The StFX X-Men defeated the Dalhousie Tigers 5-4 in their season finale game Saturday night in Halifax. Michael Kirkpatrick and Jared Struthers each had one goal and one assist to lead the X-Men to victory.
StFX was able to control the tempo right from the get-go, as they opened the scoring at the 2:26 mark of the first period on a Spencer McAvoy shot that found twine from Michael Kirkpatrick and Jason Bast. The X-Men continued to pressure the Tigers the rest of the period, and were able to increase their lead to 2-0 when Struthers buried one at the 13:02 mark off passes from Kevin Undershute and Claffey. Dalhousie had the upper hand in shots however, as they outshoot the X-Men 10-5 in the first frame.
The second period started very similar to the first, as the X-Men were able to go ahead 3-0 when R.D. Chisholm fired one home at the 3:26 mark from Marco Desveaux and Gabriel O’Connor. The three goal lead didn’t last long, as the Tigers responded 13 seconds later when Pierre-Alexander Vandall (Benjamin Breault, Francois Gauthier) scored at 4:09.
The Tigers than made the game interesting when they closed the gap to 3-2 after Gauthier (Breault, Vandall) sniped one past X-Men goaltender Morgan Clarke at the 11:07 mark. The remaining nine minutes didn’t produce any offense as the score sat at 3-2 in favor of StFX heading into the second intermission. The Tigers outshot the X-Men 22-16 after forty minutes of play.
The see-saw affair continued in the third period as the X-Men capitalized twice in the first ten minutes to increase their lead to 5-2. Kirkpatrick (unassisted) scored at the 3:32 mark while Brett Morrison (Undershute, Struthers) on the power play at the 8:34 mark were the goal scorers for the X-Men. The Tigers staged a comeback in the final five minutes however, as they were able to score two quick goals less than three minutes apart to cut the StFX lead to a single goal.
Benoit Gervais (Brett Theberge, J. Villeneuve-Gagne) scored at 14:48, while Breault (Vandall) continued his torrid season, scoring the fourth goal for the Tigers. Dalhousie was unable to score the eventual tying goal, as the X-Men earned their third straight victory heading into the AUS playoffs.
The Tigers outshot the X-Men by a 30-26 margin in the game. Clarke turned aside 26 shots in the StFX net, while Wendell Vye and Bobby Nadeau combined for 21 saves in the Tigers loss.
The final AUS standings are now set for upcoming playoff action. The sixth place X-Men (10-14-4) will face the third place Moncton Aigles Bleus (18-9-1) in a best two-of-three quarterfinal game series starting next week, while the fourth place UPEI Panthers (18-10-0) take on the fifth place Acadia Axemen (16-10-2) in the other quarterfinal series. UNB (20-5-3) and Saint Mary’s (18-7-3) clinched first round byes, finishing first and second in the conference. The AUS playoff schedules will be released on Monday.