Tigers lose to Axemen

WOLFVILLE N.S. – The Acadia Axemen's Senior Night and final home game of the season proved to be a fruitful one, as they came away victorious over the visiting Dalhousie Tigers Friday night. 

"We made a couple of blunders. A couple of mistakes we haven't been making and they scored. We did play better in the last 10 minutes which was nice to see. Overall we put in a pretty good effort, sometimes near the end of the season it's a little tougher with the grind that goes on, but we're pretty pleased the way we performed," said assistant coach Mike Alcoe following the win. 

With 5:24 remaining in the first, Acadia found the back of the net. Axemen forward Maurizio Colella parked himself in front of goal and deflected in a Liam Maskaant point shot to put Acadia ahead 1-0 on the powerplay. Ross MacDougall also assisted. 

The Axemen were not done there. Just 1:12 later, Owen MacDonald buried his 17th of the season after capitalizing on a Dalhousie turnover with a perfect wrister over the blocker of Dalhousie goaltender Kevin Resop and under the bar, popping the water bottle on its way in. 

The teams headed to the dressing rooms after 20 minutes with Acadia leading 2-0. 

At the 6:35 mark of the second period, Acadia defenceman Ross MacDougall added a goal to his points tally for the evening with a slapshot from the tops of the circles that found its' way through the scrambling Tiger's goalie. The goal was assisted by Stephen Harper and TJ Fergus. 

Though both teams had scoring opportunities throughout the remainder of the period, neither squad could beat the oppositions netminder and score remained 3-0 for the Axemen after two. 

Dalhousie was able to break the goose egg with 11:57 remaining in the third. After Jonathan Cyr did well to intercept an Acadia breakout at the blueline, he made a quick pass to Michael Dill, who beat the glove of Logan Flodell with a snapshot from the left-hand circle. 

Just a few minutes later the Tigers scored again, bringing them within a goal of drawing even. Kelly Bent capitalized on a misplayed puck error from the Acadia goaltender which he fired into the open goal. It was unassisted. 

The Axemen answered back a minute later with a goal of their own. Garrett McFadden scored a beautiful goal, after turning up ice from his own blueline, before weaving his way through the Dalhousie defence and sliding a backhand shot through the legs of the goalie. The goal was assisted by Michael Zipp. 

Under 30 seconds later, Acadia buried another one, this time coming off the stick of senior Stephen Harper. His 14th of the season came from a great one-timer pass from Eric Henderson which Harper slapped into the net from the high slot. 

Senior Mark McNulty was next on the scoresheet with a powerplay tally. With just over four minutes remaining he was the recipient of a tap-in pass on the back door of the crease to secure his first goal of the season. The goal was assisted by Maurizio Colella and Stephen Harper. 

Cristiano Digiacinto added a seventh and final goal for the Axemen, his 30th of the season, as he finished off a scramble in front of the Tiger's goal. The goal came with around a minute remaining and was assisted by Mark McNulty. 

Both teams finish off their respective regular seasons with their final games Saturday night. 

The Dalhousie Tigers will aim to end on a high note when they take on their Halifax rivals, the Saint Mary's Huskies at home. 

The Acadia Axemen will look to keep their momentum rolling as they head into Antigonish to take on the St. FX X-men tomorrow night to close out the year.