Solid road effort nets hockey Axemen sixth straight win

BY JOHN DECOSTE

NovaNewsNow.com

The Acadia hockey Axemen turned in a solid 60-minute effort on the road Friday en route to a 4-2 upset win over the Moncton Aigles Bleus.

It was Acadia’s sixth win in a row, and improved the Axemen record to 10-11-2 (after starting the season 1-9) for 22 points, good for sole possession of fifth place, two ahead of both St. F.X. and UPEI.

The Axemen, who continue their road swing tonight at UNB against the top-ranked Varsity Reds, enter that game one point behind fourth-place St. Thomas and five back of third-place Moncton.

David Lomas’s second goal of the game and seventh in his last four games – all of them Axemen wins – at 3:19 of the second period proved to be the eventual winning goal.

Acadia controlled the play five-on-five and thanks to a yeoman effort from goaltender Lanny Ramage, held the explosive Moncton squad scoreless on six power plays. Overall, Moncton finished with a 33-24 edge in shots on goal.

Lomas opened the scoring on a five-on-three Axemen power play at 13:58 of the first period, and Brad Horan made it 2-0 just 22 seconds later on the same power play.

Outstanding goaltending from Ramage, who stopped 17 Moncton shots in the first period alone, kept the Aigles Bleus off the scoreboard until Pierre-Andre Bureau scored at 5:04 of the third period.

Pierre-Luc Laprise brought Moncton to within one at 17:21, but with Aigles Bleus’ goalie Eric LaFrance on the bench for an extra skater, Paul McFarland set up Tyler Whitehead who found the empty net at 18:58 to round out the scoring.