X-Men beat Axemen in return to play
Ethan Crossman scored the winning goal late in the third period as the visiting St. F.X. X-Men defeated the Acadia Axmen 3-2 Feb. 19 in Atlantic University Sport men’s hockey action.
It was both teams’ first game since December due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There were 1,050 fans at the Andrew H. McCain Arena in Wolfville as restrictions remain in place.
Johnny Corneil opened the scoring 13 minutes into the second period for the home side, but Will Bower tied it with
1:01 left in the middle stanza.
Matthew Philip put the X-Men ahead with a powerplay goal with 7:37 left to play. Crossman made it 3-1 with
1:39 remaining and it proved to be an important goal as Axemen forward Keegan Stevenson tallied on the power play with three seconds showing on the clock.
Declan Smith, Santino Centorame, Zack Trott, Matthew Struthers, Liam Hawel and
Crossman each had an assist for St. F.X. while Adam McMaster, Mason McCarty, Stevenson and Corneil chipped in helpers for Acadia.
Joseph Raaymakers, who made 28 saves for the win, was named the game’s first star.
Max Paddock stopped 25 of 28 shots he faced in the loss.
Each team was 1-for-3 on the power play. St. F.X. won all four games with the Axemen this season. They won’t see each other again during the regular season.
The Axemen’s Feb. 18 game at Dalhousie was postponed due to impending weather. Acadia (6-13-0-0) returns to action on Feb. 25 when they host the top-ranked UNB Reds (18-2-0-0-0) at 7 p.m. UNB defeated UPEI 3-2 in Fredericton, N.B., on Feb. 19 while Dalhousie defeated Saint Mary’s 5-4. St. F.X. (14-5-1-0) defeated Saint Mary’s on Feb. 20.
The Axemen complete the weekend by hosting Moncton (5-13-1-1) on Feb. 26 at 7 p.m.