Category: Game Recaps

Acadia Hosts UPEI In Home Opener

The Acadia Axemen hockey club thrilled their fans in the 2013-14 season with a dream run that ended just short of their ultimate goal–another CIS championship banner. It’s now the start of the 2014-15 season, and this year’s Axemen are just as hungry.

After undergoing some roster turnover after last season, Acadia looked impressive in their first game of the season, a 4-0 win over the Dalhousie Tigers. On October 17, they welcomed the UPEI Panthers to the newly renamed Andrew H. McCain Arena in Wolfville. In their first game in Wolfville of the new campaign, Acadia defeated UPEI 3-1 in a game that went down to the wire.

The Axemen jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, with Alex Beaton and Travis Gibbons finding the net. The story of the period, however, was goaltender Brandon Glover. Glover made 12 saves in the frame, some of the spectacular variety. He weathered a five on three power play opportunity, kicked aside a two on one one time chance, and gave the Panthers fits all period long.

The Panther regrouped a bit in the second, managing to solve Glover once on a goal by Matthew Brenton. They drew within one goal, but couldn’t solve Glover again, despite several close calls. Acadia outshot UPEI by an 11-10 margin.Read more »

Acadia Axemen down Dalhousie Tigers 4-0 in AUS Season Opener

The Axemen’s production line started off the season doing what they do best, produce. The top scoring line from a year ago of Liam Heelis, Mike Cazzola, and Brett Thompson picked right up from last year, scoring 3 of Acadia’s 4 goals, and leading the Axemen to a 4-0 victory over the Dalhousie Tigers.

The Axemen outshot the Tigers by a wide margin, with Acadia blasting 45 shots on goal, to Dal’s 16. The Tigers started rookie goaltender Corbin Boes in goal and he played very well, holding the Axemen at bay on many great powerplay chances.

Acadia went with second year goaltender Brandon Glover in goal, he recorded 16 saves for the shutout.

Coach Burns was pleased with the win, noting the battles were won in the trenches tonight saying, “It was a very tough opening game. Dal are vastly improved, they are well coached, can skate, and work hard. This game was a battle from start to finish.”

Acadia opened up the scoring just under 5 minutes into the game when Mike Cazzola fed a beautiful saucer pass through two Dal defenceman, to a streaking Brett Thompson who cradled the pass and put the puck past Boes. Travis Gibbons picked up the second assist on the play.

It looked like that would be the end of the scoring in the first period of play, until Scott Trask was able to find the back of the net with just 30 seconds remaining in the period. Dylan Anderson and rookie Remy Giftopolous picked up the assists on the goal that gave the Axemen a 2-0 lead.

At 6:36 over the 2^nd period, Brett Thompson picked up his second marker of the night, taking a pass from Liam Heelis and sliding it home. Daniel Poliziani picked up the second assist on the play. That was the only goal of the second period.Read more »

Acadia knocks off No. 16 Huskies in exhibition play, 3-2

Axemen coach Darren Burns believed the weekend was a building block for his team saying, “It was a great weekend for our program. The team worked very hard, we played two very good teams in Northeastern and Quinnipiac. We need to make sure we use this to help us prepare to play next weekend.”

BOSTON – Zach Aston-Reese and Kevin Roy both scored for the No. 16 Northeastern men’s ice hockey team, but an Acadia goal midway through the third period sealed the victory for the Axemen in exhibition play on Sunday afternoon at Matthews Arena, 3-2.

The Huskies fought back in the final period to tie the game with 11:41 left in regulation, but Acadia fired right back with the eventual game-winning goal from Alex Beaton less than two minutes later.

Clay Witt (nine saves) and Derick Roy (15 saves) split time in goal for NU, which outshot Acadia 34-27 in the game. NU converted on one of its five power play opportunities in the game while holding the Axemen to an 0-of-4 showing on the man advantage.

NU came out and took control of the game early, outshooting the Axemen 11-7 and scoring the period’s lone goal midway through the frame. Aston-Reese created Northeastern’s first scoring chance of the afternoon when he broke through the Acadia defense and went in alone on Glover. Stephen Woodworth raced to catch up, and hauled down Aston-Reese in the act of shooting, resulting in a penalty shot being awarded to the Huskies.  Aston-Reese took the penalty shot, beating Glover five-hole for the score.

Acadia had a chance to tie the game on their lone power play of the frame when the power play unit collapsed in on Witt, but the NU defense stood tall in the final seconds of the minor penalty to Jake Schechter.

Garret Cockerill nearly put the Huskies up two late in the period with NU on the power play when he fired a shot through traffic that rang off the crossbar.Read more »

Axemen take advantage of special teams to top Bobcats

HAMDEN, Conn. – The Quinnipiac University men’s ice hockey team lost to Acadia, 4-1, in an exhibition game at High Point Solutions Arena at the TD Bank Sports in Hamden, Conn.

Axemen Head Coach Darren Burns was happy with the way his team played saying, “Our guys played with great composure. They (Quinnipiac) scored early, but our guys got better as the game went on. It was a real good character win.”

submitted in part by http://www.quinnipiacbobcats.com

Acadia Downs Dal 7-2 in Liverpool, NS

The Acadia Axemen took to the road Friday for an AUS hockey exhibition game against the Dalhousie Tigers in Liverpool on Nova Scotia’s beautiful South Shore. The game was played at the Queens Memorial Arena.

