Ice X-Men skate into road woes

The X-Men hockey team experienced a disappointing road trip to the neighboring province of New Brunswick this past weekend as they were handed a 7-2 loss by Moncton and a 5-4 loss by St. Thomas in consecutive nights.

Friday night in Moncton, the Aigles Bleus avenged a Jan. 9th 4-0 shutout win by the X-Men as they delivered a 7-2 blow to the visiting blue and white. 

Moncton established first and second period leads of 3-0 and 6-0 respectively, as Ian Mathieu-Girard and Francis Marchand each scored 2 goals a piece and Jules Melanso and Remi Gatreau tallied single markers.

The X-Men were held off the score sheet until 49 seconds into the third period when Bryce Swan scored a powerplay goal with assists from Jeff Caron and Robbie Lawrance.

Remi Doucet (UdeM) and Chris Hulit (StFX) rounded out the scoring in the game which saw the X-Men out-shoot the Aigles Bleus by a narrow 36-34 margin. X-Men Danny Battochio took the loss in nets, being replaced after the fifth goal by rookie goalie Joseph Perricone. Kevin Lachance earned the win between the pipes for Moncton.

On Saturday night in Fredericton, although the score was closer, the X-Men still ended up on the losing end of a 5-4 game to the St. Thomas Tommies.

The play was back and forth the entire game but Maxime Chamberland was able to capitalize at the 14:46 minute mark of the third period to pop in his second goal of the game foe the winner.

The teams were deadlocked at 1-1 after the first period of play and 2-2 after the second, and exchanged two goals each in the third before Chamberland’s deciding goal.

Scoring for the X-Men were Bryce Swan with two goals and Brett Liscomb and Sean Flinn with singles. Devan Praught had two goals for the Tommies and Jason Cassidy rounded out the scoring with a single marker.

The X-Men out-shot the Tommies by a 38-21 margin.

The losses drop the X-Men record to 11-8-2 and they currently sit in a tie for fourth place in the AUS conference with UPEI (24 points each), four back of third place Moncton. UNB, Saint Mary’s and Moncton have all secured playoff spots.

The X-Men will host the UPEI Panthers (11-8-2) on Friday night at 7:00 pm at the StFX Keating Centre in a battle for sole possession of fourth spot. ON Saturday night, also at 7:00 pm, the first place UNB Varsity Reds (16-2-3) will be in town.