Panthers overpower St. FX in 9-1 rout

By Thomas Becker

The UPEI Panthers gave the conference's top scoring team a dose of their own medicine Friday night as they scored three goals in each period in a 9-1 blowout of the St. FX X-Men.

Sophomore forward Jordan Maher and veteran defenceman Owen Headrick led the charge with a pair of goals each, while Kurtis Henry and Drake Pilon added their first of the season. Matt Brassard, Kyle Maksimovich and Danil Antropov each found the back of the net as well. Carson MacKinnon had four assists on the night, while Filip Rydstrom added three. 

Since head coach Forbes MacPherson addressed the team's offensive woes two weeks ago, his Panthers (5-4-2) have responded in a big way, having scored 18 goals in the last three games. 

"We have more of a game plan on what to do in the offensive zone," Headrick said. "The guys have more chemistry together and we're playing good right now, and we just want to keep it going." 

The offensive outpour started just two minutes into the game when MacKinnon found Henry across the ice, where the rookie defender snapped a wrist shot from the left circle past goaltender Joseph Raaymakers.

Four minutes later, Maher redirected MacKinnon's shot from the slot to make it 2-0. The two linemates then connected on another goal 20 seconds later when MacKinnon centred a pass to Maher, who wired a shot from his knee in the top far corner for the 3-0 lead. 

The Panthers' ambush continued early in the second period, when Headrick put away the one-timer on a feed from Troy Lajeunesse at the point for the power play marker.

After Maher found MacKinnon with a long lead pass, MacKinnon centred it to Pilon, who drove hard toward the net and fired a wrist shot past Raaymakers at 5:39. A little over a minute later, Brassard casually shot it through traffic, where it skipped by the netminder and in the back of the net for the team's sixth goal of the night. X-Men head coach Brad Peddle saw enough and pulled Raaymakers in favour of Luke Melanson. 

St. FX (9-3-1) got one back midway through the period when on an odd-man rush, Jacob Hudson passed it off to Conner Burggen-Cate, whose one-timer attempt slipped under Jonah Capriotti's pads and in to make it 6-1 heading into the third.

With an offence as potent as UPEI's is right now, it didn't matter who played in net for the X-Men. The Panthers got to Melanson at 8:12, when Rydstrom's drive to the net led to a rebound that Maksimovich easily put away.

At 12:23, Lajeunesse's shot missed wide of the net, but caromed off the end boards to Antropov, who shovelled the puck in from the side of the net. Headrick closed out the scoring late in the period when he skated through the neutral zone, took a pass from Rydstrom and beat Melanson to end the 9-1 rout.

While the offensive outpour was great to see for Panthers fans, what can't go unnoticed is the team's defensive effort. UPEI held the high-powered X-Men to a goal on just 22 shots and currently sit second in goals allowed. 

"This is a confident group," MacPherson said. "We feel like we're practising well, we're playing well and we're just maintaining that confidence, and it's paying off."

The Panthers look to make it a perfect weekend when they travel to Halifax to take on the Dalhousie Tigers Saturday night.

Photo Credit: Janessa Hogan