The Axemen were victorious, downing the Tigers by a score of 7-2.

Acadia’s Brett Thompson opened the scoring in the first period, converting on the power play. Not long after that linemate Mike Cazzola got his first of two on the night to put the Axemen up 2-0. Before the period ended, Dalhousie closed the gap to one with a goal.

There was no scoring in the 2^nd period, but the third period made up for the lack of scoring in the second. It started with Scott Trask getting on the board, but the Tigers battled back again, this time on the powerplay, to make it a 3-2 game.

From there the Axemen took over scoring 4 straight goals. Captain Liam Heelis answered back to regain Acadia’s 2 goal lead, Mike Cazzola notched his second of the game, and Travis Gibbons and Joel Ridgeway rounded out the scoring for Acadia.

The Axemen are heading to the United States next weekend for 2 exhibition games against NCAA opponents in Quinnipiac and Northeastern. The game against Quinnipiac is Saturday at 8pm Atlantic, and Sunday’s game versus Northeastern will be at 5pm Atlantic time.

Acadia opens up their AUS regular season October 11^th on the road against the Dal Tigers at the Halifax Forum.

Acadia defeated Moncton 4-2 Sept. 18 in men’s hockey in an exhibition match in Cocagne, N.B.

Rookie Boston Leier scored twice for the Axemen; Sam Fioretti and Mike Cazzola each added a goal for the Acadia side.

The Aigles Bleus will visit Wolfville Sept. 24 and then the Axemen travel to Liverpool for an exhibition game against Dal Sept. 26

Written by John Decoste Posted on KingCountyNews.ca Published on September 17, 2014

The Acadia hockey Axemen got their 2014-2015 season off to a positive start, scoring a 3-2 win over the Dalhousie Tigers in their pre-season opener Sept. 17 at the Kings Mutual Century Centre in Berwick.

Rookie Zach Franko’s goal at 16:56 of the third period stood up as the game-winner, the only goal of the final 20 minutes after the teams had ended the first period tied 1-1 and the second deadlocked 2-2.

Andrew Rieder opened the scoring for the Tigers with an even-strength goal at 3:44 of the first period. The Axemen got on the board about 10 minutes later, at 13:34 when Taylor Makin scored on the power play.

Boston Leier, one of several first-year players in the Acadia lineup, gave the Axemen a 2-1 lead with an even-strength goal at 16:26 of the second period.

Before the period ended, the Axemen got into some penalty trouble, taking three straight minor penalties. Tanner Williams made them pay for their indiscretion, tying the score for the Tigers at 19:49 with his team enjoying a five-on-three pwer play.

Acadia had an 11-6 edge in shots in the first period, Dal outshot the Axemen 15-14 in the second, and Acadia had a solid 15-4 advantage in the third for a 40-25 edge overall. Each team scored once on the power play.

Final Curtain Falls On Acadia’s Hockey Season

The Acadia Axemen needed to win their next game at the CIS National Championships to have a chance to move on to the championship game.  The Axemen unexpectedly lost their opener, a 4-2 loss to the Windsor Lancers.  A lack of team discipline helped in that loss, as the Lancers converted twice on the power play.

Their fate no longer in their own hands, the Axemen got set to face the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Friday night.  The hometown Huskies hadn’t played in a few weeks, and were raring to go.  The Axemen needed a win to give themselves a chance…an Acadia win by three goals and a Lancers loss on Saturday would put the Axemen in good shape to reach the championship final.

The win never materialized.  The Huskies stole the game in the last five minutes, scoring the winner at the 17:58 mark of the third, en route to a 3-2 win.  The loss effectively ended the Axemen season.

Watch video highlights of the game:

Read more »

Acadia falls 4-2 to Windsor

Something funny happened to the Acadia Axemen in Saskatchewan as they began their quest for the 2014 University Cup title.  The problem was, no one was laughing on the Acadia side.

The Axemen began the hunt ranked #2 in Canada in CIS against the University of Windsor.  The Lancers were ranked #3.  The Axemen dominated the Lancers in the first period, but were only able to solve Windsor netminder Parker Van Buskirk once, as Mike Cazzola pounced on his own rebound and buried it only 1:19 in.  The Axemen outshot the Lancers 10-4 in that opening frame, only to see Van Buskirk slam the door shut.  He held his team in until they could score the equalizer, an effort by Windsor’s Richard Cameron that ended up in the Acadia net.

Acadia started the second period with a bang, as Cazzola found CIS MVP Liam Heelis in the slot with a perfect pass.  Heelis made no mistake, snapping the puck by a helpless Van Buskirk and giving the Axemen a 2-1 lead 1:43 in.  But that turned out to be all they could muster.  The Lancers frustrated the Axemen into several ill-timed penalties.  One could argue not all the calls were warranted, but in the end, they were called, and Acadia didn’t respond well.  The Lancers tied the game at 12:43 on a power play goal by Drew Palmer.

The Axemen seemed to fade as the game wore on, and the Lancers took complete advantage of their lack of urgency, swarming Acadia netminder Evan Mosher, who didn’t have one of his better games.  They outshot the Axemen 24-17 in the final two periods, including a 10-4 shot advantage in the third.  In the end, a power play goal by Kenny Bradford and an even strength goal by Mike Christou sealed Acadia’s fate in the third period.

See the video highlights here:

Read more »