Posted on Posted in Team Stories

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By John DeCoste (’77)

Geoff Schemitsch, a fourth-year student-athlete and member of the Acadia hockey Axemen, has moved around a good deal during his career, but it’s unlikely his travels have included a trip to meet His Excellency the Governor-General of Canada David Johnston at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.

That’s where Schemitsch will be November 8 after being named a CIS Top-Eight Academic All-Canadian. Academic All-Canadians are exceptional student-athletes who achieve an academic standing of 80 per cent or better while playing on one of their university’s varsity teams. Among these outstanding individuals, one female and one male from each CIS regional association are selected annually. Schemitsch is this year’s AUS representative.

It’s the fourth year in a row that an Acadia student-athlete has earned CIS Top-Eight Academic All-Canadian status. Previous honorees include Katie Ross (in 2015), Michelle Pryde (2014), and Travis Gibbons (2013).

In pursuit of excellence

Growing up in Thornhill, Ontario, in the northeast sector of Toronto, Schemitsch tried a variety of sports as a youngster, but by about age 10 it was pretty much all hockey.

He became a AAA-level player in his final year in the novice division. He started his career as a forward, but shifted to defense in his second year of novice. “Our team had a few injuries on defense,” he says. “I started playing D in the playoffs that year, and made it permanent the following year.”Read more »

Posted on Posted in Team Stories

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TORONTO (CIS) – Canadian Interuniversity Sport proudly announced Wednesday the student-athletes selected as Top Eight Academic All-Canadians for the 2015-2016 season. Acadia’s Geoff Schemitsch, a fourth year hockey player, was named to the Top 8. It is the fourth year in a row for Acadia to be honoured with a CIS Top 8.

Link to Story on Geoff Schemitsch>

The elite group will be honoured in Ottawa on November 8, when His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, presents the fourth annual Governor General’s Academic All-Canadian Commendation to the eight recipients during a ceremony at Rideau Hall, his official residence.
Every year, a growing number of CIS student-athletes are recognized as Academic All-Canadians, having maintained an average of 80 per cent or better over the academic year while competing for one – or more – of their university’s varsity teams.

Among these outstanding individuals, one female and one male student-athlete from each of the four CIS regional associations are selected annually to make up the Top Eight.

The 2015-16 recipients from Atlantic University Sport (AUS) are Elenor Henry (Toronto), a soccer player and biochemistry student from Mount Allison University, and Geoff Schemitsch (Thornhill, Ont.), a hockey player and kinesiology student from Acadia University.Read more »

Posted on Posted in Game Recaps

Giftopoulos nets a pair in loss

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Wolfville, N.S. – The Acadia Axemen were unable to pull off the comeback, as the Axemen (2-2) dropped their final game of the two game Homecoming weekend, 5-3 to the StFX X-Men (3-1).

The X-Men were quick to get on the board, with third year forward and Subway First Star of the Night, Kristoff Kontos (Penetanguishene, Ont.), scoring on the team’s first shot of the night.

Kontos took a cross ice pass from second year forward, Holden Cook (Oshawa, Ont.), to slide the puck under the right pad of Axemen goaltender, Devon Williams (Detroit, Michigan).

The X-Men bookended the period with only 6.4 seconds left to play. Rookie forward Bryson Cianfrone, (Stoney Creek, Ont.) curled in front of the net and waited out a sprawling Williams, before sliding it under Williams’ glove at the side of the net to give StFX a 2-0 advantage.

Despite leading in shots 15-6, the Axemen were unable to find the back of the net in the first frame.

Once again the X-Men opened the scoring in the second period, with second year forward Mark Tremaine (Dartmouth, N.S.) scooping the puck up in an offensive zone faceoff and firing it low blocker side past Williams, to put the X-Men up 3-0.

Acadia finally responded with a hard wrist shot at the top of the left faceoff dot from second year defenseman Liam Maaskant (Clinton, Ont.), to cut the X-Men lead to 3-1. Just like the period before, the X-Men scored within the last minute of the second, when a wide open Holden Cook (Oshawa, Ont.) fired a wrist shot in tight, beating Williams low glove side.Read more »

Posted on Posted in Alumni News

Mike Cazzola leads Fort Wayne to ECHL opening night win

Photo By Josh Schaefer/CIS University Cup
Photo By Josh Schaefer/CIS University Cup

On Acadia University homecoming weekend 2016, Acadia alumnus Mike Cazzola couldn’t make the trek to his alma matter, as he was playing in his 1st regular season pro hockey game with the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets. Cazzola made the Alumni community proud as he put up three assists to lead his team to a 6-2 victory on opening night for his new league.

The three point night was no surprise to Axemen fans who were accustomed to Cazzola putting points on the board over his 4 years leading the AUS Axemen with 133 regular season points. The shifty forward picked up where he left off at Acadia in the ECHL pre-season as he added 5 assists in just 3 games prior to Friday nights regular season opener.

