Ice X-Men open second half on winning note

The hockey X-Men started off the second half of the varsity season with a 4-3 win over the visiting Saint Mary’s Huskies Wednesday night at the Keating Millennium Centre.

Brett Liscomb scored the game winning goal with just over six minutes left in the third period as the X-Men clawed back for the win after being down for the majority of the game and outshot 36-20 by their opponents.

The Huskies opened up with a 2-0 lead after first period goals by Colby Pridham and Cody Thornton, who scored a power play marker. Chris Hulit drew the X-Men to within a goal after the first period of play with a power play goal of his own at 18:13 shot from a tough angle inside the faceoff circle. Brett Morrison and Sam Roberts assisted on the play.

The Huskies again gained a two goal lead after another power play goal at the 1:51 mark of the second period as Andrew Hotham tapped in a rebound in front of X netminder Danny Battachio. The Huskies continued to out-shoot the X-Men throughout the second frame until X captain Will Colbert jumped on a big rebound and scored an unassisted goal at the 14:06 mark.

The Huskies opened up the third period with a 3-2 lead and a power play but were unable to capitalize on that chance or an ensuing 5-on-3 power play opportunity.  StFX earned their own power play chance minutes later and veteran X defenseman Sam Roberts scored on a high shot from the point to tie the game at three goals a piece. Brett Morrison and Brett Robertson provided the assists.

The score remained deadlocked until Liscomb’s game winning goal 14:54 into the third. He scored from a shot in the slot with assists coming from Will Colbert and Jeff Caron.

Saint Mary’s pulled goaltender Brandon Verge with a minute left to play but were unable to capitalize as the X-Men improved their record to 8-5-2 and jump into a fourth place tie with UPEI in the AUS standings.

StFX will play host to a pair of home games this weekend as the Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleus (9-3-2) visit the Keating Centre Friday night and the St. Thomas Tommies (2-9-3) provide the opposition on Saturday. Game time both evenings is 7:00 pm.