Pufahl & Giftopolous score for Axemen

Antigonish, NS -  The U Sports #2-ranked StFX X-Men (10-4) skated to a 3-2 overtime victory over the visiting Acadia Axemen (7-5-1) in Atlantic University Sport (AUS) hockey action Wednesday night at the Keating Centre.

Freshman Cole MacDonald (Wetaskiwin, AB) notched the game-winner, at 2:28 of the extra session, after taking a lead pass from team-mate Kristoff Kontos (Penetanguishene, ON), who notched the lone assist.

Both teams engineered great chances in the end-to-end 3-on-3 overtime period.

In the first period, at the 2:38 mark, freshman forward Matt Needham (Penticton, BC) opened the scoring for StFX. Bryson Cianfrone (Stoney Creek, ON) and Adam Stevens (Bedford, NS) assisted on the power-play goal.

A short time later, the X-Men garnered a man advantage, with Holden Cook (Oshawa, ON) walking off the side boards to take a hard wrist shot, but Axemen freshman goaltender Devin Williams (Saginaw, MI) made the save and smothered the puck.

While short-handed, Boston Leier (Saskatoon, SK) got sent in on a partial breakaway for the Axemen, but Brandon Hope (Canton, MI) stretched out his left pad and glove hand to make the stop on the forward’s shot from the top of the face-off circle.

Leier collected a second scoring opportunity, on the same penalty kill, but Hope steered the shot aside with his right pad.

At 11:45, defenseman Matthew Pufahl (Saskatoon, SK) sent a lead pass to a streaking Remy Giftopoulos (Ancaster, ON), who went from forehand to backhand, before stuffing the puck behind Hope. Pufahl notched the lone assist on the equalizer.

Forward Mark Tremaine (Dartmouth, NS) attempted to regain the lead for the X-Men, but Williams corralled his soft backhander from in close.

On the power play, Leier had another chance, after taking a pass from Nick Betz (Detroit, MI), in the slot, but Hope stymied him, again, with his right pad.

Late in the period, X-Men captain Eric Locke (Toronto, ON) found a streaking MacDonald, but he could not beat Williams, from the lip of the crease. Cook started the play with a cross-ice feed to Locke, who carried the puck just inside the blue line.

Regan Spears (Port Hood, NS) and Cianfrone also had chances to make it 2-1, before the end of the frame, but Williams was equal to the task.

In a fast-paced and physical second period, the teams went scoreless.

Early on, Leier bolted in on his off-wing, but the puck rolled away from him and through the X-Men crease, before he could get away a quality shot.

The best chance to start the middle frame, for the X-Men, came off the stick of Locke, who was left alone in front of the net. But, after taking a cross-ice pass from Kontos, he had to gather the puck before shooting, which gave Williams time to slide over and make the save.

Giftopoulos had a chance for his second of the night, but Hope made another right pad save.  Read more »

Giftopoulos leads the way with 2 tallies

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – The Acadia Axemen (6-5), improved to 5-1 at home, as they handed the Dalhousie Tigers (4-4-3), on a rare Tuesday night game, a 4-1 loss. The Axemen also leapfrogged the Tigers in the AUS standings, for the time being, to move into fourth place behind the UPEI Panthers.

Although the first period saw no goals from either side, there were numerous bone crushing hits from both teams. Dalhousie was unable to capitalize on a string of Axemen penalties in the middle of the first, which saw Acadia forward, Remy Giftopoulos (Ancaster, Ont.), block a cross ice shot that would have surely gone in past the sprawling Axemen goaltender Devin Williams (Detroit, Michigan). At the end of the period, Acadia led in shots, 11-8.

Bad blood continued between the two teams into the second, with both sides pleading their case to the referees’ multiple times during a period that saw questionable hits from both sides.

Early in the second, the Tigers had a goal immediately called back, due to a hand pass.

Acadia scored early in the second, when fourth-year forward, Brandon Childerley (Stratford, Ont.), picked up the puck off the boards from a point shot by rookie defenseman Marc McNalty (Medicine Hat, Alta.) and fired the puck low glove side on Dalhousie goaltender Joe Gladnick (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania).

