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.

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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 »

Acadia earns ever important point in loss

The Acadia Axemen’s 9 game win streak came to an end on Saturday evening at the hands of the U de M Aigles Bleus, when Moncton’s Danny Chiasson scored in overtime to give his team a 4-3 victory. The loss was despite a heroic third period comeback from Acadia, who were down 3-1 with just 5 minutes remaining in the third frame; they scored two late goals to push the game to overtime and earn an ever important point in the standings.

Moncton (8-9-2) jumped out to a 1-0 lead at 12:38 of the first period when Thierry Comtois beat Acadia netminder Brandon Glover, with assists from Alex Emond and Joel Blanchard. Before the goal could finish being announced, the Aigles Bleus added a second goal just 1:15 later as Jean Francois Plante scored from Alex and Allain Saulnier. That’s the way the period ended, with the home team leading 2-0.

The Axemen had the only goal of the 2^nd period, when Travis Randell scored his fifth of the season, as he banged home a loose puck, past Moncton goaltender Adrien Lemay, cutting the U de M lead to 2-1. Taylor Makin and Chance Braid picked up the assists on the goal.

The Axemen, with great hopes of getting the equalizer as they came out for the third period, had the tables turned as it was Moncton who scored just :30 seconds into the period, as Jean Francois Plante scored his second on the night, with help from Allain Saulnier.Read more »