Tigers beat Axemen 3-2 in shootout

Written by Sam Goldstein

The Dalhousie Tigers beat the Acadia Axemen 3-2 in a shootout at the Halifax Forum on Saturday night.

The Axemen started the game on the front foot and the pressure never faltered. The Axemen dominated the puck and took a whopping sixty-nine shots. The Tigers struggled to mount any offence with sixteen shots but scored two late third-period goals to bring the game to overtime.

The Axemen came out the gate quickly with twenty-seven first-period shots. After constant pressure, with 11:45 left in the period, Adam MacMaster (Beamsville, ON) gave the Axemen an early 1-0 lead with a whipping snapshot setup with a slick feed from Corson Hopwo (Duncan, BC). Tiger's goalie, Nicholas Chenard (Tecumseh, ON) kept the game close by saving twenty-seven shots in the first frame.

After the break, the Axemen continued their offensive pressure. Initially, the period was end-to-end, but a Tigers penalty would dissipate all their momentum. With 11:11 remaining in the period, while on a powerplay, Axemen forward, Peyton Hoyt (Lincoln, NB) would double the lead to 2-0. Two minutes later, the Tigers would commit another costly penalty. The Tigers committed three penalties in the second period. The Axemen finished the second in full control, but Chenard made twenty-two saves in the period (forty-nine up to that point) to keep the Tiger's hope alive.

The final frame continued in the Axemen's favour with them comfortably protecting their lead. Suddenly, the Tigers sparked a comeback. With 3:36 left, Tigers rookie defenseman, Zach Welsh (Halifax, NS) would fire the puck top left and beat the Acadia netminder to cut the lead to 2-1.

Inspired, the Tigers kept the pressure going, and then, with 2:00 minutes remaining, Jack Harper (Guelph, ON) found the equalizer and miraculously tied the game at 2-2.

The game would go into overtime, where both teams would go back and forth. Chenard was a man-possessed in overtime, willing the Tigers to a shootout.

The Tigers would complete the comeback and win the shootout 3-1.

In a breakout performance, Nicholas Chenard made sixty-seven saves with a 97.1% save percentage to earn himself the player of the game.

The Tigers will look to go back-to-back wins next Wednesday when they travel to Antigonish to face the X-Men. The Acadia Axemen return against the first-seeded UNB Reds this Friday at 7:00 pm AST.