No. 4 ranked Axemen defeat No. 7 Huskies 4-1

Photo courtesy of Nick Pearce

HALIFAX, NS - The CIS No. 4 ranked Acadia Axemen skated past the No. 7 ranked Saint Mary's Huskies in front of an AUS season-high crowd of 3,723 fans at the Halifax Forum Wednesday night and became the second AUS team to officially secure a berth in the postseason.

With the win, Acadia improves their record to 15-4-2 and also increased their lead over Saint Mary's to four points in the battle for second place in the AUS standings.

Midway through the final frame, with Saint Mary's trailing by three goals, former NHL'er Mike Danton (Brampton, ON) brought the crowd to their feet when he scored the lone goal for the Huskies, who dropped to 12-6-4 with the loss.

Boxscore

After a scoreless opening frame in which Saint Mary's outshot the Axemen by a 10-7 margin, Acadia's Spencer Jezegou (Oshawa, ON) opened the scoring at 2:41 of the second period on the power play with his eighth goal of the season. James Klie (Harrow, ON) then made it 2-0 at 4:49 when Alex MacDonald found Klie in the slot from behind the SMU net for his second goal of the year. The Axemen took a 2-0 lead into the second intermission despite being outshot 12-10 in the period.

First year Axeman Andrew Clark (Brandon, MB) scored his eighth of the season at 3:03 of the third period to put Acadia ahead 3-0.

Danton got the only goal for Saint Mary's after knocking a Cam Fergus (Brantford, ON) pass out of the air and into the net at 10:21 of the third to make it 3-1.

The Huskies pulled first year goalie Neil Conway (Concord, OH) in the final minute, but David Lomas (Burlington, ON) sealed the victory with an empty netter late to make it 4-1 for Acadia.

Axemen goalie Kristopher Westblom (Meadow Lake, SK) was named the Subway Player of the Game as he stopped 36-of-37 shots and picked up his 12th win of the season. SMU's Conway stopped 24-of-27 shots in the loss.

Saint Mary's outshot Acadia 37-28. The Huskies were 0-for-7 on the power play while Acadia went for 1-for-7 with the man advantage.

Notes: The CIS No. 1 ranked UNB Varsity Reds have now secured a first round bye to the semifinal round of the AUS playoffs with the loss by the Huskies...Danton took Kyle Doucet's place on the wing of the Saint Mary's second line and recorded three shots on goal...Doucet is out of the SMU lineup with a broken thumb...The Axemen and Huskies will each play at UNB and at UPEI this coming weekend. UNB's Aitken Centre is already reported to be sold out for the Acadia visit Saturday evening, with a strong turnout also expected for the Saint Mary's game Friday evening.

Source:

AUS