Fioretti nets the lone Axemen goal

Antigonish, N.S. – In a late-season battle for second place in the conference, the StFX X-Men (18-6-3) skated to a 4-1 win over the visiting Acadia Axemen (18-7-2) in AUS hockey action Wednesday night at the Keating Centre.

Coming into the mid-week match-up, the CIS #4-ranked Axemen led the X-Men (#8) by one point in the standings. With the victory, the X-Men kept their hopes alive of securing a first-round playoff bye. If StFX wins its regular season finale Friday night over the visiting Dalhousie Tigers, they will clinch second place in the league.

In the opening five minutes of the first period, the Axemen garnered a power-play chance, but the X-Men – led by goaltender Drew Owsley (Lethbridge, AB) – kept the game scoreless.

A couple minutes later, at 7:20, the X-Men jumped to a 1-0 edge on a Max Iafrate (Livonia, MI) goal with the man advantage. After faking a pass from just inside the blue line, the first-year defenseman re-loaded and beat a screened Brandon Glover (Victoria, BC) high to the glove side with a wrist shot. Kristoff Kontos (Penetanguishene, ON) collected the helper on the opening marker.

At 12:58, also on the power play, Sam Fioretti (Calgary, AB) evened the contest, when he collected a rebound on the lip of the crease before roofing a backhander over a sprawled Owsley, who had made the initial save on an Axemen shot from the blue line. Boston Leier (Saskatoon, SK) and Matthew Pufahl (Saskatoon, SK) notched the assists.Read more »

FREDERICTON, NB – In a scrap between Atlantic University Sport leaders, the UNB Varsity Reds scored a 7-4 victory over the Acadia Axemen.

Cameron Brace and Chris Clapperton each scored twice to lead the Varsity Reds, who ran their AUS win streak to an even dozen.

With the win, UNB clinches first place in the AUS for the ninth consecutive season.

Rob Mignardi, Tyler Carroll and Taylor MacDougall, into an empty net, also scored for UNB.

Jordan Murray had three assists.

Mike Cazzola, Boston Leier, Mike Fioretti and Brett Thompson scored for the Axemen.

The visitors opened the scoring, just 1:09 into the first period.

Varsity Reds netminder Etienne Marcoux couldn’t corral a rebound. Cazzola pounced on the loose puck, scoring his 16^th goal of the season.

Brace got his first of the night, six minutes later. On the power-play, he blasted a Jordan Murray pass underneath the crossbar to tie the game 1-1.

Acadia took the lead back a minute later, when Leier converted a Brett Thompson pass.

But Clapperton and Mignardi would score before the end of the first, to give UNB a 3-2 lead after 20 minutes.Read more »

Thompson, Cazzola, & Leier with Axemen goals

HALIFAX, N.S. – The unranked Saint Mary’s Huskies defeated the CIS No. 3 ranked Acadia Axemen 4-3 in AUS men’s hockey action Friday night at the Scotiabank Centre as part of the AUS Varsity Showdown event. The Huskies capitalized on the powerplay, scoring four goals with the man advantage.

Acadia opened the scoring when Brett Thompson (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.) scored off a great rebound at 8:32 to make it 1-0.
The Huskies answered when Kyle Pereira (Brampton, Ont.) tallied from the top of the circle through traffic on the powerplay at 13:29 to tie it up at 1-1.

Saint Mary’s took the lead when Subway player of the game Matt Tipoff (Toronto, Ont.) potted a marker off another good rebound at 14:27 on the powerplay to make it 2-1 after the first period.

In the second period, Saint Mary’s increased their lead when Gerrard Grant (Halifax, N.S.) scored from in close off a beautiful cross crease pass at 2:04 on the powerplay to make the score 3-1.

Acadia narrowed the deficit when Mike Cazzola (Guelph, Ont.) tallied from the circle at 9:32 on the powerplay to get it to 3-2. Saint Mary’s got that one back when Tipoff got his second of the game off a slapshot from the circle at 15:00 on the powerplay to restore the two goal lead at 4-2 after two periods. Read more »

Fioretti scores twice including the game winner

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – Sam Fioretti’s (Calgary, Alta.) second of two goals was the game winner as the Axemen snapped a two game losing streak with a 3-2 win against the red hot third place StFX X-Men.

On a two game winning streak, the X-Men hoped to extend it to three while in Wolfville for Bell Let’s Talk Night.

The X-Men opened the evening with a goal by Kristoff Kontos (Penetanguishene, Ont.) with just over nine minutes remaining in the first period. Kontos received a great pass from teammate Holden Cook (Oshawa, Ont.) for the easy tap in.

