Tipoff Nets Two as Huskies Edge Axemen 4-3

(Halifax, NS)  The Saint Mary's Huskies defeated the Acadia Axemen 4-3 in AUS men's hockey action Friday night at the Scotiabank Centre as part of the AUS Varsity Showdown event. 

Acadia opened the scoring when Brett Thompson (Sault Ste. Marie, ON) scored off a great rebound at 8:32 to make it 1-0. The Huskies answered when Kyle Pereira (Brampton, ON) tallied from the top of the circle through traffic on the powerplay at 13:29 to tie it up at 1-1. Saint Mary's took the lead when Subway player of the game Matt Tipoff (Toronto, ON) potted a marker off another good rebound at 14:27 on the powerplay to make it 2-1 after the first period. In the second period, Saint Mary's increased their lead when Gerrard Grant (Halifax, NS) scored from in close off a beautiful cross crease pass at 2:04 on the powerplay to make the score 3-1. Acadia narrowed the deficit when Mike Cazzola (Guelph, ON) tallied from the circle at 9:32 on the powerplay to get it to 3-2. Saint Mary's got that one back when Tipoff got his second of the game off a slapshot from the circle at 15:00 on the powerplay to restore the two goal lead at 4-2 after two periods. In the third, the Axemen kept it interesting late when Boston Leier (Saskatoon, SK) potted a marker off a wild scramble at 18:58 with their goalie pulled on the powerplay, continuing the powerplay bonanza, but could not get the equalizer.

The two teams tied in shots 29-29. Cole Cheveldave (Calgary, AB) made 26 saves to get the win for the Huskies. Robert Steeves stopped 25 shots in goal for the Axemen.

Saint Mary's are right back in action tomorrow when they visit the Saint Francis Xavier X-Men at 7:00 pm and the Axemen's next game is next Friday when they are away against the UPEI Panthers at 7 p.m.. 

Source SMU communications, photo Eric Cederberg