WOLFVILLE, N.S. – It's that special time of the year; the changing of the seasons and the fall break beginning means that the Acadia Axemen hockey season is upon us. It was a great night for the Acadia Axemen's 1688 fans as the team kicked off the regular season home opener with a 4-1 win against the Saint Mary's Huskies.
The Axemen jumped out to an early 1-0 lead by the 11-minute mark of a fast paced first period.
Following a dump in on net from center ice by third year defenseman, Matthew Pufahl (Saskatoon, Sask.), fourth year forward, Brendan Childerley (Stratford Ont.) and Subway First Star of the Night, blew past the Huskies defenders to pick up the rebound off the goalie's pad and fired it in, low, off the right hand post.
Despite holding the lead for the majority of the period, the Huskies bounced back and potted a goal in the last minute of the first, when second year forward, Taylor Burke (Halifax, N.S), picked up a rebounded point shot and slid it into the net. Burke's marker tied the game 1-1 at the end of the first, despite the Axemen leading in shots, 11-8.
Acadia took advantage of the shot differential early in the second period, with fifth year veteran, Brett Thompson (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.), firing the puck high glove side past the Huskies' goaltender Cole Cheveldave (Calgary, Alta.), on a partial breakaway, and igniting the crowd with the eventual game-winner.
The Axemen capitalized again around the 12-minute mark of the second, with fourth year forward Michael Clarke (Halifax, N.S.) shoveling the puck under Cheveldave in the middle of a crowd of Axemen and Huskies players.
The third period saw strong goaltending and little else as both teams were held off the scoreboard, until the last two seconds of the third. Second year Axemen forward Kyle Farrell (Howie Center, N.S.) buried an empty net goal, sending the Axemen faithful to the parking lot happy and excited for next weekend.
It was a relatively clean, hard hitting game, with the exception of fourth year Acadia Axemen forward Scott Trask (Bonavista Nfld.), who received a two-minute minor for a hit to the head, along with a 10-minute misconduct late in the second period.
Both teams failed to make effective use of their power play opportunities, with the Axemen going 0-4 on the night and the Huskies going 0-3.
A somewhat disciplined game, Axemen head coach was happy with the play of his players. "I thought are guys played very well and played a good structured game", commented Darren Burns. "I thought both goalies were exceptional. We now need to focus on tommorow night as it will be another big test."
Goaltending was especially strong on both ends of the rink with rookie Axemen goaltender and Subway Third Star of the Night, Devon Williams (Detroit, Michigan), stopping 25 of 26 shots, while his counterpart, Cole Chevedale, kept Saint Mary's in the game by preventing 35 of 38 shots from going in.
The Axemen head to StFX X-Men for their second of a two game opening weekend, and then return home again next Friday night hosting the Dalhousie Tigers at 7:00pm. The Saint Mary's Huskies will take the ice again Saturday night against the aforementioned Dalhousie Tigers in Halifax.
Submitted by Joshua Foote, Acadia Communications Office