Hockey X-Men suffer loss to Huskies

The X-Men hockey team suffered a 5-2 loss to the Saint Mary’s Huskies Friday evening in Halifax. The Huskies outshot the X-Men 43-23 for the victory.

Jason Bast opened the scoring in the game with a shorthanded goal at 12:14 of the first period. Derek Claffey and Brad Cuzner assisted. The lead didn’t hold long, however, as Chris MacKinnon tied the game for the Huskies at 15:58, from Shawn O’Donnell and Cory Tanaka.

The Huskies then scored two consecutive second period goals just over a minute apart to go ahead 3-1. Ryan Hillier (2:33) from Patrick O’Keefe and Lucas Bloodoff and O’Donnell (3:47) from MacKinnon and Tanaka were the goal scorers early in the second frame.

Ted Stephens closed the gap for the X-Men with an unassisted power play goal at the 15:55 mark, but Stephen Johnston replied for the Huskies with an unassisted marker just 14 seconds later to re-establish the two-goal lead.

Tipoff rounded out the scoring for Saint Mary’s with a third period goal. Hillier and Stephen Johnson picked up the assists.
Anthony Peters picked up the win in the Huskies net with 21 saves, while Joey Perricone made a 38 save effort between the pipes for the X-Men.

StFX (7-5-1) will be back in Halifax Saturday evening for a 7:00 pm game against the Dalhousie Tigers (4-7-2).