The X-Men hockey team opened up pre-season exhibition play at the Acadia Don Wells tournament in Wolfville this past weekend with a pair of games. After beating Acadia 3-1 in Saturday's semi-final, the X-Men fell 4-3 in overtime to Dalhousie in Sunday's championship game.
Andrew Wigginton's hat trick goal 7:28 into overtime proved to be the game winner for the Tigers, after the two teams exchanged goals throughout the game.
Wigginton opened the scoring at 16:08 of the first period on a shorthanded goal for the Tigers.
The X-Men replied with the equalizer 3:38 into the second period as Zack MacQueen scored, from Ryan Fortune and Spencer MacAvoy.
The 1-1 score held through to the first intermission.
Jarrad Struthers gave the X-Men their first lead in the game with a power goal at 9:32 of the third period, assisted by Cole Grbavac and Steven Kuhn.
Wigginton scored his second marker while on the power play at 13:47 to even the game at two goals apiece.
Gabe O'Connor gave the X-Men a 3-2 advantage with 4:07 left to play, finding the back of the net off his own rebound. Michael Kirkpatrick and Brennen Wray had the helpers.
The Tigers didn't let up however, and a late penalty call against the X-Men proved costly as Tyler Hart found the back of the X net while on the power play with only 1:04 left to play, tying the game at 3-3.
The Hart goal set up the overtime period and Wigginton's eventual winner as the Tigers claimed tournament championship honors with the victory.
The Tigers had defeated Saint Mary's 5-3 in the semi-finals to advance to the final.
StFX outshot Dalhousie 60-49 in the game. Bobby Nadeau picked up the win in the Tigers net with 57 saves while Morgan Clark was tagged with the loss in a 45 save effort.
X-Men head coach Brad Peddle commented, "It was good to finally get in some game action and start to build the foundation of our team. Saturday night was a hard fought win against a good Acadia team and I felt we go better each period."
"In Sunday's final vs DAL I liked our energy and speed and we were able to generate 60+ shots. We had some outstanding scoring chances that we must find ways to capitalize on. Overall we did some real good things for the first weekend but also have plenty to improve on moving forward."
In StFX's 3-1 win over Acadia in the semi-finals, the X-Men came back from a 1-0 first period deficit to score three unanswered goals en route to the win.
Mike Cazzola opened the scoring in the game for Acadia, assisted by Liam Heelis and Brett Thompson at 12:48 in the first period.
Kuhn scored the equalizer for StFX 5:09 into the second period. MacQueen and R.D. Chisholm assisted.
Bronson Maschmeyer netted a power play goal at 11:49 to give the X-Men the 2-1 lead, from Kirkpatrick and Grbavac.
Veteran forward Jason Bast scored the insurance marker unassisted 2:13 into the third period to round out the scoring for the X-Men.
StFX netminder Drew Owsley earned player of the game honors with 46 saves on goal as the Axemen outshot the X-Men 47-38.
Evan Mosher (16 saves) and Brandon Glover (19 saves) split the time in the Acadia net.
Acadia and Saint Mary's played to a 4-4 overtime tie in the third place game Sunday evening.
Next on the pre-season schedule for the X-Men is a game against St. Thomas Friday night, September 27th in New Glasgow, N.S. The game will be played at the Pictou County Wellness Centre at 7:00 pm.