X-Men handle Gryphons 4-1 in exhibition play

The X-Men hockey team hit the ice Sunday evening in CIS non-conference exhibition action, defeating the visiting Guelph Gryphons 4-1 after a month lay-off from game action.

StFX had a balanced attack with four different scorers contributing to the win and Drew Owsley and Morgan Clark splitting the time in nets for a combined 17 saves.

The X-Men established a 2-0 lead after the first period of play with goals from Bronson Maschmeyer and Rob Slaney. Maschmeyer's goal came at 6:56 on the power play as his screen shot from just inside the blue line beat Gryphons netminder Keith Hamilton. Jason Bast and Slaney assisted.

Slaney then scored StFX's second goal at 10:50 as he skated into the slot and Michael Kirkpatrick found his stick with a nifty pass for the one-timer.

Shots were a lopsided 17-5 in favor of the X-Men after the first period over their opponents from the OUA conference. The Gryphons are in sixth place in the OUA west division with a 7-6-2 regular season record.

Third year forward Jarrad Struthers scored StFX's third goal of the game at the 14:32 mark of the second period, as he picked up the puck in the slot and made no mistake beating Hamilton. Cory MacIntosh and Zack MacQueen assisted on the play.

The 3-0 X-Men advantage held after 40 minutes as shots were 14-6 in favor of StFX in the second frame.

Cole Grbavac expanded the X lead to 4-0 with a goal six minutes into the third period. He picked up a Jason Bast pass on a three-on-one rush that came at the tail end of a StFX penalty kill, almost scoring shorthanded. Defenseman R.D. Chisholm was also in on the rush with an assist.

The lone Gryphons goal was scored by defenseman Daniel Broussard at 7:42. He capitalized on a StFX giveaway after a clearing attempt and beat StFX goalie Morgan Clark. Teal Burns and James Merrett had the assists.

Final shots in the game were 39-18 for the X-Men.

The AUS third place X-Men (7-6-1) resume regular season action on January 3rd and 4th when they host the Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleus (7-5-0) on Friday night and the CIS ranked No. 4 UNB Varsity Reds (11-2-1) on Saturday. Game time is 7:00 pm both evenings at the StFX Keating Centre.