Axemen fire 69 shots on net in OT shootout loss

The Dalhousie Tigers beat the Acadia Axemen 3-2 in a shootout at the Halifax Forum on Saturday night. 

The Axemen started the game on the front foot and the pressure never faltered. The Axemen dominated the puck and took a whopping sixty-nine shots. The Tigers struggled to mount any offence with sixteen shots but scored two late third-period goals to bring the game to overtime. 

The Axemen came out the gate quickly with twenty-seven first-period shots. After constant pressure, with 11:45 left in the period, Adam MacMaster (Beamsville, ON) gave the Axemen an early 1-0 lead with a whipping snapshot setup with a slick feed from Corson Hopwo (Duncan, BC). Tiger’s goalie, Nicholas Chenard (Tecumseh, ON) kept the game close by saving twenty-seven shots in the first frame. 

After the break, the Axemen continued their offensive pressure. Initially, the period was end-to-end, but a Tigers penalty would dissipate all their momentum. With 11:11 remaining in the period, while on a powerplay, Axemen forward, Peyton Hoyt (Lincoln, NB) would double the lead to 2-0. Two minutes later, the Tigers would commit another costly penalty. The Tigers committed three penalties in the second period. The Axemen finished the second in full control, but Chenard made twenty-two saves in the period (forty-nine up to that point) to keep the Tiger’s hope alive. 

The final frame continued in the Axemen’s favour with them comfortably protecting their lead. Suddenly, the Tigers sparked a comeback. With 3:36 left, Tigers rookie defenseman, Zach Welsh (Halifax, NS) would fire the puck top left and beat the Acadia netminder to cut the lead to 2-1.  

Inspired, the Tigers kept the pressure going, and then, with 2:00 minutes remaining, Jack Harper (Guelph, ON) found the equalizer and miraculously tied the game at 2-2. 

The game would go into overtime, where both teams would go back and forth. Chenard was a man-possessed in overtime, willing the Tigers to a shootout. 

The Tigers would complete the comeback and win the shootout 3-1. 

In a breakout performance, Nicholas Chenard made sixty-seven saves with a 97.1% save percentage to earn himself the player of the game. 

The Tigers will look to go back-to-back wins next Wednesday when they travel to Antigonish to face the X-Men. The Acadia Axemen return against the first-seeded UNB Reds this Friday at 7:00 pm AST. 

Written by Sam Goldstein 

Acadia downs StFX 3-2 in overtime

ANTIGONISH, NS - The Acadia Axemen needed overtime and a goal from second year defender Tyler Deline (Peterborough, ON) to earn a hard fought 3-2 win over the STFX X-Men on Friday night at the Charles V Keating Centre in Antigonish. Deline made a nifty move after getting the puck from Cole Nagy and buried the game winner top shelf just over a minute into the extra period. 

Acadia opened the scoring five minutes into the first period, with Ethan Ernst (Weyburn, SK) snagging the puck near the home team blueline, skating in on a two-on-one, and firing one low to the short side. Assists went to Marc Boudreau (Toronto, ON) and Luke Zazula (Langley, BC). Things were rough and tumble at times, with plenty of big hits and both teams enjoying multiple powerplays. The visitors held a 17-10 advantage in shots after 20 minutes.     

Alex Christopoulos (Richmond Hill, ON) tied the game up with his ninth goal of the season four minutes into the second period, picking up a pass from Zack Trott (Mulmur, ON) in the slot and sending it to the back of the net.  

Jacob Maillet (Dundas, ON) gave the X-Men the lead seven minutes later, shoveling home his own rebound after getting a pass from first star of the game Ethan Burroughs (Georgetown, ON). The lead didn’t last long though, as Bailey Peach (Falmouth, NS) wristed one in from the point on the powerplay two-minutes later, making the score 2-2. Charlie Deroches (Days Corner, PE) and Cam Whynot (Kentville, NS) had the helpers. 

It was a tense, back and forth third period with officials waving off what appeared to be a STFX goal due to a kicking motion with five minutes gone. Both teams pressed to take a lead, but strong play from STFX goalie and second star Lucas Pfeil (Owen Sound, ON) and Acadia netminder and third star Thomas Couture (Levis, QC) kept the game even through 60 minutes, setting the table for Deline’s decided goal.   

The X-Men return to action tomorrow night, when they take on the Saint Mary’s Huskies in Halifax at 7 p.m. The Axemen also hit the ice tomorrow night, when they face-off with the Dalhousie Tigers in Halifax, also at 7 p.m.   

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Recap courtesy Matt Draper, STFX Athletics 

Burns, Nagy, Kidney, & Hoyt tally for Axemen

By UPEI’s Reegan MacAulay 

The UPEI Panthers (5-9-0-0) still have yet to solve their problems against the Acadia University Axemen (7-6-0-0), who claimed their third win against UPEI this season in a close 4-2 match at the MacLauchlan Arena on Saturday night. 

Despite keeping things tight throughout the game and attempting a comeback rally in the third period, the Panthers couldn’t catch any puck luck in what could’ve been a “third time’s the charm” result had things gone their way. 

