Charlottetown, PE – The StFX X-Men have advanced to the Subway AUS semifinals with a 3-1 victory over the UPEI Panthers Friday night in game two of the Subway AUS quarter-final series. The X-Men swept the series 2-0, having previously won game one by a 4-2 score in Antigonish on Wednesday.
Third year X-Men goaltender Drew Owsley (Lethbridge, AB) was the Subway player of the game with 40 saves on the night. Eric Locke (Toronto, ON) scored two goals for the X-Men.
"I'm extremely proud of the total team effort showed by our group tonight," commented X-Men head coach Brad Peddle. "The guys stuck to a game plan and played a very hard but disciplined game and were determined to get a very important road win to close out the series."
The Panthers outshot the visiting X-Men 41-24 but were only able to get one goal past Owsley.
The X-Men got out to an early lead as Locke scored his first goal of the game 5:21 into the opening period. Kristof Kontos (Penetanguishene, ON), a teammate of Locke's with the Saginaw Spirit, assisted on the goal along with Bronson Maschmeyer (Bruderheim, AB).
Locke then increased the StFX lead to 2-0 with a first period marker at 18:25. Team leading scorer Michael Kirkpatrick (North Sydney, NS) and Trey Lewis (Aldouane, NB) had the helpers.
A power play blast off the stick of Blake Gal at the 13:54 mark of the second period gave the X-Men a three-goal lead over the Panthers. Nathan Chiarlitti (Maple, ON) and Kirkpatrick assisted.
Brent Andrews (Hunter River, PE) scored the lone Panthers goal at 16:19 of the second period, from Darcy Ashley (Brooklyn, PE) and Marcus Power (St. John's, NF).
The teams were scoreless in the third period, despite the Panthers outshooting the X-Men 11-4 in the final frame.
Mavric Parks (Eganville, ON), with 21 saves, was tagged with the loss for the Panthers who were eliminated from AUS playoff contention.
With the win the X-Men will await the result of the SMU-Moncton quarter-final series to see if their semifinal opponent will be the number one ranked UNB Varsity Reds or the number two ranked Acadia Axemen.
Saint Mary's and Moncton are tied 1-1 in their series with the deciding game three scheduled for Saturday night in Halifax. A Saint Mary's win would see the X-Men meet UNB, while a Moncton victory would pit StFX against Acadia.
The semifinal round is a best 3-of-5 series slated to begin the middle of next week with games one and two being hosted by the higher ranked school. The X-Men will host games three and four (if necessary). Game five (if necessary) would be back at UNB/Acadia.