(ANTIGONISH, N.S.) - The StFX X-Men rallied from a two-goal deficit in the third period to come back and beat the CIS No. 4-ranked Acadia Axemen 4-3 in overtime Wednesday night in AUS men's hockey action at the StFX Keating Centre.
Spencer McAvoy's goal four minutes into the extra period gave the X-Men the victory, snapping the Axemen's nine-game winning streak.
The Axemen, now in a tie for first place in the AUS standings, built up a 3-1 third period lead but the X-Men battled back tied the game with goals from Ted Stephens and Michael Kirkpatrick to send the game to overtime.
AUS-leading scorer Liam Heelis scored two goals for the Axemen (10-1-1) who were outshot 38-25 to the game by the X-Men. With the win, StFX improved to 6-5-1 on the season.
Heelis scored Acadia's first two goals of the game, his first coming short-handed at the 15:20 mark of the first period. He picked up the puck after a StFX giveaway and squeezed through a pair of X players to break in and beat StFX netminder Drew Owsley on an unassisted play.
StFX outshot Acadia 17-8 in the first period as Axemen goalie Evan Mosher posted several big saves to keep his team in the game.
StFX's Zack MacQueen tied the game 3:33 into the second period, banging in a rebound as Steven Kuhn and Nathan Chiarlitti assisted. A shower of teddy bears followed this first X-Men goal as part of their 'teddy bear toss' promotion.
The X-Men found themselves playing a good portion of the second period short-handed as they ran into penalty trouble with five minor infractions.
Heelis regained the Axemen one-goal lead with a power-play marker at 11:30. After StFX fought off a 5-on-3 penalty kill for 33 seconds, Heelis netted his second goal with four seconds left in the ensuing man advantage.
It appeared that Owsley had the puck at the side of the net in a scramble, but Heelis found the loose puck and popped it into the net as Brett Thompson and Mike Cazzola assisted.
Bast had a great short-handed chance for the X-Men on a partial breakaway but couldn't pull the trigger on the backhand.
The 2-1 Acadia lead held up after 40 minutes of play.
StFX had their own power-play opportunity early in third period but could not convert.
The Axemen's third goal came off the stick of Dustin Ekelman after a neutral zone turnover. Dylan Anderson and Joe Graynor were in on the helpers.
Acadia saw their two-goal advantage disappear as Stephens scored on the power play at 11:34, then Kirkpatrick got his stick on a point shot at 16:35.
Jason Bast assisted on the Stephens goal, as he had the initial shot on net then Stephens jumped on the rebound to put it past Mosher into the empty side of the net.
Kirkpatrick's goal came after a costly Acadia icing call. Rob Slaney won the draw in the Acadia zone, passing the puck back to Bronson Maschmeyer at the point who then directed it on net, setting up Kirkpatrick's tip-in.
The four-on-four overtime period saw the X-Men outshoot the Axemen 3-0. Brad Cuzner set up the game-winning goal, bringing the puck up the left wing, squeezing past an Acadia defender to get a shot on net. Mosher made the save but gave up a rebound to an open McAvoy who made no mistake on the open side.
Mosher recorded 34 saves in the Axemen net while Owsley picked up 22 saves in the X-Men win.
With just their second loss of the season, the Axemen (10-1-1) will try to regroup for two weekend games at home against Moncton (5-5-0) and UNB (10-1-1).
The X-Men will close out the first half of the season with games on the road at UPEI (5-4-1) and St. Thomas (3-8-1) on Friday and Saturday evenings.
All games can be seen live at www.AUStv.ca.
Source: StFX Sports Information
Photo courtesy of Erica Roberts