover.

Following a Saint Mary’s hooking call, Michael Clarke capitalized off of a miscue by a Huskie defenseman, returning the favour just 76 seconds later, rifling one off the cross bar and in.

With under a minute to play in the opening frame, third year forward Brett Thompson caught Huskies on a line change, allowing him to break away on his own, scoring on Anthony Peters on the far side to give Acadia their first lead.

The lead didn’t last long as the Huskies took advantage of a powerplay with 7 seconds remaining in the period. Kyle Pereira wired a slap shot through traffic that fooled Glover, tying the game at two-a-piece.

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Acadia Leapfrogs idle UNB for first place in AUS

The Acadia Axemen returned to the ice after a five week study and holiday break, with a 4-2 victory over the Dalhousie Tigers (4-12-1).

With the win, Acadia improves to 13-3-1 on the season, leapfrogging one point past the idle UNB Varsity Reds into first place in the AUS, with UNB holding a game in hand.

Acadia came out of the gates on fire, with scoring chances upon scoring chances from the first shift through the final shift in the first period; but when the dust cleared, and the period ended, Dalhousie Tigers goaltender Corbin Boes, had made 16 saves and the teams were scoreless. At times the line of Cazzola, Thompson, and Heelis looked like they were putting on a cycling clinic as they played keep away from the Dal defenders, but putting the puck past Boes was another story. Dal managed just 4 shots in the scoreless opening frame.

5:13 into the second period, it was Dalhousie that opened the scoring, as Kendall MacInnis got the puck in the slot with his back to the net, spun around shooting at the same time, beating Axemen goaltender Brandon Glover low to the blocker side. A score that held until 12:20 of the period when Acadia broke into the Dal zone on a 3 on 2, and the Axemen made the most of the odd man rush with a tic-tac-toe passing play as Sam Fioretti sent the puck to Boston Leier, who then fed Michael Clarke, who put the puck past the sprawling Dal goaltender to tie the game up at 1. It was Clarke’s second goal on the season, after missing much of the first half due to injury.

It looked like the teams might end the second period tied, until Brett Thompson fed a perfect pass up the middle of the ice to send linemate Mike Cazzola in alone on Boes, and Cazzola made no mistake. He fired a rocket shot to the top corner with just 54 seconds remaining in the period, putting Acadia up 2-1. Tyler Ferry picked up the secondary assist on Cazzola’s 10th goal on the season.Read more »

Axemen Earn Point to Enter Break Tied for Second in AUS

The game was billed as a head to head matchup of two bitter rivals, two of the top 5 best teams in the country, two teams sitting atop the AUS separated by only one point… and the two teams lived up to the billing tonight.

Right from the first faceoff, there was a playoff like intensity to the game, where any mistake or misplay seemed to be magnified and every loose puck was a battle, all of which made for great hockey to watch.

The first period was a scoreless affair, with the shots on goal showing SMU ahead 9-6, however, the scoring chances heavily favored the Axemen as they had some great chances to get on the board, but Anthony Peters was sharp when he had to be, and there was a few pucks that just missed net. The Axemen best chance came off the stick of Tyler Ferry who broke in on a two on one with Mike Cazzola; Cazzola fed the puck over to Ferry who redirected the puck just over the gaping net. Then with just under two minutes remaining in the period, league leading scorer Brett Thompson stepped out from the side of the net and found himself alone with Peters; there wasn’t much room but Thompson tried to tuck the puck upstairs, but ended up getting too much of it and sent the puck over the glass.

Meanwhile, Axemen goalie Brandon Glover turned away all 9 shots he faced in the opening period. Early in the second period, Glover made a great save to keep the game scoreless; a loose puck came to Huskie sniper Stephen MacAulay at the side of the net, as he went to slide the puck home, Glover stretched his left leg out to make the stop.Read more »

Axemen win 5-1, move into 1st place in AUS

The Acadia Axemen made it 5 straight victories with a 5-1 win over the Dalhousie Tigers on Wednesday night in Wolfville.

With the win, Acadia moves into a first place tie with the UNB Varsity Reds, one point up on the Saint Mary’s Huskies. Acadia will visit SMU on Friday night in the final game of the first half of the season for the Axemen, in a matchup that could decide who will sit on top of the AUS when we ring in 2015.

