Category: Game Recaps

Road Warrior Axemen knock off 2 of the Top 10 CIS teams

The Acadia Axemen needed a big bounce back weekend, and they did just that. After dropping 2 games at home last weekend, they faced a tough task of hitting the road to face two of the top 10 CIS ranked teams this weekend in Moncton and UNB. The road warrior Axemen accepted the challenge and return home with two W’s.

Saturday night’s matchup saw the #7 ranked Axemen face the #2 ranked UNB Varsity Reds. The Reds were coming off a tough 4-3 loss to SMU last night and came out of the gate slow in the first period against Acadia. The Axemen got on the board first at the 10 minute mark as captain Liam Heelis scored his 7th of the season, with helpers going to Alex Beaton and Matt Pufahl.

The Axemen took the only penalty of the period at 17:48 when Travis Gibbons went off for tripping, and the UNB powerplay made them pay as Phillippe Halley one-timed a pass from Peter Trainor, beating Axemen goalie Brandon Glover. The teams went to the dressing room tied at 1 with UNB getting the edge in shots on goal at 12-7.

Zach Franko got his first on the night on a scramble in front of UNB goalie David Shantz, Shantz stopped 3 shots before Franko was able to get the puck by the sprawling tender. Mike Cazzola and Brett Thompson picked up assists on the tally.

It looked like that might be it for the scoring in the 2^nd, until Phillippe Maillet scored his first of the night at 19:33 to tie the game up, the 2^nd time on the night the Varsity Reds scored a goal in the last minute of the period to tie the game up. Shots on goal in the 2^nd period were even at 12 aside.

With the ice barely dry, UNB was able to score just 15 seconds into the third period as Phillippe Maillet scored his second of the night, and by the game clock, his second in 42 seconds of play.Read more »

Owsley Breaks Acadia Hearts In St.FX Win

A good goaltender can make all the difference in the world. This was certainly the case when the St. FX X-Men came to Wolfville to take on the Acadia Axemen.

St. FX goaltender Drew Owsley was the talk of the game, as he stopped 35 Acadia shots en route to a 2-0 win. The loss gives Acadia their first mini slump of the season, as the Axemen lost to the Saint Mary’s Huskies the night before. They have now lost two games in a row, and scored only two goals in those two games.

St. FX opened the scoring midway through the first period on a two on one that Acadia goalie Brandon Glover had no chance on. Acadia began their barrage on the X-Men goal, but were unable to solve Owsley. Owsley made the 1-0 lead stand up through most of the game, as he continually frustrated the Axemen gunners. In the end, goals by Blake Gal and Jagger Dirk were the difference. Dirk’s goal came on a power play in the third period, after Glover made three sensational saves. He could not make the fourth, as his defense seemed to have purchased tickets to the game and were watching the play. Dirk deposited the puck into the open net as Glover and the rest of the Axemen could only watch.Read more »

Axemen Win Streak Stopped at Four

The CIS #2 ranked Acadia Axemen hosted the #7 ranked Saint Mary’s Huskies on Friday night in a battle for top spot in the AUS. The game turned out as billed with the perennial rivals battling right to the final buzzer, with the SMU Huskies holding on to edge the Axemen 3-2.

The game opened up with SMU taking a penalty for delay of game at 2:12 when Steven Trojanovic was whistled for shooting the puck over the glass in his own end zone; ironically the Huskies would be called for shooting the puck over the glass four times throughout the game. Acadia took advantage of the powerplay, with just 6 seconds remaining in the man advantage Zach Franko rifled a shot home to put the Axemen up 1-0 early. Linemates Sam Fioretti and Boston Leier picked up the assists on the goal.

That was all the scoring in the first period despite SMU taking two more penalties, but Acadia was unable to capitalize with the man advantage. Shots on goal after the first period were 12 for Acadia, and 7 for Saint Mary’s.

Travis Gibbons left the game in the first period and did not return, after being hit by SMU player, Alex Cord. The Huskie had just came out of the penalty box and caught the Axemen defenceman off guard, sending Gibbons to the ice after the hit.

The second period opened with a strange penalty call where it appeared as though a SMU penalty was upcoming as the referee blew the whistle when Saint Mary’s touched the puck on the delayed call, but then after some confusion, the referree’s called the penalty on Mike Cazzola, as Cazzola entered the penalty box, the ref decided it was Matt Pufahl instead who should go off for cross checking.Read more »

Acadia makes it 4 wins in a row, 1^st place in AUS

As the clocks fell back an hour for daylight savings time overnight, the Acadia Axemen earned their extra hour of sleep! The CIS ranked #2 Axemen knocked off the UPEI Panthers by a 5-2 score on Saturday night, after a 10-4 win over St. Thomas on Friday night.

