CIS No. 3-ranked Axemen claim 7-6 OT win over Tommies

(WOLFVILLE, N.S.) - The CIS No. 3-ranked hockey Axemen improve to 3-0 after a 7-6 overtime win over the 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 with helpers from Stephen Janes and Colin Martin.

The Axemen went on to 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 defenceman 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.

St. Thomas responded with three goals to close the lead to 5-4 in the second frame.

On the power play, Zach Hodder started the comeback 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 power play, 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 defenceman Travis Gibbons scored the game-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 at 7 p.m. as they travel to Antigonish to take on the winless StFX X-Men.

St. Thomas will regroup with one loss and two overtime losses to play the UNB Varsity Reds in an all-Fredericton matchup, also Wednesday night at 7 p.m.

Source: Acadia Sports Information