X-Men claim exhibition win over Huskies

Truro, NS – The STFX X-Men skated to a 6-4 exhibition win over the Saint Mary's Huskies in a neutral ice game Saturday night at the Rath Eastlink Community Centre in Truro.

The win gives the X-Men an overall 3-1 pre-season record.

The teams exchanged first period goals as SMU's Joel Bishop opening the scoring just over four minutes in, then Josh Nelson replied for the X-Men while on the power play.

The X-Men outshot the Huskies 13-7 in the first period.

StFX scored three unanswered goals in the second period to take a 4-1 lead.

Goals came off the sticks of Patty Kyte, Matthew Struthers and Matt Philip while on the man-advantage.

Keith Getson netted a power play marker for SMU at 14:20 as the X-Men led 4-2 after 40 minutes.

Shots favoured the Huskies 12-10 in the middle frame.

Zach Trott put the X-Men up 5-2 with a goal four minutes into the third period but the Huskies clawed back.

Jake Durham scored two minutes later and Jonathan Hampton tallied at 13:33 to pull the Huskies to within one at 5-4.

Trott sealed the X win with an empty netter at 19:15.

Final shots favoured the X-Men at 36-31 as Matthew Walsh was tagged with the loss in the SMU net.

The X-Men played all three of their netminders throughout the game. Joseph Raaymakers had 6 first period saves, Luke Melanson turned aside 11 pucks in the second, and Blade Mann-Dixon had 10 saves in the final period.

The game marks the final one on the X-Men's pre-season exhibition schedule as they look to begin AUS regular season play next weekend.

STFX will travel to Halifax to face the same Huskies squad on Friday night then return home to host Acadia Saturday in a 7:00 pm puck drop.

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Courtesy Krista McKenna, STFX Sports Information