The Acadia hockey Axemen picked up five of a possible six points from a rare three-game week that saw them take on all three of their Nova Scotia rivals.
Following their 5-1 win over St. F.X. on Jan. 16 in Wolfville, the Axemen took to the road for games Jan. 18 at Saint Mary’s and Jan. 19 at Dalhousie.
On Jan. 19, Colin Archer opened the scoring for Acadia at 15:54 of the first period. After Parker Deighan tied the score for Saint Mary’s at 11:57 of the second, Dustin Ekelman’s power play goal at 19:57 of the second gave Acadia back the lead.
With Archer in the penalty box for roughing and the Saint Mary’s goalie on the bench, Shawn O’Donnell netted the tying goal at 19:33 for SMU.
The teams then battled through a scoreless overtime session and into the fifth round of a shootout before SMU’s Ryan Hillier scored the game-winner.
Acadia picked up a point for the shootout loss, while the second-place Huskies got two points for the win, moving them two points ahead of third-place Acadia.
The following evening, the Axemen skated away with a 3-1 victory to improve their regular season record to 15-6-2 for 32 points, two behind Saint Mary’s and four behind UNB.
Andrew Clark got the Axemen on the board with a power play goal at 18:41 of the opening period, but Dan Conacher tied the score for Dalhousie at 8:14 of the second.
In the third period, Alex Beaton netted the game-winner, an even-strength marker at 5:15. K.C. Brown, inserted into the lineup in place of the injured Michael Ward, scored an important goal at 18:16 to provide some badly-needed insurance.
With just five regular season games left, the third-place Axemen return home this weekend for games Jan. 25 against Moncton and Jan. 26 evening against St. Thomas.
