WOLFVILLE, N.S. - Thanks in part to goals from four different players and a 28-save performance from Evan Mosher, the CIS No. 3 ranked Acadia Axemen beat the unranked Saint Mary's Huskies 5-1 at Acadia Arena in front of a sold out crowd of 2100, running their winning streak to four.
This is the third straight time Acadia have beaten the Huskies this season, improving to a record of 14-1-2 and first place in the AUS men's hockey standings.
The Axemen acted quickly to make sure their winning ways continued, jumping to an early first period lead. Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. native Brett Thompson opened up the scoring less than a minute into the first period with a beauty goal by roofing one from his backhand over Huskie Anthony Peters shoulder. Thompson also added a goal in the second period to earn the games Subway First Star award.
Late in the first frame on a short 4-on-3 break, leading AUS assistman Mike Cazzola was able to slide a short pass in-between two Huskie defensemen to third star of the game Liam Heelis who went high glove side on Peters, to give the Axemen a two goal advantage heading into the dressing room. Heelis' conference leading 17th goal of the season would end up being the eventual game winner.
The second period consisted of four goals in two and a half minutes, three of which were scored by Acadia and the other by Saint Mary's.
The first of the second frame was scored by fourth year forward Dustin Ekelman, who buried a rebound in front of the net after a point shot from Geoff Schemitsch. The goal was Ekelman's sixth of the season and a good enough performance to be named the third star of the game.
Seconds after Ekelman's goal, Saint Mary's forward Gerrad Grant netted the Huskies lone goal of the evening on a nifty little passing play.
Thompson's second of the game, 50 seconds after Ekelman's goal, came off a wrist shot from below the circle into a wide-open cage, putting a halt to any possible Huskies come back.
Third year forward Alex Beaton added one for good measure on a breakaway, faking the backhand and firing high far side.
Saint Mary's goaltender Anthony Peters made 21 saves in a losing attempt dropping his record to 1-4-0 on the season, while Acadia's Evan Mosher improves his league leading goals against average of 1.71, stopping 28 shots. Only five penalties were issued, four of which were given to the Axemen.
Acadia, who holds onto a three point lead for first place over UNB in the AUS standings, visit StFX in Antigonish Saturday night at 7:00 pm. The Axemen's next home game is in two week on Saturday January 25 as they take on the StFX X-Men, while the Huskies take the remainder of the weekend off to regroup and then host St. Thomas next Friday night at the Halifax Forum.
Game Note: Seven players, including three Axemen and four Huskies, were recognized for their effort in winning the FISU World University Games in Trentino, Italy in mid-December this past year. The players included Huskie Anthony Peters and Cory Tanaka (Lucas Bloodoff and Mike D'Orazio were injured for the game) along with Axemen Liam Heelis, Mike Cazzola and Chris Owens.