Cazzola & Farrell with Acadia goals

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Photo courtesy Dalton King

Hockey is a game of bounces, sometimes they are in your favour, sometimes they go against you. On Friday night in Antigonish, the Acadia Axemen faced the StFX X-Men, but unfortunately for the visitors, the bounces weren’t in their favour, as the X-Men walked away with a 4-2 victory.

The two teams played a scoreless opening frame, with StFX out shooting Acadia 10-3, with two 1st period power plays, but Axemen goalie Brandon Glover stood tall keeping donuts on the scoreboard.

The Axemen got on the board at 5:16 of the second period, while on the power play, as third year forward Mike Cazzola was able to bat a loose puck out of the air, and passed the fallen X-Men goalie, Drew Owsley, to make it 1-0. The X-Men answered back at 10:55 when Eric Locke made a nice individual effort to get deep inside the Acadia zone, but seemingly ran himself out of space and threw a puck from a bad angle towards the crease, the puck bounced off of Axemen defender Stephen Woodworth and past Glover to square the game at 1.

Just a minute and a half later, X’s Zack MacQueen scored on a goal that deflected off of a couple of sticks in front of the Acadia net, from the initial point shot from defenseman Trey Lewis, redirecting by Glover, who had no chance. These two bounces changed the complexion of the game as StFX found new life and confidence with the new found lead.Read more »

Farrell nets his second OT game winner on the season

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WOLFVILLE, N.S. – Rookie forward Kyle Farrell’s (Howie Center, N.S.) overtime goal 15 seconds into extra time gave the CIS No. 5 ranked Acadia Axemen a 3-2 win over the Dalhousie Tigers. For the second time in two weeks, the Tigers took Acadia into overtime but this time the Axemen were on the winning end.

While outshot 38-21 in three periods, the Tigers kept the scoreboard results close. Dalhousie’s Wendall Vye (Moncton, N.B.) repelled 36 shots to earn the Subway Second Star of the Game.

Acadia opened the first period with two quick goals starting at 7:23 when Dylan Anderson (Ottawa, Ont.) scored his third goal of the season off of a perfect feed in from of the net by teammate Matt Pufahl (Saskatoon, Sask.). Anderson’s goal was followed by Stephen Woodworth’s (Middleton, N.S.) first goal of the season at 8:10 following a pass from the corner from Kyle Farrell to the high slot to give the Axemen a 2-0 lead after one period of play.

Tiger Phil Gadoury (Montreal, Que.) scored Dalhousie’s first goal just over five minutes into the second period to close the margin to one.

At the 7:33 mark of the third period, JP Harvey (Cole Harbour, N.S.) one-timed a beautiful pass from Jackson Playfair (Fort St. John, B.C.) to tie the game at two and eventually force the game into overtime.

Farrell’s goal 15 seconds into overtime, gave the Axemen their first win over the Tigers in regular season play after 4-3 overtime loss to Dalhousie on October 21st in Halifax.

Farrell was named the Subway First Star of the game for his overtime goal and assist. Dylan Anderson was awarded the third star honours.

The Axemen improve to 6-1-1 and head to Antigonish this Friday to take on the StFX X-Men, while the 2-4-2 Tigers have the weekend off and host their cross-town rival Saint Mary’s next Wednesday night at the Halifax Forum.

Leier with game winner, Glover shines in goal

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CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – On Halloween night in Charlottetown it was the CIS No. 7 ranked Acadia Axemen that came away with a 2 point treat in front of 519 fans at MacLauchlan Arena.

Darcy Ashley scored the Panthers only goal on a highlight real individual play to open the scoring at 13:30 of the first period, Brent Andrews assisted.

At 14:07 of the second period Acadia’s Daniel Pettersson was award a penalty shot and capitalized to even the score 1-1.

Acadia took over in the third period with eventual game winner scored by Boston Leier on the power play unassisted at 14:02.Β  Michael Clarke from Remy Giftopoulos and Matthew Pufahl gave the Axemen a 2 goal lead with 8:06 remaining.Β  Mike Cazzola scored an empty net goal unassisted for a final score of 4-1.

Brandon Glover made 28 saves for the win, while Mavric Parks made 26 saves in the loss.

The Panthers return to action this Wednesday, November 4 when they host UdeM game time 7:00 pm. The Axemen next game is also Wednesday when they host Dalhousie, puck drop 7:00 pm.

Franko with SO winner, Glover stars in goal

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(FREDERICTON, NB) It took a shootout goal to do it, but the CIS No. 7 ranked Acadia Axemen did what no other team has been able to do so far this season… beat the CIS top-ranked UNB Varsity Reds. The win is the Axemen’s second defeat of a CIS Top 10 team after last weekend’s win over then third ranked Saint Mary’s.

