Posted: Jan 20, 2013
Saturday’s shootout win came after the X-Men erased a 3-0 deficit in the game. The Huskies, coming off a 3-2 shootout win over Acadia the night before, held a 2-0 lead after the first period of play.
Lucas Bloodoff opened the scoring at 7:14, tipping in a shot from the point that trickled through the legs of StFX netminder Drew Owsley. Stephen Johnston and Patrick O’Keefe assisted on the goal. Chris MacKinnon picked up the Huskies second goal at 15:54, punching in a rebound after Owsley made the initial save off a Jeff Marchand shot. Jamie Doornbosch also picked up a helper.
Bloodoff scored his second goal of the game 3:36 into the second period to increase the Huskies lead to 3-0. His goal came while on the power play, shooting in a Cory Tanaka pass across the crease. Shawn O’Donnell assisted as well.
The X-Men began to close the gap very quickly after Bloodoff’s power play goal. Brennen Wray potted StFX’s first goal just 30 seconds later, beating Huskies goaltender Anthony Peters with a point shot over the blocker. Jason Bast and Steven Kuhn assisted on the play.
Kuhn and Bast then scored consecutive goals to tie the game at 3-3. Kuhn scored on the power play at 10:49, netting a rebound off a Bronson Maschmeyer shot. Cory MacIntosh also assisted.
Bast’s goal came at 11:26, also on the power play. Peters made the saves on consecutive shots by Spencer McAvoy and Brennen Wray before Bast banged in a rebound.
X-Men forward Jarrad Struthers was sent to the box with a five minute penalty for checking from behind. The ensuing power play carried over into the third period and the Huskies took advantage, scoring at 2:13. Shawn O’Donnell batted in the puck in front of the X net with Matt Tipoff and Tanaka assisting.
The turning point in the game came with 5:52 left on the clock when the Huskies thought they had scored an insurance marker while shorthanded, but instead the play was blown and O’Donnell was sent to the box for goaltender interference. The X-Men then went on a 5-on-3 power play for 1:34.
Just after the first SMU penalty had expired, Michael Kirkpatrick fired home a power play game at 15:46 for the X-Men, tying the game at 4-4. He scored off a rebound as Bast and Ted Stephens assisted.
Despite StFX having a couple good shots on goal in the dying minute of regulation, neither team could score the go-ahead goal, and the tie held after sixty minutes of play.
The ten minute four-on-four overtime period solved nothing. Subway player of the game Jason Bast had the best chance for X when he broke through a seam in the Huskies defence with 1:30 left to play but was stopped by Peters.
The Huskies found themselves in a shootout for the second consecutive night. After the X-Men elected to shoot first, Bronson Maschmeyer missed, then the Huskies Gerrard Grant was stopped by Owsley. Ted Stephens scored for the X-Men in what would prove to be the winner and only goal of the shootout as Owsley stopped Ryan Hillier and Stephen Johnston and Peters stopped Michael Kirkpatrick.
The X-Men picked up a much needed two points in the victory, despite being outshot by the Huskies 47-42.
In Friday night action against Dalhousie, the visiting Tigers got out to an early 2-0 lead in the game with first period goals by Andrew Wigginton (2:19) and Brendon MacDonald (4:05). Wigginton’s wrist shot from a Mathieu Boudreau pass to the slot beat StFX goaltender Joey Perricone, while MacDonald’s goal was scored on the power play. He redirected a shot from Pierre-Alexandre Vandall. Jacob Johnston also picked up an assist.
The X-Men cut the lead in half before the period was up when Kirkpatrick notched a power play marker at 15:16. Wray assisted as Kirkpatrick’s slap shot from the point fooled Tigers goalie Bobby Nadeau.
The second period saw the X-Men score three unanswered goals, two off the stick of Subway player of the game Brennen Wray. Wray’s first goal came at 2:16 as he redirected a Jason Bast shot over the blocker of Nadeau. Derek Claffey also picked up a helper on the play.
Ted Stephens (8:07) scored the X-Men’s third goal of the evening. On a 2-on-1 play with Kirkpatrick, Nadeau stopped Kirkpatrick’s slap shot then Stephens buried the rebound. Cory MacIntosh was in on the play for an assist as well.
Wray tallied his second goal while on the power play late in the second frame. He tipped in a Spencer McAvoy shot from the point at 19:22. Stephens picked up his second point of the evening with an assist.
MacIntosh rounded out the scoring in the game for StFX with a power play 8:53 into the third period, the only goal of that period. He jumped on a rebound after Nadeau stopped R.D. Chisholm’s shot in the slot. Chisholm and Zack MacQueen assisted.
The game ended on a rough note as 133 penalty minutes were handed out in the third period, including ten 10-minute misconduct calls, five to each squad.
At 16:53, StFX’s Chisholm and Dalhousie’s Shea Kewin were both assessed contact to the head minor penalties and game misconducts. Just over a minute later, Nic Pageau of X and Brett Theberge of the Tigers exchanged minor penalties and were sent off with misconduct calls. MacQueen, Kirkpatrick and Jarrad Struthers also left the ice with misconducts for X, while Brett Plouffe, Kendall MacInnis and Daniel Joyce left for the Tigers. Joyce was also handed a five minute fighting and two minute instigating penalty for a tangle-up with Struthers.
When the dust settled and the final buzzer sounded, the X-Men had outshot the Tigers 39-29 in the game as they snapped a three-game losing streak. Perricone picked up his sixth win of the season with 27 saves. Nadeau was tagged with the loss for Dalhousie with 34 saves.
The Tigers were tagged with a second loss Saturday evening in Halifax as they fell 3-1 to CIS No. 7 Acadia. With a 6-14-3 record they are in seventh place in the AUS conference.
The X-Men improve to 13-8-2 and with 28 points, remain in fourth place. UNB (18-5-0) is first with 36, followed by Saint Mary’s (16-5-2, 34 points) and Acadia (15-6-2, 32 points). The UPEI Panthers (12-9-2) are close behind the X-Men with 26 points. Moncton (9-9-5, 23 points), Dalhousie (6-14-3, 15 points) and St. Thomas (3-19-1, 7 points) round out the standings.
Next on the schedule for the X-Men is a pair of road games on January 25th and 26th. Friday night they will take on UPEI in Charlottetown, followed by a match-up against the first place Varsity Reds in Fredericton on Saturday night.