Aigles Bleus fall 3-2 in shootout to X-Men

Moncton, NB – The STFX X-Men notched two goals to the Université de Moncton Aigles Bleus one in a shootout to take a 3-2 victory in the final AUS regular season game Saturday night at J.-Louis-Lévesque arena.

Liam Hawel and Jacob Hudson scored on goalie Étienne Montpetit in the shootout while Mika Cyr was the only one of three Aigles players to outsmart X-Men netminder Blade Mann-Dixon.

Trailing 2-1 in the third period, the X-Men had tied the game with 4:44 left to play on an unassisted power play goal by Will Bower after the Aigles Bleus took a costly penalty.  

It was the X-Men who dominated the first 20 minutes of play in the game, outshooting the Aigles Bleus 16-4 in the opening period. They took a 1-0 lead on Sam Allison's goal at 7:03.

Cyr brought the Aigles Bleus back to life by levelling the score early in the second period, then Francis Thibeault scored the go-ahead goal at 12:20 of the third.

Bower's game tying goal forced a five-minute 3-on-3 overtime period which did not prove a winner, setting up the shootout, the second in as many days for the X-Men who fell to the same 3-2 score to UNB last night.

Subway player of the game Montpetit had 39 saves for Moncton in the loss, included a key save off an Adam Holwell penalty shot in the third period. Mann-Dixon had 21 saves at the other end for STFX.

The game marked the last one of an abbreviated regular season for both teams. The seventh place Aigles Bleus and sixth place Acadia Axemen will now face off in a single playoff game Wednesday in Wolfville at 7 p.m. The winner of this game will then face the third place Dalhousie Tigers in a best 2-of-3 quarterfinal series.

The fifth place Saint Mary's Huskies and fourth place UPEI Panthers will play in the other AUS quarterfinal series. First place UNB and second place STFX earned first round playoff byes and will await the quarterfinal winners for the best 2-of-3 semifinals series'.

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Courtesy UdeM and STFX Sports Information