Category: Team Stories

Question 5 – Can the Axemen Repeat as AUS Champions?

The 5^th and final question we will look at from AUS enthusiasts entering the 2014-15 regarding this year’s Axemen club, was can they repeat as AUS champions?

Coming into the season, there were some questions, as we’ve outlined in the first 4 parts of this series, all of these things would need to go right in order for the Axemen to have a chance at repeating. As we sit here on December 5^th, we look back at 16 games played by the Axemen, a 12-3-1 record, ranked 5^th in the country in the weekly CIS hockey rankings. They are tied in points with CIS #3 ranked Saint Mary’s Huskies, and 1 point back of CIS #2 ranked UNB Varsity Reds, for top spot in the AUS.

A couple of key points to be aware of:

• The Axemen have beaten conference leader UNB twice so far this season, both games were decided in overtime, once in Wolfville, and once in Fredericton.
• Acadia’s road record is 7-1-1, and 5-2 on home ice.
• Of the Axemen’s final 12 games, only 5 will be played on the road, with 7 taking place at home at the Andrew H McCain Arena in Wolfville.
• The Axemen are 0-2 against SMU in the first half, the two teams’ face off twice more in the final 12 games, so Acadia will look to improve on this head to head record.

Read more »

The fourth question, on AUS enthusiasts minds regarding the 2014-15 Axemen, was who they would rely on for secondary scoring? As every team knows, when the season goes down to the wire, and throughout the playoffs, teams can’t only rely on their big guns to produce on the scoreboard, there needs to be secondary scoring for a team to succeed.

For the Axemen, gone from last year’s squad are a couple of power forwards in Joe Gaynor and Dustin Ekelman; couple that with forward Dylan Anderson suffering a high ankle sprain early on, a nagging injury to Michael Clarke that would sideline him for most of the first half of the season, and as we mentioned in our first post in this series, Tyler Ferry and Travis Randell had been moved from forwards back to the blue line. So given these departures, injuries, and positional moves, where would the secondary scoring come from after Heelis, Cazzola, and Thompson?

Cue the recruits… The Axemen loaded up with a number of high end offensively gifted forwards through recruiting in the off-season, landing Zach Franko & Boston Leier from the WHL, and Sam Fioretti & Remy Giftopoulos from the OHL. This looked good on paper for the Axemen, but could the first year players step in and make an immediate impact in the tough grind of the AUS?

Well the stats speak for themselves.Read more »