Antigonish, NS - The StFX X-Men (12-7) erased a two-goal deficit with four unanswered tallies in the third period to earn a 4-2 win over the CIS No. 3 ranked Acadia Axemen (14-5) Saturday night in AUS hockey action.
More than 1,000 fans turned out for the action at the Keating Centre.
"We had an upsetting loss last night, so we wanted to come out hard," forward Cory MacIntosh (North Sydney, NS), who scored the game-tying goal for the X-Men, said after the game.
MacIntosh said the inability to score in the first two periods, despite having several chances against Axemen goaltender Brandon Glover (Victoria, BC), frustrated the X-Men.
"We got one and we rallied from there," he added of the comeback.
Jarrad Struthers (Glace Bay, NS), from Blake Gal (Lethbridge, AB) and Michael Kirkpatrick (North Sydney, NS) cut the Axemen lead to 2-1 at the 7:48 mark of the third period.
After a sliding Trey Lewis (Aldouane, NB) shot block, one of several on the night for the freshman defender, the X-Men broke into the Axemen zone on four-on-one. Glover made the initial save on a MacIntosh slap shot, but he could not block the second attempt from the junior forward. Craig Duininck (St. Cloud, MN) collected the lone assist at 8:58.
With the third X-Men goal in 2:32, Subway player of the game Blake Gal gave the home team a 3-2 advantage at the 10:20 mark. Defenseman Bronson Maschmeyer (Bruderheim, AB) engineered the play, avoiding two Axemen opponents before making a lead pass to Gal, who squeezed a shot under the arm of Glover. Kirkpatrick garnered the other assist.
At 13:11, Kirkpatrick provided an insurance goal, with the assists going to Lewis and Steven Kuhn (Oyen, AB).
On the power play, the visiting Axemen opened the scoring at 10:26 of the first period. Geoff Schemitsch (Thornhill, ON) beat Drew Owsley (Lethbridge, AB) with a one-timer from the right face-off circle. Matthew Pufahl (Saskatoon, SK) and Zachary Franko (Winnipeg, MB) garnered assists on the marker.
Acadia doubled the lead on a goal from Dylan Anderson (Ottawa, ON), who walked out from behind the X-Men net and beat Owsley from the lip of the crease on the forehand. Travis Randell (Twillingate, NL) and Remy Giftopoulos (Ancaster, ON) drew the assists at 7:39 of the second period.
The three stars of the game were Gal, Lewis and Anderson.
The Axemen will be back in action Friday, January 16 when they host the St. Thomas Tommies in Wolfville. On the same night, the X-Men will travel to Fredericton to face the CIS #2 ranked UNB Varsity Reds.
Puck drop for both match-ups is scheduled for 7 p.m.
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