Zach Franko’s goal, in the third round of the shootout, was the winner.

“Whenever we see UNB on the schedule, it’s a little more incentive to bring our “A” game, ” said Franko. “I’ve had some success, in shootouts, with deking, a little bit, so I think that played a part in it and fortunately, it went in.”

The two teams looked to be skating toward a scoreless first period when UNB’s Cameron Brace capitalized on a neutral zone turnover. With 58 seconds left in the period, Brace snapped a wrist-shot over the blocker of Axemen netminder Brandon Glover, giving the VReds a 1-0 lead.

Acadia took the lead in the second period, scoring twice.

Travis Randell scored an even-strength goal at 7:55 of the second, before Brett Thompson’s power-play marker less than two minutes later.

Then, with just 24 seconds left in the period, Varsity Reds captain Cam Critchlow jumped on a puck lying in the crease, pushing it past Glover to tie the game 2-2.

There were opportunities for both sides in the third, but neither team was able to capitalize.

UNB had a wonderful chance late in the overtime, but came up empty-handed.

Brace, Chris Caissy and Philippe Maillet all failed in their shootout attempts before Franko won it for the Axemen.

UNB outshot Acadia 43-25 with the Axemen capitalizing on their opportunities.

The Varsity Reds return to action Saturday, when they host the Saint Mary’s University Huskies, while the Axemen head to the Island to take on the UPEI Panthers.

Leier & Thompson net two each

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The Acadia Axemen came into Friday’s game with something to prove. After dropping a 4-3 shootout loss to the Dalhousie Tigers on Wednesday night, Acadia came back to Halifax wanting to show that they are still one of the elite hockey teams in the CIS, and they did just that. When the final buzzer rang, the Axemen were heading home with a 5-2 victory over the CIS #3 ranked Saint Mary’s Huskies.

It didn’t take long for the Axemen to take the early lead, just 27 seconds into the opening frame, 2nd year forward Boston Leier let go a snap shot that beat SMU goalie Cole Cheveldave, high to the glove side, to give Acadia the early confidence booster.

At 13:43, with Huskie teammate Justin Wellar in the penalty box, Stephen MacAulay stole the puck from Axemen defenceman Matt Pufahl behind the Acadia net, and MacAulay was able to tuck the puck behind Brandon Glover to tie the game at 1.

But before the Huskies could kill off Wellar’s minor penalty, Boston Leier wired his second of the game past the Huskies goalie, to put the Axemen up 2-1, with assists going to Sam Fioretti and Geoff Schemitsch.

The only goal of the second period came off the stick of SMU’s Mitchell Maynard, as he let a slap shot go from the top of the circle that pinballed off two Axemen and past a screened Glover to square the score at two.

2:22 into the third period, Axemen captain Brett Thompson scored his first goal of the season, putting the puck over the blocker of Cheveldave to put the Axemen ahead to stay. Michael Clarke and Remy Giftopoulos picked up the helpers on the goal. Exactly six minutes later, Clarke added a goal of his own, this one on the powerplay, with assists from Taylor Makin and Matt Pufahl.Read more »

Franko scores two for Axemen

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The Axemen did a lot of things right on Wednesday night in their first road game of the young AUS hockey season. They fired 50 shots on Dalhousie goaltender Corbin Boes; they controlled the possession and end zone time, at times, even strength was a powerplay formation in the Dal zone for the Axemen; but it was Acadia’s mistakes in their own end that proved to be costly and ultimately put them in the position to be in a shootout, for the extra point with Dalhousie.

Dalhousie opened the scoring just 2:10 into the opening period, on a turnover by Acadia in their own end, when Dal forward Felix Page picked up a loose puck and let a sharp angle shot go that Axemen 2nd year goaltender Robert Steeves stopped, but sent the rebound to the slot where Tanner Williams slapped home the goal uncontested.

Just before the 10 minute mark, 2nd year Axemen forward Zach Franko scored unassisted to tie the game up at one. But just 2:25 later, Fabian Walsh, again capitalized on an Axemen mishap, as Acadia tried to clear a puck up the middle of the ice, and it was knocked down which led to Walsh sliding a puck past a sprawling Steeves. That sent the teams to the dressing rooms after 1 period, with Dal leading Acadia 2-1.

Second year Axemen defenceman Matthew Pufahl tied the game at two late in the second period at 16:06 as he snapped and absolute rocket that pinged off the crossbar and post and into the net.Β  Pufahl had made a number of rushes and created scoring chances, narrowly missing on a great solo effort just minutes before, but this time he made no mistake in tying the game at 2; Pettersson and Farrell picked up assists on the goal.Read more »