The Tigers ended the period on a four-minute power play, but were once again unable to find the back of the net against the best penalty killing team in the conference.

By periods end, the Axemen were still ahead in shots, 22-18 and holding a 1-0 lead going into the third period.Read more »

Giftopoulos & Leier with Axemen goals

Charlottetown, PE – The UPEI Panthers defeated the Acadia Axemen 3-2 to take home 2 important points in AUS Men’s Hockey action before 950 fans at MacLauchlan Arena.

Panther Cody Payne opened the scoring on the power play with 2:19 remaining in the first period, assisted by Ryan MacKinnon and Marcus Power, but Axemen Remy Giftopoulous evened the score shortly after with 53 sec remaining, helper going to Daniel Pettersson.

Defensemen Brock Beukeboom gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead mid-way through the second.  Drawing assists were Cody Payne and Kurt Etchegary.

Subway Player of the Game Marcus Power scored the eventual game winner with 12:16 remaining in the third assisted by RT Rice and Casey Babineau.

On the power play Axemen Boston Leir closed the gap to one from Sam Fioretti with 3:28 remaining but it wasn’t enough as the Panthers held on for a 3-2 win.

Matt Mahalek made 19 saves for the win, while Robert Steeves turned aside 28 shots in the loss.

The Panthers return to action Friday night on the road when they travel to Halifax to play the Dalhousie Tigers, game time 7:00 pm.

The Axemen’s next game is Tuesday when they host the Dalhousie Tigers, puck drop is 7:00 pm.

Lepkowski with loan goal for Acadia

(FREDERICTON, NB) The UNB Varsity Reds continued their four-game homestand with a 5-1 win over the visiting Acadia Axemen.

Two goals from forward Cam Braes(Shawinigan Lake, BC) led the VReds (7-0-2) to the victory, along with a 19-save performance from goalie Alex Dubeau(Mascouche, QC) and three second period goals, one of them from Braes.

Mike Thomas(New Maryland, NB) picked up a loose puck halfway through the Acadia zone, off a turnover at the hashmarks, and fired it past Axemen netminder Brandon Glover(Victoria, BC) at 3:31 of the first period to get UNB on the board.

Thomas’ goal came on the VReds’ first shot of the game. That goal held up as the lone first period goal.

“I liked a lot of the things we did defensively tonight,” said Darren Burns, head coach of the Axemen. “There were a lot of good things we did, but they have a lot of talent, and they’re a hard team to come back against.”

Both teams came out firing early in the second period.Read more »

Thompson & Harper lead the way for Acadia

The Acadia Axemen flexed their offensive muscles on the weekend, scoring 13 goals in a pair of AUS hockey victories.

On the road Saturday, the Axemen defeated the Moncton Aigles Bleus 5-3.

At home in Wolfville the night before, the Axemen cooled the Saint Mary’s Huskies 8-3.

At Moncton on Saturday, Acadia received three-point efforts from Brett Thompson, with two power-play goals and an assist, and Stephen Harper, with a goal and two assists. Boston Leier, with two points, and Sam Fioretti also scored for the Axemen.

Acadia freshman Devin Williams made 27 saves, while his teammates fired 35 shots at Moncton’s Brandon Thibeau.

Allain Saulnier assisted on all three Aigles Bleus’ goals, including power-play markers from Pierre Durepos and Jean-Francois Plante and an even-strength marker from Alex Saulnier, Allain’s twin brother.

Fioretti, Farrell, & Harper each with a pair

It took the Axemen over 26 minutes to get on the board on Friday night, but once they did, they just kept coming. Acadia went on to tally 8 goals enroute to a 8-3 victory over the Saint Mary’s Huskies in Wolfville.

The opening period was a slow moving 20 minutes with many whistles, very little game flow, and just 13 total shots on goal; including the first shot of the game for either team coming after 7 minutes of play. Acadia first year netminder Devin Williams and SMU goalie Cole Cheveldave kept the game scoreless through the opening period.

