X-Men top visiting Tigers 2-1

Antigonish, NS: The StFX X-Men bested the visiting Dalhousie Tigers 2-1 Saturday night at the Charles V. Keating Centre to a crowd of over 600 spectators. The game featured the blue and white sporting pink accessories for the X-Men's annual "Pink in the Rink" event supporting breast cancer research. 

X-Men captain Mark Tremaine (Dartmouth, NS) was the first star and Subway Player of the game, scoring the deciding goal. Dalhousie's lone goal scorer Jonathan Cyr (Ottawa, ON) was awarded second star, and adding to his multi-game point streak freshman defensemen Adam Holwell (St. John's NL) was given third star honours. 

Despite a hard fought and physical opening period, both teams were kept off the scoreboard with StFX testing Dalhousie goaltender Reilly Pickard (Halifax, NS) with 11 shots and Dalhousie testing veteran X-Men netminder Chase Marchand (Halifax, NS) on three occasions. 

Play ramped up late in the second period when Holwell, fresh off his overtime game-winning goal against Moncton Friday night, finally solved Pickard. X-Men forward Holden Cook (Whitby, ON) started a breakout from the StFX zone and passed to Matt Needham (Penticton, BC) who carried the puck into the offensive zone. Under pressure, Needham found Holwell in front the net and Holwell managed to slide the puck past Pickard.

The game winning goal came just over a minute later, while Adam Laishram (Ashburn, ON) was serving the dying seconds of a minor penalty. Sam Studnicka (Windsor, ON) shot the puck out of the X-Men zone and off the boards at centre ice for Tremaine who scored a shorthanded tally for StFX bringing the score to 2-0. 

Despite the two StFX goals, shots in the second period favoured Dalhousie at 14-7.

The final frame saw freshman X-Men defense Bailey Webster (Kensington, PE) serve the second delay of game penalty of the night. While Dalhousie was on the man advantage StFX couldn't clear the puck from their zone, allowing veteran Tigers forward Jackson Playfair (Fort St. James, BC), who was stationed at the point, to pass to second year forward Andrew Shewfelt (Dartmouth, NS) in the slot. Seeing Cyr alone in front of the X-Men net, Shewfelt passed and Cyr tipped it past Marchand for Dalhousie's only goal of the night. 

The Tigers pressured in the final minute of play and pulled netminder Pickard while they were on a power play, resulting in a frantic 6-on-4 situation but they could not score the equalizer as the X-Men held on for the win. Final shots in the game were tied at 24 apiece.

The same two teams will square off again in Halifax this Wednesday, October 24^th in a 7:00 pm puck drop.

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Courtesy Kiana Pace, StFX Sports Information