X-Men skate to shootout victory over Axemen

Antigonish, NS – The StFX X-Men and Acadia Axemen needed a shootout to decide their Friday night game at the Charles V. Keating Centre and it was the home team X-Men who came out on top with the 4-3 win.

Third year X-Men forward Matt Needham (Penticton, BC) was credited with the game winning goal in the shootout for the X-Men as he went five-hole on Dawson Carty (Burlington, ON). The win lifted the X-Men (7-2-2) into a first place tie with UNB in the AUS standings. The Axemen (3-6-1) drop to sixth spot.

The opening period of the game saw the visitors get out to a 2-1 lead as both goals came off the stick of Johnny Cornell (Lindsay, ON). Holden Cook (Oshawa, ON) scored the X-Men goal on the power play after he went end-to-end and split the Axemen defense for a partial break.

Mark Tremaine (Dartmouth, NS) and Adam Holwell (St. John's, NL) netted second period goals for StFX as they took a 3-2 lead into second intermission, Howell's goal came on the power play.

The Axemen fought to get back in the game and forward Rodney Southam (Saskatoon, SK) tied the game up just over eight minutes into the third period as he tallied for Acadia.

Neither team could find the back of the net for the remainder of the period, and the five minute 3-on-3 overtime period couldn't break the goose egg either, forcing the deciding shootout.

Despite the loss, the Axemen outshot the X-Men by a 38-15 margin as Carty had 14 saves. Chase Marchand (Halifax, NS) improved to 4-4-0 on the season with 32 saves between the pipes for the X-Men.

Cook received third star of the game honours, Acadia's Stephen Harper (Burlington, ON) was second star and Holwell was first star and Subway player of the game.

Both teams are back on the ice next Friday, November 9^th in road games. Acadia travels to Halifax to face the Saint Mary's Huskies, while StFX will be in Fredericton to take on the UNB Reds.

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