Looking forward to watching Mike’s continued success this year with Fort Wayne; to keep tabs on the Komets check out www.komets.com

Posted on Posted in Game Recaps

Farrell does it again in OT!

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The Acadia Axemen kicked off the Acadia Homecoming Weekend with a 3-2 overtime win over the Dalhousie Tigers on Friday night at the Andrew H. McCain Arena in Wolfville. The Axemen would have preferred it not take longer than regulation time, but when Dal tied the game with less than 1 minute to play, the desired script needed to change.

The teams battled to a scoreless opening period that featured steady goaltending from Dal’s Corbin Boes and Acadia’s first year netminder Devin Williams. Dal was able to block many shots, keeping them from getting through to Boes which made his job easier in goal as both team registered 9 shots on goal a piece.

The second period saw the Axemen capitalize midway through the frame when Michael Clarke notched his second goal of the young season, with the assists going to Remy Giftopoulos & Chance Braid. The 1-0 lead held up until the 17:06 mark when Acadia freshman Nick Betz made a great play as he made a stop and spin pass on the tape of Chance Braid who deposited the puck into the net past a fallen Boes to put the Axemen up by two goals. The Axemen outshot the Tigers 16-7 in the second period and the game play was heavily controlled by Acadia.

The third period was going according to the Axemen plan until an errand pass through the middle by the Acadia defence, led to Colton Parsons putting the Tigers on the board and cutting the Axemen lead to one. Acadia continued to control the game and looked to have the win when they broke across the Dalhousie blue line on a 3 on 1, with an empty Dalhousie net, but as second year forward Kyle Farrell went to pass the puck to an open teammate for the tap in, his stick broke and the Dal defenceman Andrew Rieder fed the puck up to Colton Parsons, who then found Alex Pawelczyk open to put the puck past Acadia’s netminder Williams, to even the score at 2 with just :54 seconds to play in the third.Read more »

Posted on Posted in Alumni News

Former Axemen to join Acadia Hockey Honour Roll Friday

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By Michael Oleksyn, The Journal

Melfort resident, Melfort Mustangs’ alum and former Acadia Axemen goalie Trevor Amundrud is getting an honor from his alma mater this Friday, October 14. Amundrud and four other former Axemen are being inducted into the Acadia Hockey Honour Roll.

“Anytime that you can be honoured like that it’s something special. To be in there with some of the alumni that have gone through that university. It’s kind of a nice way to recognize a successful university career,”  Amundrud said.
“It is in essence our hockey program’s hall of fame. We did the statistical analysis last summer and our hockey program is in the top four historically successful programs in the history of the CIS so it is quite an honour,”  Acadia Athletic Director and former Melfort Mustangs’ head coach Kevin Dickie said.
The Hockey Honour Roll is a longstanding tradition at Acadia and is chosen each year by a selection committee. According to Dickie the fact that Amundrud was selected was not a surprise based on his achievements at Acadia.
“I coached him in junior and then I coached him here at Acadia as well so. I think there is two parts, I mean Trevor has asked me to read his citation when he gets inducted so obviously that is very special to me,” Dickie said.
The fact that Dickie was reading the citation is also special to Amundrud. “It is really special. He was my coach here for a couple of years and then out at Acadia as well. We’ve got a great relationship on the ice, off the ice. He was a big part of the success of my career. For him to do that for me is pretty special,” Amundrud said.

Read more »

Posted on Posted in Game Recaps

Childerley scores for Acadia in 2nd straight game

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The Acadia Axemen travelled to Antigonish on Saturday night to face the StFX X-Men, but the result they left with wasn’t what they had hoped for. On the strength of three powerplay goals, StFX dropped Acadia by a 4-1 score.

Acadia started the game off well, with Brendan Childerley one timing home a shot, on a nice feed from Chance Braid to put the Axemen up 1-0 at 9:28 of the opening frame. That was the only scoring play of the period and actually held up until nearly midway through the second period.

At 8:42 of the second, Jagger Dirk was able to put a puck past first year Axemen netminder Devin Williams to tie the game at one on the powerplay. Shortly after that, Williams was forced to leave the game as he was injured on a collision in front of the Acadia net. Williams was down on the ice for several minutes before getting to his feet on his own power and heading to the dressing room. Robert Steeves spelled his relief, but was beaten with a shot on the powerplay just minutes later as Holden Cook made it 2-1 StFX.

The Axemen opened up the third period on the powerplay hoping they could find the equalizer, but after not taking advantage, StFX turned the tides and scored their third goal of the night, as Bryson Cianfrone tipped home a Cole MacDonald shot from the point that beat a screen Steeves to make it 3-1.Read more »