Axemen down St. FX 2-1

game story from Justin Halbersma of openingfaceoff.net

Adversity gives birth to character.  The Acadia Axemen certainly faced some adversity when they traveled to Antigonish Saturday evening to take on the St.FX X-Men in AUS hockey action…and in a true test of their character, they gritted out a tough 2-1 victory.  The win marked their fifth straight win.

It wasn’t the prettiest of games for either team, as it was a tightly contested battle from the beginning.  Both goalies brought their “A” games…Evan Mosher for Acadia staring down Drew Owsley, the X-Men goaltender.  In the end, it was Mosher who walked away with the victory, stopping 22 of 23 shots in the process.  Owsley matched him save for save, making 18 stops.  In the end, the Axemen squeaked two past him and that was all Mosher needed, making the lead stand up for his Axemen.

Michael Clarke and Travis Randell scored for the Axemen, while Jarrad Struthers replied for the X-Men.  The X-Men got their goal on the power play.Read more »

Axemen Cage Huskies; Mosher Spectacular

story from Justin Halbersma of openingfaceoff.net

Evan Mosher of the Acadia Axemen leads the AUS Conference with a 0.932 save percentage.  On Friday, January 10, the Acadia netminder proved once again why he is the league leader.

In fact, he proved it 28 times, allowing only one goal on 29 shots as the Acadia Axemen returned home to Acadia Arena after a two game road trip and promptly dispatched the visiting St. Mary’s Huskies 5-1 before a sellout home crowd.

Acadia set the tone of the game early, scoring 54 seconds in.  The Axemen and Huskies played a pretty even period, but it was Acadia who would take a 2-0 lead, outshooting the Huskies 10-8 in the first frame.

But it was only a matter of time for the Acadia team, ranked third in the country in the CIS rankings, and they took over in the second, scoring three times in a frenetically paced period.  They outshot the Huskies in the second frame 14-8, allowing only one goal on a onetimer in front of their net.  The score read 5-1, and the rink was rocking.  Shots on goal after two periods read Acadia 24, St. Mary’s 16.Read more »

Hockey Axemen hold onto first place with 5-2 over UPEI

story courtesy of hockey.acadiau.ca

CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – The CIS No. 3 ranked Acadia Axemen improve to 13-1-2 and hold a 5 point lead on the UNB Varsity Reds for first place in the AUS standings, with a 5-2 win over the UPEI Panthers.

Acadia took a 2-0 first period lead off of goals from Michael Clarke at 13:13 and then sniper Brett Thompson added his sixth goal of the regular season a minute and twenty four seconds later.

Panther Travis McIsaac narrowed the lead to one with a powerplay goal in the second period.

The Axemen took a commanding 4-1 lead after two quick goals early in the third period. Mike Cazzola scored his fifth goal of the season on the man-advantage and teammate Dustin Ekelman scored his second goal of the weekend just over two minutes after Cazzola.Read more »

Heelis nets 3 goals in Acadia’s 9-1 win over STU

story courtesy of hockey.acadiau.ca

FREDERICTON, N.B. – The Acadia Axemen hockey team improved their record to 12-1-2 with a lopsided 9-1 win over the St. Thomas Tommies. With the win, the CIS No. 3 ranked Axemen hold onto first place in the AUS standings.

Third year forward and team captain, Liam Heelis, was named the Subway First Star of the Game, picking up three goals and two assists in the win over St. Thomas. Heelis leads the AUS and CIS with 16 goals and 11 assists in 15 games.

Heelis scored his first of three goals at the 13 minute mark of the opening period. The Axemen took a 2-0 lead when Travis Randell netted his first goal of the regular season with 13 seconds remaining in the first frame.

Dustin Ekelman scored the only goal of the second period with 53 seconds remaining to give Acadia a 3-0 lead.Read more »

Winter Universiade men’s hockey Canada edges defending champ Russia, to play for gold on Saturday

story courtesy of cis-sic.ca

Photo credit Max Pattis

TRENTINO, Italy (CIS) – Tyler Carroll from the University of New Brunswick had a goal and an assist as the Canadian men’s hockey team advanced to the gold-medal final at the Winter Universiade thanks to a 2-1 semifinal victory over defending two-time champion Russia, Friday afternoon.