Brandon Glover got the start for Acadia, and was great in goal, turning UPEI (3-4-1) aside time and time again on some great chances. In fact, UPEI outshot Acadia by a 34-26 margin as Glover turned aside 32 of 34 shots.

The Axemen (7-1) opened the scoring on the powerplay in the first period. With UPEI’s Darcy Ashley in the box, Off the face-off, Acadia’s Zach Franko drew the puck back to Travis Gibbons at the point; Gibbons shot through traffic, and the puck found its way past UPEI goaltender Matt Mahalak.

Seconds later UPEI’s Brock Beukeboom was assessed a checking from behind minor and a 10 minute misconduct. UPEI successfully killed the penalty but it wasn’t the last we’d hear from Beukeboom.

The score remained 1-0 into the 1^st intermission and through the early second period, with both teams trading great chances, but both Glover and Mahalak stood tall in goal for their respective teams.

But at 14:17 of the second period, Zach Franko gave the Axemen some breathing room as he took a pass from linemate Sam Fioretti and put the puck past the UPEI netminder.

At 14:38 Beukeboom received what is being listed as a 5 minute major for charging, but appeared to be a hit to the head of Axemen Taylor Makin. Makin was slow to get up but was able to leave the ice on his own. Beukeboom was given a 5 minute penalty and a game misconduct, and will no doubt receive supplementary discipline.Read more »

Halloween Provides Some Treats and a (Hat)Trick for Acadia

The Acadia Axemen took to the road on Friday night to face the St. Thomas Tommies in Fredericton, which was also Halloween night. There turned out to be many treats for Acadia and even a (hat)trick, as they went on to route the Tommies by a score of 10-4.

The CIS #2 ranked Axemen (6-1) had a pair of forwards return to the line up to bolster their attack as Boston Leier who missed the last game due to injury was in the lineup, along with freshman Remy Giftopoulos who returned to action after serving a three game suspension.

St Thomas (0-7) opened the scoring in the first period at 5:54 when JC Campagna scored on a nice breakaway deke, a chance created by a shot block from Brendan Childerley at his own blueline, to make it 1-0. The Axemen answered back on the powerplay when Brett Thompson scored his first of three on the night, with assists from Chris Owens and Mike Cazzola.

But before the period ended St. Thomas took the lead at 18:05 when Connor Sanvido scored on a nice pass from Andrew Fritsch, a 2-1 lead that STU took into the second period.

Acadia started rookie goaltender Robert Steeves between the pipes, and he was especially busy in the first period as St. Thomas put 12 shots on net, with Steeves turning aside 10 of those.

The Axemen opened the second period shorthanded, but that didn’t stop Chris Owens from tying the game at 2, with a great solo effort to score an unassisted shorthanded marker. It was his second shortie of the season, in just the 4^th game of the season for the Axemen blueliner.Read more »

Acadia ends Aigles Bleus 5 game unbeaten streak

The CIS #3 ranked Acadia Axemen came from behind in the third period on Saturday night to defeat the #8 ranked U de M Aigles Bleus 3-2 at the Andrew H McCain Arena in Wolfville.

It didn’t look good for the Acadia Axemen early in the third period after Moncton scored to put themselves up 2-0. Meanwhile, after peppering Moncton goalie Adrien Lemay with some great chances in the first and second period, it looked like the puck just wasn’t going to find the back of the net for the Axmen on this night.

But just like that, the game took a turn, in favor of the Axemen.

The first period was a back and forth tight checking affair, that saw the Axemen get themselves into penalty trouble against the potent powerplay of the Aigles Bleus. Acadia took four minor penalties in the first period, including late in the period with Joel Ridgeway already in the box, Scott Trask took a slashing penalty to give Moncton a 5 on 3. Moncton made no mistake to open up the scoring as the Saulnier brothers played catch with the puck leading to Allain Saulnier getting the opening goal on a blast from the top of the faceoff circle at 18:19 of the first.Read more »

Acadia Stuns UNB In Overtime

They say overtime hockey is the most exciting hockey you can play. If that’s the case, the Acadia Axemen could stand to live with a little less excitement.

The Axemen welcomed the UNB Varsity Reds to the Andrew H. McCain Arena in Wolfville, October 24th. The Reds came into the game ranked #2 in the CIS overall rankings. The Axemen were ranked #3. Acadia proved rankings mean nothing as they took their first meeting with the Reds by a 4-3 score.

