Axemen Win Streak Stopped at Four

The CIS #2 ranked Acadia Axemen hosted the #7 ranked Saint Mary’s Huskies on Friday night in a battle for top spot in the AUS. The game turned out as billed with the perennial rivals battling right to the final buzzer, with the SMU Huskies holding on to edge the Axemen 3-2.

The game opened up with SMU taking a penalty for delay of game at 2:12 when Steven Trojanovic was whistled for shooting the puck over the glass in his own end zone; ironically the Huskies would be called for shooting the puck over the glass four times throughout the game. Acadia took advantage of the powerplay, with just 6 seconds remaining in the man advantage Zach Franko rifled a shot home to put the Axemen up 1-0 early. Linemates Sam Fioretti and Boston Leier picked up the assists on the goal.

That was all the scoring in the first period despite SMU taking two more penalties, but Acadia was unable to capitalize with the man advantage. Shots on goal after the first period were 12 for Acadia, and 7 for Saint Mary’s.

Travis Gibbons left the game in the first period and did not return, after being hit by SMU player, Alex Cord. The Huskie had just came out of the penalty box and caught the Axemen defenceman off guard, sending Gibbons to the ice after the hit.

The second period opened with a strange penalty call where it appeared as though a SMU penalty was upcoming as the referee blew the whistle when Saint Mary’s touched the puck on the delayed call, but then after some confusion, the referree’s called the penalty on Mike Cazzola, as Cazzola entered the penalty box, the ref decided it was Matt Pufahl instead who should go off for cross checking.Read more »

Acadia makes it 4 wins in a row, 1^st place in AUS

As the clocks fell back an hour for daylight savings time overnight, the Acadia Axemen earned their extra hour of sleep! The CIS ranked #2 Axemen knocked off the UPEI Panthers by a 5-2 score on Saturday night, after a 10-4 win over St. Thomas on Friday night.

Brandon Glover got the start for Acadia, and was great in goal, turning UPEI (3-4-1) aside time and time again on some great chances. In fact, UPEI outshot Acadia by a 34-26 margin as Glover turned aside 32 of 34 shots.

The Axemen (7-1) opened the scoring on the powerplay in the first period. With UPEI’s Darcy Ashley in the box, Off the face-off, Acadia’s Zach Franko drew the puck back to Travis Gibbons at the point; Gibbons shot through traffic, and the puck found its way past UPEI goaltender Matt Mahalak.

Seconds later UPEI’s Brock Beukeboom was assessed a checking from behind minor and a 10 minute misconduct. UPEI successfully killed the penalty but it wasn’t the last we’d hear from Beukeboom.

The score remained 1-0 into the 1^st intermission and through the early second period, with both teams trading great chances, but both Glover and Mahalak stood tall in goal for their respective teams.

But at 14:17 of the second period, Zach Franko gave the Axemen some breathing room as he took a pass from linemate Sam Fioretti and put the puck past the UPEI netminder.

At 14:38 Beukeboom received what is being listed as a 5 minute major for charging, but appeared to be a hit to the head of Axemen Taylor Makin. Makin was slow to get up but was able to leave the ice on his own. Beukeboom was given a 5 minute penalty and a game misconduct, and will no doubt receive supplementary discipline.Read more »

Halloween Provides Some Treats and a (Hat)Trick for Acadia

The Acadia Axemen took to the road on Friday night to face the St. Thomas Tommies in Fredericton, which was also Halloween night. There turned out to be many treats for Acadia and even a (hat)trick, as they went on to route the Tommies by a score of 10-4.

The CIS #2 ranked Axemen (6-1) had a pair of forwards return to the line up to bolster their attack as Boston Leier who missed the last game due to injury was in the lineup, along with freshman Remy Giftopoulos who returned to action after serving a three game suspension.

St Thomas (0-7) opened the scoring in the first period at 5:54 when JC Campagna scored on a nice breakaway deke, a chance created by a shot block from Brendan Childerley at his own blueline, to make it 1-0. The Axemen answered back on the powerplay when Brett Thompson scored his first of three on the night, with assists from Chris Owens and Mike Cazzola.

But before the period ended St. Thomas took the lead at 18:05 when Connor Sanvido scored on a nice pass from Andrew Fritsch, a 2-1 lead that STU took into the second period.

Acadia started rookie goaltender Robert Steeves between the pipes, and he was especially busy in the first period as St. Thomas put 12 shots on net, with Steeves turning aside 10 of those.

The Axemen opened the second period shorthanded, but that didn’t stop Chris Owens from tying the game at 2, with a great solo effort to score an unassisted shorthanded marker. It was his second shortie of the season, in just the 4^th game of the season for the Axemen blueliner.Read more »

Acadia ends Aigles Bleus 5 game unbeaten streak

The CIS #3 ranked Acadia Axemen came from behind in the third period on Saturday night to defeat the #8 ranked U de M Aigles Bleus 3-2 at the Andrew H McCain Arena in Wolfville.

It didn’t look good for the Acadia Axemen early in the third period after Moncton scored to put themselves up 2-0. Meanwhile, after peppering Moncton goalie Adrien Lemay with some great chances in the first and second period, it looked like the puck just wasn’t going to find the back of the net for the Axmen on this night.

But just like that, the game took a turn, in favor of the Axemen.

The first period was a back and forth tight checking affair, that saw the Axemen get themselves into penalty trouble against the potent powerplay of the Aigles Bleus. Acadia took four minor penalties in the first period, including late in the period with Joel Ridgeway already in the box, Scott Trask took a slashing penalty to give Moncton a 5 on 3. Moncton made no mistake to open up the scoring as the Saulnier brothers played catch with the puck leading to Allain Saulnier getting the opening goal on a blast from the top of the faceoff circle at 18:19 of the first.Read more »