The Saint Mary’s Huskies are down a game in the Atlantic University Sport men’s hockey semifinals.
The Huskies fell 2-1 to the host Acadia Axemen last night in Wolfville, despite finishing with a 36-26 edge in shots in a tight opener of the best-of-five series.
Spencer Jezegou scored on a power play in the second period and Andrew Clark buried another with about six minutes to go in the third to put the Axemen up 2-0. Despite a late goal from reigning national player of the year Marc Rancourt with three minutes left, the Huskies couldn’t net the equalizer.
Saint Mary’s rookie goaltender Neil Conway made 24 saves.
“We played well enough to win,” said Huskies head coach Trevor Stienburg. “Our goaltending was outstanding. We got some big saves. The bottom line is, the (second goal) was a relief for them because they hadn’t had a lot of chances … We just couldn’t find a way to score a couple of times.”
The Huskies play the Axemen in Wolfville on Friday night at 7 p.m. before returning home for Game 3 on Monday at 7 p.m. and Game 4, if necessary, on Wednesday on 7 p.m.
“That’s our goal, to get this next game and kind of neutralize the home-ice situation,” Stienburg said.
The St. Francis Xavier X-Men visit the New Brunswick Varsity Reds tonight to open the other semifinal.
