Axemen go 1-2 on exhibition trip

BY JOHN DECOSTE

The Advertiser

NovaNewsNow.com

The Acadia hockey Axemen opened their 2007-2008 season with a win and a pair of losses on an exhibition swing through Ontario and the northern U.S.

Acadia handled the Queen’s Golden Gaels 8-1 in a game played Oct. 4 in Ganonoque, Ont. The Axemen then lost 5-2 to Clarkson College Saturday, Oct. 6 and 4-0 to the University of Vermont Sunday, Oct. 7.

“It was a good trip overall,” head coach Darren Burns said. “We played well for the most part against both Clarkson and Vermont, and we didn’t get outworked, which is how I’m measuring things right now.”

Against Queen’s, which according to Burns is a relatively weak team, Blair Jarrett had a pair of goals and Nathan Welton, Zack MacMillan, Tyler Whitehead, Alex MacDonald, Scott Giles and Dave Lomas added singles as the Axemen won easily.

On Saturday in Potsdam, N.Y., Burns said the Axemen played well against the Clarkson Golden Knights, an NCAA Division 1 team, but got some bad bounces early and were looking at a 4-1 deficit at the end of the first period.

Clarkson led 4-0 until captain Paul McFarland got the Axemen on the board in the final minute of the period. Clarkson had the lone goal of the second period to make it 5-1 and Lomas rounded out the scoring for Acadia at 1:05 of the third.

The next day, in Burlington, VT, the hometown Catamounts scored twice in each of the second and third periods while holding Acadia off the scoreboard.

The Axemen, who were 0-11 on the power play (Vermont had two goals in 10 power play chances), were without forwards Jarrett, Philippe Bertrand and Adam McIlwraith, all injured, and lost defensemen Dale Good (suspended for fighting) and Zack Firlotte (suspended for a hit from behind) during the game.

“We didn’t have a strong outing,” Burns said of the Vermont game. “We were playing our third game in four days and we were down to 13-14 players and were kind of thin on defense, but we can’t really use that as an excuse.”

Acadia has their home opener against Saint Mary’s tonight with Good and Firlotte both still suspended (they’re eligible to return for Saturday’s game at St. F.X.), Jarrett and Bertrand injured and McIlwraith questionable.

“We’ll be going in short-staffed against one of the top teams in the country,” Burns said Wednesday. “We’ll need to dig deep and control what we’re able to control.”