Wolfville, N.S. – The Acadia Axemen extended their season with a 3-2 overtime win over the StFX X-Men on Friday night in Game 2 of the best of three quarterfinal series. The deciding Game 3 of the series will be played Sunday night at StFX.
The overtime winning goal came from Subway player of the game Cristiano Digiacinto, who stepped in over the blue-line and ripped a shot into the top right corner of the net for the game-winner.
Special teams played a huge role in the game as the Axemen tallied two power play goals and the X-Men were 0 for 7 on the man advantage.
The Axemen spent most of the first half of the opening period killing off three consecutive penalties.
Despite their early penalty troubles, Acadia got on the scoreboard first, thanks to a power-play marker from forward Kyle Farrell. He redirected a wrist shot from the blue line by forward Stephen Harper, to make it 1-0.
Acadia outshot the X-Men 19-4 in the first period and had several opportunities add to their lead – including two shots off the post from Farrell – but the score remained 1-0 heading into the second.
StFX was the only team to score in the second frame.
The Axemen continued to kill off several more penalties and almost made it to the dressing room for second intermission with the lead intact, but with 14 seconds remaining in the period the X-Men got on the board. A shot from the point by defenceman Will Thompson was redirected off the body of an Acadia player and into the Axemen net to tie the game at one after two periods.
StFX came out a much different team in the third period, playing their best hockey of the game despite 31-16 shots on goal advantage for the Axemen following two periods of play.
The X-Men took their first lead of the game on a goal from forward Daniel Robertson, who lifted a shot over the Axemen goalie in tight to make it 2-1.
While the X-Men held the lead for most of the final period, Acadia responded in dramatic fashion with a game-tying goal with 1:50 to go in the final frame.
The with a crowd erupted when Digiacinto scooped up the rebound of Tate Olson's shot from the point that bounced off the end boards and fired it past the sprawling Chase Marchand to tie the game at 2-2 and send it to overtime.
At the end of the third period, the shots were 52-24 for the Axemen. Digiacinto's overtime goal came at 3:06 of the overtime period.
Axemen goaltender Logan Flodell turned aside 24 of 26 shots, while his StFX counterpart, and StFX player of the game, Chase Marchand had 54 saves on the night.
The deciding and final Game 3 in the best-of-three quarter-final series will be played Sunday night in Antigonish. Puck drop is 7:00 pm at the Charles V. Keating Centre.
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Courtesy Acadia Sports Information