Antigonish, NS – The StFX X-Men continued their pre-season play at the Antigonish Arena Saturday afternoon as they defeated the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières Patriotes 6-1 in exhibition action.
The X-Men's win today follows a 2-1 loss to the same UQTR team Friday evening at the Pictou County Wellness Centre.
The first period saw both teams remain scoreless, with the first whistle being blown at just over eight minutes into play. StFX had 12 shots on goal, with UQTR having four.
All six of the X-Men's goals came during the penalty-filled second period. The X-Men capitalized on a Patriotes four-minute spearing penalty with two power play goals. Matt Needham (Penticton, BC) opened the scoring at 2:32 for third first goal while on the man advantage, assisted by Sam Studnicka (Windsor, ON). Just over a minute later Marcus Cuomo (St. Johns, NL) scored another power play goal on a stretch pass from Craig Duininck (St. Cloud, MN).
X-Men defenseman Cole MacDonald (Wetaskiwin, AB) assisted by Adam Laishram (Ashburn, ON) found the net next. Freshman Santino Centorame (Mississauga, ON) scored twice for the blue and white, first assisted by Studnicka and Mark Tremaine (Dartmouth, NS) then by Jagger Dirk (Penticton, BC) and Regan Spears (Port Hood, NS) with a shot from the point while on the power play. Dirk was also credited with his own goal in the second period with an assist by Tremaine.
The X-Men outshot the Patriotes 27-12 through 40 minutes of play. Ninety-two penalty minutes were assessed in the middle period.
Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières Patriotes' Carl-Antoine Delisle (Blainville, QC) was the only scorer in the third period, as he scored with 1:22 left in the game off a Mathieu Lemay (Hawkesbury, ON) helper.
StFX outshot UQTR by a 31-19 margin as Brandon Hope (Canton, MI) picked up the win in the StFX net. Alexandre Bélanger (Sherbrooke, QC) took the loss for UQTR.
The X-Men are on the road for their next pre-season game, heading south of the border for a pair of exhibition games against NCAA teams. They will face-off against the University of Connecticut on September 30th and the University of New Hampshire the following day.
Courtesy Kiana Pace, StFX Athletics communications