It was a remarkable win for the team comprised of Atlantic University Sport all-stars, who were facing a powerful opponent which entered the contest with an unblemished 4-0 record, having outscored its rivals by a 25-3 margin in the process. The Russian lineup includes 11 players with KHL experience, nine of them currently skating in the league.

Canada (4-1) will face either Kazakhstan or the United States in the championship match Saturday at 8:30 a.m. EST (2:30 p.m. Trentino), live on www.fisu.tv.Read more »

Winter Universiade men’s hockey: Canada blanks Slovakia in quarters, to face Russia in semis

Photo credit Federico Modica

TRENTINO, Italy (CIS) – Tyler Carroll scored two goals while Chris Culligan and Éric Faille tallied three points apiece as the Canadian men’s hockey team qualified for the semifinals at the Winter Universiade thanks to a 6-0 quarter-final win over Slovakia, Wednesday night.

The result sets up yet another meeting at the biennial tournament between Canada and archrival Russia, Friday at 10:30 a.m. EST (4:30 p.m. Trentino) in the early Final Four matchup. The second semi will see the United States battle Kazakhstan at 2:30 p.m. EST. Both games are streamed live at www.fisu.tv.

In today’s other quarter-finals, Russia (4-0) beat the Czech Republic 5-1, the USA (3-1) shut out Italy 5-0 and Kazakhstan (4-0) dominated Latvia 6-1.

The Canadians and Russians – the two-time defending champions – have met at each of the last four FISU tourneys. Russia prevailed 4-2 in the 2011 semis, 4-2 in the 2009 gold-medal match and 6-0 in pool play in 2005, while the Canucks triumphed 3-1 in the 2007 final to capture their third Universiade title.Read more »

(TRENTINO, Italy) – The Canadian men’s hockey team suffered its first setback at the Winter Universiade dropping a 4-2 decision to Kazakhstan in its third and final preliminary round game, Sunday evening.

Kazakhstan (3-0) and Canada (2-1) finish first and second in Pool C, respectively, and both advance to the quarter-finals of the biennial competition on Dec. 18. Their next opponents will be decided once pool play wraps up on Monday.

After opening the 12-team tournament with convincing wins over Japan, 12-1, and Ukraine, 11-0, the Canucks were brought back to earth by a rival they had defeated 3-1 in the bronze-medal match two years ago in Turkey.

Special teams played a key role in today’s contest as Kazakhstan scored twice on eight power play opportunities and added a short-handed marker, while the team of Atlantic University Sport all-stars went 0-for-4 with the man advantage.Read more »

Canada blanks Ukraine 11-0, improves to 2-0

Bronze medallists in 2011, the Canucks will wrap up pool play Sunday at 2 p.m. EST (8 p.m. Trentino) against Kazakhstan (1-0), the country they edged 3-1 two years ago in the third-place match of the biennial competition.

The Red and White led 3-0 after the opening period and 8-0 after 40 minutes and outshot its opponents 59-14, including 19-1 in the first, 24-5 in the second and 16-8 in the third.Read more »

UNB’s MacNeil scores four, Canada opens with 12-1 domination of Japan

story courtesy of atlanticuniversitysport.com

(TRENTINO, Italy) – Nick MacNeil scored four goals and Mike Cazzola tallied six points as the Canadian men’s hockey team dominated Japan 12-1 in its tournament opener at the 26^th Winter Universiade, on Tuesday night.

The red and white squad, comprised entirely of all-stars from the Atlantic University Sport conference, now enjoys a two-day break before facing Ukraine on Friday in its second of three Pool A contests. The Canucks will then wrap up the preliminary round on Sunday against Kazakhstan, a nation they beat 3-1 two years ago in the bronze-medal match of the biennial competition.

The Canadians missed a glorious opportunity to open the scoring only 78 seconds into the game when Chris Culligan was awarded a penalty shot after being tripped. The team captain couldn’t capitalize but it would be one of the rare joyous moments on the evening for the overmatched Japanese side.Read more »