At first it looked as though the Axemen would be outclassed by the Reds as UNB took a 1-0 lead on a power goal by the first of Peter Trainor’s two goals on the night. But Acadia settled down, and they responded quickly–less than two minutes later–on Liam Heelis’ power play goal. Acadia also outshot the Reds 8-7 in the first frame.

When the second started, it was all Axemen. Michael Clarke made it 2-1 on a beautiful play in front of UNB netminder David Shantz, wristing the puck over his glove. Sam Fioretti made it 3-1 at the 15:18 mark of the period, and it looked as though Acadia had the game well in hand. When an errant pass ricocheted off an Acadia defender’s skate and past Axemen goaltender Brandon Glover, it didn’t appear to spark the Reds as much the crowd in Wolfville expected. The goal was credited to Trainor.

The Axemen took a 3-2 lead into the third, outshooting UNB 15-12 in the second. Glover rose to the occasion throughout the period, keeping the momentum in Acadia’s favor.

The third started with both teams playing a cautious game. Neither team had many quality chances early on, but penalty trouble plagued both teams and the play opened up. Acadia appeared to weather the storm and looked to be nursing their lead home, when Matt Petgrave found the back of the Axemen net with only 1:03 remaining. The game was tied, and the crowd was no doubt remembering the last time they saw their Axemen on home ice. In that instance, Acadia coughed up a 5-1 lead to the St. Thomas Tommies before pulling out a 7-6 victory in overtime.Read more »

Chris Owens Makes his Axemen Return in Loss

The CIS #3 ranked Acadia Axemen suffered their first loss of the young AUS regular season tonight, as they fell 4-3 to the St. FX X-Men. Previous to tonight, the X-Men had been winless on the season, with an 0-3 record, however they came out of the gates hungry tonight.

Just 50 seconds into the first period, Robert Slaney gave X the early lead, putting the puck behind Axemen goalie Brandon Glover. Before the Axemen could right the ship, the X-Men added another, less than a minute later as Cole Grbavac put X up 2-0. Acadia was able to cut the lead to one at 5:55 on a 5 on 3 powerplay goal from Daniel Poliziani; assists went to Sam Fioretti and Travis Gibbons. That would be all for the scoring in the first period. X went to the dressing room with a slim 7-6 shot on goal margin after one period of play.

Acadia tied things up at 05:26, while shorthanded in the second period, as newly added Axemen Chris Owens scored on a tremendous individual effort to knot things up at 2. But the X-Men answered right back on the same penalty, the X-Men were able to  convert as Jarrad Struthers scored at 06:05. With the Axemen back in penalty trouble just 2 minutes later, St. FX made Acadia pay again, as Cole Grbavac got his second goal of the night, this one on the powerplay, to make it a 4-2 score. That score held for the rest of the 2nd period. After 2 period, X outshot Acadia 25-16.Read more »

Axemen Edge Tommies 7-6 in Overtime

The Acadia Axemen welcomed the St. Thomas Tommies to Andrew H. McCain Arena in Wolfville Saturday night. The Axemen were riding a two game winning streak going into the game. What was supposed to be a convincing win for the Axemen turned into a 7-6 overtime nail biter.

The Tommies struck first on a strange bounce that beat rookie netminder Robert Steeves early in the first. Then they sat back and watched as the Axemen began a 19 shot barrage on their netminder. Luke Lee-Knight allowed five goals as the Axemen simply rolled over the Tommies in the first. When the dust settled, the Axemen had built a comfortable 5-1 lead. Mike Cazzola scored twice, with Liam Heelis, Remy Giftopoulos, and Matthew Pufahl adding singles. Ranklyn Campbell replied for the Tommies.

Acadia held a 19-14 advantage in shots in the first period.

The game seemed well in hand. When St. Thomas replaced Lee-Knight with Tyson Teichmann in goal, it seemed to be a sidenote. But St. Thomas proved what happens when hard work meets opportunity. They drew upon an incident in which their goaltender got run over behind his net. The incident sparked the Tommies to a new level. They scored three times in the second, two on the power play, to draw within one goal when the period drew to a close.

Zach Hodder scored twice, with Brandon Childerley adding a single. Teichmann turned out to be the ace in the sleeve of the Tommies, as he stuffed all 15 shots the Axemen threw at him. The Axemen outshot the Tommies 15-11.

The third period turned into a sluggish affair, with the Axemen trying to nurse the one goal lead, and the Tommies desperately trying to tie the game. The Axemen had three straight power plays, and while the Tommies bent, they didn’t break. They kept pressing, but when Heelis scored his second goal of the game late in the third, it seemed as though Acadia had dodged a bullet.Read more »