The second period was a different story. The Huskies opened the scoring on the powerplay, just 44 seconds into the middle frame, when Bronson Beaton was able to beat Axemen netminder Williams. However, at 6:21 the Axemen answered back while shorthanded, as Sam Fioretti chipped a puck passed a pinching SMU defender, leading to a 2 on 1, where he found Kyle Farrell alone at the side of the SMU net, to square the game at 1. Just over 3 minutes later, Axemen freshman Stephen Harper scored his first of two on the night, and under two minutes later, 5^th year forward Brett Thompson got on the board, showing great patience holding onto the puck before beating Cheveldave, to make it 3-1 Acadia.

With the Huskies still reeling, Harper added his second of the night at 15:36 of the period, and Sam Fioretti rounded out the period scoring at 19:06, to cap off 5 unanswered Acadia goals in the second period leading to a 5-1 Axemen lead after 2.

With the large lead it appeared Acadia took their foot off the gas peddle momentarily as Saint Mary’s cut the lead to 2 when Hunter Garlent and Stephen Shipley each scored to make it 5-3 with under 9 minutes to play in the third. That seemed to wake the Axemen back up as Boston Leier scored on a beautiful solo effort, as he broke in on a breakaway with SMU defenceman Alex Cord draped all over him and being taken down to the ice, Leier still managed to roof the puck over Cheveldave to make it 6-3 Acadia.Read more »

Fioretti & Farrell each net a pair in victory

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – Acadia (3-3) snapped a short two game winless streak against the Moncton Aigles Bleus (2-4), that saw 11 goals between the two teams in a 7-4 win for Acadia.

The first period got off to a quick start, with both teams scoring on their first shot of the night.

The scoring was opened by fourth year Axemen forward Michael Clarke (Halifax, N.S), picking up the rebound of third year forward Sam Fioretti (Calgary, Alta.) and burying it into a wide open net.

Moncton was quick to respond, answering with a goal of their own less than 30 seconds later from third year forward and Subway Second Star of the Night, Jean-Francois Plante (Sherbrooke, Que.). Plante sped past the Axemen defense to fire a wrist shot by the Acadia goaltender Brandon Glover (Victoria, B.C.) in tight to tie the game at one.

Acadia dominated the majority of the opening period, outshooting the Aigles Bleus 17-8 by the end of the first frame, but were unable to capitalize until the last minute of the period.

Third year Axemen forward Remy Giftopoulos (Ancaster, Ont.) made a beautiful toe drag around an Aigles Bleus defender at the top of the left offensive zone faceoff dot, in order to dish the puck to Subway First Star of the Night Kyle Farrell (Howie Center, N.S.). Farrell tipped the puck into a wide open net, past Aigles Bleus goalie Brandon Thibeau (Riverview, N.B.) who was out of position. Heading into the second, the Axemen were up 2-1.Read more »

McNalty with lone Acadia goal

(Halifax, NS) The Saint Mary’s University Huskies beat the Acadia Axemen 4-1 in front of 575 fans at the Halifax Forum on Wednesday Oct. 19. The Huskies win gives both teams a 2-3 record on the season.

Cole Cheveldave (Calgary AB) was huge in the Huskies win, coming through with several spectacular saves. He ended up stopping 30 of the 31 shots he faced to pick up his first win of the season.

The Huskies had four different goal scorers on the night, as Bronson Beaton (Springhill, NS), Alex Cord (Toronto, ON), Bradley Latour (Barrie, ON) and Taylor Burke (Halifax,NS) all found the back of the net.

Marc McNalty (Medicine Hat, AB) responded for the Axemen.

The Huskies were in penalty trouble all game but were able to kill off all nine Axemen power-plays, including two separate five-on-three opportunities.

1^st

Cheveldave’s brilliance started just 4:30 in to the game as he made three huge saves in succession to keep the Axemen from picking up an early lead.

The Axemen went on their first power-play 9:23 in. Brett Thompson (Sault Ste. Marie, ON) had a great chance down low to the right of the net but Cheveldave stretched out his left leg and got his skate on it for the save.Read more »