Halifax, NS - In AUS men's hockey action, the Saint Mary's Huskies men's hockey team battled the StFX X-Men to a 9-3 victory for their last regular season home game at the Dauphinee Centre. It was a rough game, with over 70 penalty minutes going to each team in the high scoring affair.
The Huskies opened the story less than five minutes into the game with a shorthanded goal. Stephen Johnson (Moncton, NB) stripped an X-Men defender of the puck at the Huskies' blue line and was off on a breakaway, where he put a low shot blocker side past Blade Mann-Dixon (Antigonish, NS).
The X-Men played a solid period, putting several shots to the glove of Xavier Potvin (Austin, QC), but the second-year goalie was sharp.
Saint Mary's went on the power play with about four minutes to go. They had a good cycle game going but scoring opportunities were limited by a couple of key shot blocks by the X-Men.
The first period came to an end 1-0 in favour of the Huskies, and they led in shots 11-7.
They added three goals in the first five minutes of the second period to take a dominant 4-1 lead. First was Adam Bateman (Caldon, ON), who got a stretch pass from Anthony Repaci (Toronto, ON) at the X-Men blue line and made a nice deke to beat Mann-Dixon.
Then on the power play, Keith Getson (Bridgewater, NS) tipped a shot from Nicholas Welsh (Halifax, NS) into the top corner of the net.
After that, Conor McGlynn (Oakville, ON) added another goal. A cross ice pass on the breakout was out of his reach, but he skated onto the puck at the top of the circle in StFX's zone and put a low shot to the far post and into the net.
At that point, StFX put Joseph Rayymakers (Chatham, ON) into the net.
Saint Mary's added another power play goal with 13 minutes to go to make it 5-0. It was a low shot from Logan DeNoble (Peterborough, ON) at the half wall that rang in short side.
Fifteen seconds later, StFX responded as William Bower (Saint John, NB) grabbed a bouncing puck behind the net and brought it out front for a shot. From the battle, the puck popped to the far side of the crease where Bryson Cianfrone (Stoney Creek, ON) flipped it high into the net to get the X-Men on the board,
In the second half of the period, the Huskies scored once again. The puck went across the point from Sam Dunn (Hamilton Township, ON) to Jacob Friend (Bowmanville, ON). With lots of traffic in front of the net, Rayymakers was screened and Friend's shot went straight in.
The score at the end of the second period was 6-1 for the Huskies.
Three minutes into the final period, the X-Men scored their second goal of the night. A pass from the point from Santino Centorame (Mississauga, ON) went to Adam Laishram (Ashburn, ON), who beat Potvin low glove side to make it 6-2.
Midway through the period, the X-Men got into penalty trouble. On their second five-on-three opportunity, the Huskies capitalized as Dawson Theede (Brooklin, ON) put in the rebound after a shot from the high slot by Johnson.
Still on the man advantage, SMU added another tally to make the score 8-2 as McGlynn got his second goal of the game.
With eight minutes to go, pushing and near fighting after the whistle saw a handful of players get 10-minute misconducts.
In the late minutes of the game, Bower scored a power play goal for the X-Men, putting in a rebound in close.
The Huskies responded once again, this time Bishop had a nice move through the slot, then passed back across the crease for Noah Zilbert (Fredericton, NB) to tap in the puck.
With about a minute and a half left in the game, the power in the Dauphinee Centre went out, ending the competition early. The final score was 9-3 for the Huskies.
The Subway Player of the Game was the Huskies' goaltender, Xavier Potvin, while Nicholas Welsh and Conor McGlynn also got nods as second and third stars of the game.
Both teams have one game left in the regular season. The Huskies go across town to play the Dalhousie Tigers, while the X-Men host the Acadia Axemen. Both games are Saturday, Feb. 8 at 7:00 p.m.
-30-
Courtesy Sarah Moore, SMU Sports Information