Antigonish, NS – The StFX X-Men prevailed with a 4-3 victory over the Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleus in pre-season exhibition action Friday night at the Antigonish Arena.
Ted Stephens' goal at 10:35 of the third period held as the game winner in a close back-and-forth game that saw the Aigles Bleus outshoot the X-Men 29-23. Blake Gal assisted on the final goal to give the X-Men the win.
The X-Men held leads of 2-1 and 3-2 after the opening two periods though it was Moncton who opened the scoring in the game, just nine seconds in as Maxime Pilon scored an unassisted marker after a StFX giveaway in the slot.
Gal replied for the X-Men four minutes later from Bronson Maschmeyer and Stephens, tipping in a point shot that beat Moncton goaltender Brandon Thibeau. Steven Kuhn gave StFX a 2-1 first period lead two minutes later on a goal from Ryan Fortune and Zack MacQueen.
Pierre Durepos tied the game for the Aigles Bleus with a power play marker at 3:19 of the second period, a point shot that beat a screened X-Men netminder Morgan Clark. Steve Lebel and Christopher Guay had the helpers.
Freshman forward Eric Locke re-established StFX's one goal lead at 16:18 while on the main advantage, putting away a rebound off a Jagger Dirk shot. Rob Slaney also assisted on the play.
Moncton tied the game again at 4:12 of the third period on a Pier-Antoine Dion shot that slid in under StFX netminder Drew Owsley, who tended the goal for the second half of the game. Mathieu Martin picked up the assist.
Stephens game-winning goal came on a two-on-one rush with Blake Gal as he buried the Gal pass across the ice to beat Moncton's Adrien Lemay.
Lemay shared goaltending duties with Thibeau as the pair combined for 19 saves in the game.
For StFX, Owsley recorded 17 saves and Clark turned aside 9.
The X-Men will resume exhibition action next Friday, September 26th when they host the Saint Mary's Huskies in a 7:00 pm game to be played in North Sydney, N.S.