CIS No. 3 Axemen hold Tommies back from win

WOLFVILLE, N.S. - The CIS No. 3 ranked hockey Axemen improve to 3-0 after a 7-6 overtime win over the scrappy St. Thomas Tommies in Acadia's second home game of the weekend.

A minute into the opening period, Tommie Rankyn Campbell gave St. Thomas an early 1-0 lead on an even-handed goal.

The Axemen would score five unanswered goals in the first period starting at 6:19 when senior captain Liam Heelis scored his first of the season and first of two goals on the night.

First year forward Remy Giftopoulos netted his first goal of the regular season at 10:53 and less than a minute later rookie defenseman Matthew Pufahl pushed the lead to 3-1

Before the first period ended, Mike Cazzola picked up two goals five minutes apart to end the period with an Axemen 5-1 lead. Cazzola's goals were his second and third of the season.

Out-shooting the Tommies 19-14 in the first period, the Axemen kept the offensive heat on but seem to have "dropped the ball" when it came to the defensive end of the ice.

St. Thomas scored three goals to close the lead to 5-4 in the second frame. On the powerplay, Zach Hodder started the come-back with a goal at 4:24. A minute later Brendan Childerley, on the man-advantage again, pocketed the Tommies' third goal of the night. Hodder scored the last goal of the second period at 9:33. Out-shot 15-11 in the second, the Tommies took advantage of the powerplay, capitalizing on two for two.

Heelis scored his second of the night late in the third to give the Axemen a two-goal cushion but that was quickly narrowed down to one as JC Campagna scored with just over two minutes remaining in the final frame to close the gap to one.

Campagna scored his second of the night on a game tying goal with the Tommies' goalie pulled and the extra man, sending the game into overtime.

Senior defenseman Travis Gibbons scored the overtime winning goal only 32 seconds into the extra period to give the Axemen a three game winning streak in the opening weeks of the AUS regular season schedule.

Acadia will find themselves on the road this Wednesday night as they travel to Antigonish to take on the winless StFX X-Men and then return home to host the CIS No. 2 ranked UNB Varsity Reds on Friday night followed by the undefeated Moncton Aigles Bleus. St. Thomas will regroup with one loss and two overtime losses to play against "across-campus" rivals UNB.