X-Men beat CIS No. 1 Varsity Reds in a shootout

The X-Men hockey team handed the CIS ranked No. 1 UNB Varsity Reds their second loss of the weekend as they won 5-4 in a shootout Saturday night at the StFX Keating Centre as StFX snapped a five-game losing streak. The V-Reds dropped a 2-1 game to Saint Mary’s last night in Halifax and the X-Men regrouped after yesterday’s 7-3 drubbing from the UPEI Panthers.

Michael Kirkpatrick scored two first period power play goals for the X-Men as they held a 2-1 lead after the first. His first goal came 2:02 into the game as he picked up his own rebound and fired the puck past Varsity Reds goaltender Dan LaCosta. Jason Bast and Spencer McAvoy assisted on the play. Shayne Weibe evened the score for the Varsity Reds at the 7:47 mark, breaking down the wing unassisted as he sniped one past Joey Perricone in the StFX net. Kirkpatrick gave the X-Men back the lead with his second power play marker at 10:56 as Jason Bast picked up his second assist of the night.  

Second period play saw the X-Men increase their lead to 4-1 over the top ranked team. Stephen Simms took a Jarrad Struthers pass as he jumped back on the ice after serving a penalty and scored low on the short side of LaCosta at the 8:37 mark. Defenseman Gabriel O’Connor followed up with a goal off a shot from the point after a UNB turnover. Brett Morrison and Murdock MacLellan picked up assists on the 11:01 goal that gave the X-Men a three goal advantage at 4-1.

The lead would not hold, however, as the Varsity Reds showed why they are the number one team in the country this season, fighting back to score two goals before the second period buzzer sounded. Chad Denny, who just joined the Varsity Reds lineup, scored at 14:47 from Taylor MacDougall and Bretton Stamler, then Stamler scored off the draw with only 11 seconds left in the period to pull the V-Reds to 4-3 after 40 minutes of play. Kyle Bailey assisted on the Stamler goal.

As the two teams played a fast-paced, hard-checking third period, the lone goal of the period came off the stick of UNB forward Weibe who scored his second goal of the evening, beating Perricone at the 13:14 minute mark, from Luke Gallant and Chris Culligan. The 4-4 score held for the remainder of regulation play.

The four-on-four overtime period saw the X-Men outshoot the Varsity Reds 7-4 as UNB fought off two penalties. Gallant took a hooking call, then 15 seconds after his penalty expired, UNB was called for too many men on the ice. StFX was unable to capitalize on the four minutes with the extra attacker. The score remained deadlocked at 4-4 after the ten minute OT period.

The shootout saw StFX’s Jason Bast and UNB’s Kyle Bailey exchange misses on the first two attempts, then Kirkpatrick solved LaCosta to give StFX the edge. Thomas Nesbitt was stopped by Perricone then Kevin Undershute fired it home for StFX to secure the victory.

Perricone posted 29 saves in the StFX net as UNB held the slight edge in shots at 33-30. Michael Kirkpatrick was named the Subway Player of the Game for the X-Men.

The win was a stark contrast to the same X-Men team who fell 7-3 to the UPEI Panthers the night before.

StFX-UPEI recap contributed by Jamie Kelly, StFX Sports Information

The Panthers routed the X-Men 7-3 in a chippy game that saw UPEI get contributions from seven different goal scorers as the X-Men were unable to stop the Panthers speed and tenaciousness.

The game started with great emotion, as both teams were hitting everything in sight and the intensity was exceptionally high. UPEI opened the scoring when Matt Carter (Fraser, Knox), the AUS second leading scorer, was left alone in the slot as Joey Perricone gave the puck away behind his StFX net. Carter was able to sneak the biscuit under Perricone’s right arm as the netminder struggled to get back in his net. Travis MacIsaac (Jared Gomes) rounded out the scoring in the first period to send the visiting Panthers into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead.

The X-Men regrouped early in the second period as captain Murdock MacLellan (Wray, Brannon) showed great leadership getting the blue and white back in the game on a nice rush from the trio. The momentum for the X-Men stopped there however as Chris Dasousa (Fraser, Brenton) and Dana Fraser (Dasousa) were able to give UPEI two quick goals to take the wind out of StFX’s sails, and leave the score 4-1 heading into the third period.

The final period was very chippy, as StFX showed a lot of frustration, taking untimely penalties and getting into extracurricular activity after the whistle. The two teams traded goals as UPEI’s Jared Gomes (Brenton) scored early on a nice backhand top corner to increase the score to 5-1 in favor of the Panthers. X-Men defenseman R.D. Chisholm (MacLellan) was able to pull the score to 5-2 when he scored on a nice wrist shot in the slot. The Panthers then put an end to any comeback hopes StFX had when Harrison McIver (Wall, MacIsaac) and Jordan Knox (Quaile, Carter) scored two goals four minutes apart to widen the lead to 7-2.  Murdock MacLellan (Stephens, Wray) rounded out the scoring for the X-Men, as he put forth a very strong performance for the struggling blue and white.

The X-Men outshot the Panthers 41-36 in the game. Mavric Parks made 38 saves for the Panthers and Joey Perricone and Morgan Clark combined to post 29 saves for the X-Men. Clark played the final two periods between the pipes for the X-Men. Dana Fraser was named Subway Player of the Game as he had one goal and two assists to pace the visiting Panthers.

With the 1-1 weekend split, the sixth place X-Men now find themselves with a 6-10-3 record. The Panthers (11-7-0) lost 5-3 to Saint Mary’s Saturday evening and sit ahead of the X-Men in fifth place. Despite the two weekend losses, UNB (13-3-2) hangs onto first place, followed by Saint Mary’s (12-7-1) and Acadia (12-6-1) who both have 25 points in a second place tie, then Moncton (12-6-0) in fourth spot.

Next on the AUS schedule for the X-Men is a home-and-home weekend with the Acadia Axemen. StFX will travel to Wolfville on Friday, January 20th then follow up with a Sunday afternoon, January 22nd game at 4:00 pm at the StFX Keating Centre.