Brady Burns opened the scoring only a minute and three seconds into the first period; after a Liam Kidney shot was denied by Panthers goaltender Joe Ranger, the puck bounced back to Kidney, who fed a backhand pass to Burns in front of the net, and he buried a rebound goal into an open net to make it 1-0 Acadia. 

The rest of the first period went scoreless albeit both teams getting opportunities on the man advantage. Early in the second period, UPEI finally got on the board with a wonky game-tying goal at the 5:45 mark. Cole Larkin fired a shot toward Axemen goaltender Thomas Couture from the red line, and the puck took a weird bounce and landed on the stick of Patrick LeBlanc, who rushed to the net and fired a knuckle puck far-side rebound over Couture’s glove for his fourth goal of the season. 

Each team continued to exchange penalties for about the next 10 minutes, with one being fatal for UPEI; after a Cole Nagy shot was blocked by Keiran Gallant, the puck bounced to Charlie DesRoches in the high slot, who fired a low shot on Ranger and was denied, which was then rebounded into the net along the post by Nagy to give Acadia a 2-1 lead at the 17:07 mark. 

The first half of the third period saw the Panthers do a solid job consistently staying in the Axemen zone and firing everything they had at Couture. Unfortunately, nearing the halfway mark, the momentum was broken by a Derek Pys turnover in the neutral zone, which sent Kidney and Adam McMaster on a 2-on-1 rush toward Ranger, and Kidney sniped a far-side shot past Ranger’s blocker to give his team a 3-1 lead at the 9:11 mark. 

A few minutes later, UPEI found some luck with two Axemen penalties within 1:21 of each other, and the first power play gave the Panthers hope; Ben McFarlane rushed up the center of the ice, fed a pass to Kaleb Pearson at the blue line on the right-wing side, and Pearson fired the puck to the low slot which deflected off McFarlane’s stick and over Couture’s glove for McFarlane’s 10th goal of the season at the 12:50 mark, extending his goal streak to four games (five goals within that stretch). 

Sadly, that’s all the Panthers had left in the tank for the rest of the game. Their late rally was cut short by a scrum at the 18:03 mark after a big hit by Pearson on Burns in an Axemen zone corner, and, later, an empty-net goal by Peyton Hoyt. 

Couture denied 24 of 26 shots for his sixth win of the season, improving his record to 6-5-0, while Ranger stopped 14 of 17 shots, dropping his record to 1-6-0. Brett Bressette was named the Panthers Player of the Game. 

The Panthers look to end their two-game losing streak at home next Wednesday, Nov. 20, but it will come with a tough match against the league-leading UNB Reds. The Axemen remain on the road for the rest of the month, with their next trip (second of five consecutive away games) being to St. FX on Friday, Nov. 22. 

Hoyt with Axemen goal, Couture stops 39 shots

WOLFVILLE – The UNB REDS secured a decisive 6-1 victory over the Acadia Axemen on Saturday night in AUS men’s hockey action in Wolfville in front of 1,177 fans. 

UNB’s Drew Elliott (Musquash, NB) opened the scoring in the first period, assisted by Peter Reynolds (Fredericton, NB) and Sean McGurn (Ottawa, ON), before Reynolds himself added a goal with help from Benjamin Corbeil (Granby, QC) and Emmett Sproule (Collingwood, ON), giving the Reds a 2-0 lead. 

Acadia responded in the second period with a goal from Peyton Hoyt (Fredericton, NB), assisted by Bailey Peach (Falmouth, NS). However, UNB’s Michael Petizian (Mississauga, ON) countered soon after with a goal assisted by Camaryn Baber (Sault St. Marie, ON), restoring UNB’s two-goal cushion heading into the third. 

In the final period, UNB’s offense took over, with Cody Morgan (Gilford, ON), Corbeil, and Kale McCallum (Rothesay, NB) each finding the back of the net, extending the Reds’ lead to 6-1. Corbeil had a standout game, contributing to three goals. 

UNB goalie Samuel Richard (Ste. Catherine, QC) was a solid presence in net, stopping 24 of 25 shots. Acadia’s Thomas Couture (Levis, QC) faced a heavy workload with 45 shots, saving 39. Hoyt earned first-star honors for Acadia, while McCallum and Petizian took the remaining stars for UNB. 

The Axemen, now looking to bounce back, will face UPEI on the road next Saturday. Meanwhile, UNB heads to Halifax to take on Dalhousie on Friday before visiting STFX on Saturday. 

Couture with 32 saves in the win

WOLFVILLE – The Acadia Axemen edged the Moncton Aigles Bleus 4-3 in a hard-fought hockey game on Friday. 

Orlando Mainolfi put Acadia on the board in the first period, scoring off assists from Conor Shortall and Peyton Hoyt. 

The Axemen extended their lead in the second with goals from Liam Kidney, Corson Hopwo, and Cam MacDonald on the power play. Moncton rallied in the third, scoring three goals from Jérémy Michel, Thomas Pelletier, and Jacob Dion, but fell short of a comeback. 

Jacob Dion (Moncton), Thomas Couture (Acadia), and Liam Kidney (Acadia) were named the game’s three stars. 

The game was marked by heavy penalties, with Moncton and Acadia racking up 44 and 54 penalty minutes, respectively. 

Saturday the Axemen host the UNB REDS, while Moncton heads to Halifax to face Saint Mary’s.