But back to tonight’s game, Acadia came out strong scoring on the powerplay just 1:02 into the game. After Dal’s Colton Parsons went off for hooking, Acadia’s Geoff Schemitsch wired home his first of the season to put Acadia up 1-0. But the Tigers responded 2:30 later as Alex Cote converted from Mike Evelyn, beating Acadia goalie Brandon Glover, to tie things up.

But not to be denied, the Axemen came right back just :59 seconds later when Tyler Ferry put home a loose puck on a broken play with Alex Beaton and Mike Cazzola to put the home team in the lead for good. Brett Thompson added his second of the night at 7:44, from Cazzola to make it 3-1; And then at 15:02, with Colton Parsons back in the box for Dalhousie, the Axemen made the Tigers pay, as Thompson scored his second of the night, this time on the powerplay, to put his team up 4-1. A lead they took into the first intermission.

After an offensive fury in the first period with five goals scored, the second period saw neither team score, mostly due to the 15 saves Dalhousie goaltender Wendel Vye made to keep the Axemen off the board in the period. Axemen Scott Trask received a 5 minute major for kneeing late in the second period on a play that appeared to be a hip check, but the Tigers player was injured on the play which may have led to the decision on the penalty.Read more »

Axemen win 4th in a Row

A slow start may have been an issue for the Acadia Axemen on Friday night against UPEI, but on Saturday night in Fredericton, they had their finger on the ignition early and exploded with 5 goals in their first 10 minutes of hockey.

That quick start led the way to a 9-5 victory over the St. Thomas Tommies, and gives the CIS #4 ranked Axemen a 11-3 record through 14 games on the season. The scoring barrage opened with Mike Cazzola scoring his first of two on the night, and his 8^th of the season 4:38 into the first period, with Brett Thompson picking up the assist. Just 54 seconds later, 1^st year forward Boston Leier converted on a play with Cazzola and Thompson to make it 2-0. Before that goal could be announced, the Axemen made it 3-rip as another 1^st year forward, Sam Fioretti scored with the assist going to Tyler Ferry.

The Tommies desperate to stop the bleeding, responded 53 seconds later as Connor Sanvido beat Axemen goaltender Robert Steeves to cut the Acadia lead to 3-1.

But 1:07 later Boston Leier netted his second of the game on a play with Sam Fioretti; and 1:42 later, Remy Giftopoulos made it 5-1, with Zach Franko and Liam Heelis picking up helpers. Finally the scoring slowed, at least temporarily, although STU was able to add a second goal at 17:48 of the period as Stephen Janes scored to make it 5-2 after 1 period of play.

Acadia came out strong again in the second period, scoring 3 straight goals, with Cazzola picking up his 2^nd on the night, 9^th of the year, followed by Dylan Anderson getting his first of the season, in just his second game, after returning from a high ankle sprain that had sidelined him for the first 13 games of the season. Captain Liam Heelis scored his 8^th on the season, from Franko and Giftopoulos to make it an 8-2 game. St. Thomas answered back with 2 late 2^nd period goals, one from Felix Poulin, the second from Kody Orr, making it 8-4 after two periods of play.Read more »

Axemen Knock off UPEI, Franko & Giftopolous with 3 pts each

The Acadia Axemen made it three wins in a row, with a 4-3 win over the UPEI Panthers in Charlottetown on Friday night. The Axemen used the third period to score 4 goals, to give them the comeback win, after trailing 2-0 after two period of play.

The Panthers all but owned the first period, firing 19 shots on net, to the Axemen’s 6. But Acadia second year goaltender Brandon Glover stood tall, stopping 18 of 19. Only Cole MacMillan was able to beat Glover, scoring at 14:07 of the first period. Matt Pufahl took a late interference penalty in the first period that carried over into the second, where the Panthers added to their lead with a powerplay marker from Chris Desousa just 20 seconds into the period. That was all for the scoring in the session, as Acadia matched their first period total of 6 shots, but this time held UPEI to just 5 shots on goal.

The third period was a different story altogether. Acadia took advantage of a holding call to UPEI’s David Mazurek, as 1^st year forward Zach Franko continued his hot scoring as of late, scoring on the powerplay from Chris Owens and Remy Giftopoulos. Just under two minutes later, Giftopolous and Franko hooked up again, this time it was Giftopoulos converting for the goal, from Franko and Boston Leier to tie the game at two.

It looked like the Axemen had all of the momentum, but when Acadia goalie Glover was called for delay of game, Chris Desousa made good for the second time on the night with the man advantage, putting UPEI back on top 3-2.Read more »