The Axemen responded two minutes later when second year forward Boston Leier (Saskatoon, Sask.) scored his 12th goal of the regular season on a wrist shot that caught the top corner for the tying goal.

With no change in score in the second period, Sam Fioretti scored in the opening minute of the final frame. Fioretti’s goal was his first of a two goal third period.

Read more »

3 goals in 3 minutes 10 seconds sink the Axemen

The Acadia Axemen (16-5-2) welcomed their rival UNB Varsity Reds (17-3-2) to town on Saturday night, in what was expected to be a battle of the titans, with the Axemen being ranked tops in the CIS, and UNB at ranked at number 4. The result was an uncharacteristic lopsided score between the two teams, who had twice this season played one goal margin games against each other. But in the end this time, it was UNB victorious by a score of 4-0 on the strength of 4 second period goals.

The opening period was just as expected, a tight battle, with both teams getting good chances. The period was highlighted by a six minor penalties which really slowed the flow down for both teams. After 1 period of play, there was no score, with both Brandon Glover and Etienne Marcoux turning aside 9 shots for their respective teams.

The second period didn’t go as expected for the Axemen. Just 1:07 into the frame, Jordan Murray sent a pass from the point to Francis Beauvillier, Beauvillier one timed the feed from a sharp angle and beat Glover to put UNB ahead 1-0. Just 18 seconds later UNB added a second, when Philippe Maillet squeaked one past the Axemen netminder; much to the Axemen faithful’s dismay, their team trailed by two. Unable to stop the bleeding, UNB added a third at 4:17, their third goal in 3 minutes and 10 seconds; this time it was Dylan Willick scoring for the Varsity Reds. That spelled the end of the night for Axemen netminder Brandon Glover, as the Axemen brought in 2^nd year netminder Robert Steeves in relief.

With just under 5 minutes remaining in the 2nd period, and Acadia hoping to cut into the UNB lead on the powerplay, UNB scored while shorthanded when Taylor MacDougall took advantage of a loose puck in front of the Axemen net and beat Steeves to make it 4-0.Read more »

Maaskant scores for Axemen in loss

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – Ryan MacKinnon’s (Summerside, P.E.I.) powerplay goal with 6:44 remaining in the third period was the eventual game winner as the UPEI Panthers handed the CIS No. 1 Acadia Axemen a 3-1 loss at home.

The Panthers opened early. Six minutes into the first period, Craig MacLauchlin (Charlottetown, P.E.I.) collected his own lose puck after an outside-in approach to the Axemen net and snapped a high close range shot over Brandon Glover’s (Victoria, B.C.) blocker side for the powerplay goal.

With a 1-0 UPEI lead after one period, the Axemen responded at 10:43 in the second frame when Zachery Franko (Winnipeg, Man.) dropped a pass back to blueliner Liam Maaskant who slapped a mid-high shot on the blocker side of a screened Matt Mahalack (Monro, Michigan) to tie the game at one.

Following MacKinnon’s third period goal, Panther Marcus Power solidified the win with an empty net powerplay goal with 20 seconds remaining in the game.Read more »

Franko nets two in Axemen victory

The CIS men’s hockey #1 ranked Acadia Axemen got back to their winning ways on Tuesday night in Halifax, as they knocked off the Dalhousie Tigers by a score of 5-2.

The Axemen came out of the gate strong as 2^nd year forward Zachery Franko scored just 58 seconds into the opening period, as he drove wide on a Dal defender before sending a back hand shot over the glove of Dalhousie netminder Corbin Boes to open the scoring. Defensemen Stephen Woodworth and Geoff Schemitsch picked up the assists on the goal. The Axemen stretched their lead to 2 at 4:20, when first year forward Kyle Farrell ripped a slap shot from the high slot, between the legs of Boes, to put Acadia up 2-0, it was Farrell’s 10^th goal of the season.

But exactly two minutes later, at 6:20, Dalhousie’s Steven Johnston cut the lead in half when he scored an unassisted goal, capitalizing on an Axemen turnover in their own zone.

The game remained 2-1 until midway through the second period when Franko added his second of the game at 10:01, as he took a feed from Brett Thompson and one timed the puck past the Dal netminder, giving Franko 8 goals on the year. Just 1:30 later, the Axemen scored again, this time on the powerplay, when Mike Cazzola found a loose puck in the slot, turned and fired a shot that found the top corner of the net, to make it 4-1 Acadia. Geoff Schemitsch and Brandon Glover had the assists on Cazzola’s 13^th goal on the season, tying him for most goals in the AUS with three other players.Read more »