Ice X-Men wrap up AUS regular season play

Charlottetown, PE - The StFX X-Men closed out AUS regular season play with a 4-1 loss to the UPEI Panthers Saturday evening. With a 12-13-3 record, StFX winds up in sixth place in the AUS standings with 27 points.

They will meet third place Moncton (17-11-0) in a best 2-of-3 AUS quarterfinal series beginning next week. The fourth place Panthers (15-10-3) and fifth place Saint Mary's Huskies (14-14-0) will meet in the other quarterfinal series. UNB and Acadia clinched first round byes.

The complete AUS playoff schedule will be posted at www.atlanticuniversitysport.com on Monday, Feb. 17th.

In Saturday's game the Panthers were led by Reggie Tracitto who scored two goals in the 4-1 victory.

It was the X-Men who opened the scoring as Brandon Hynes netted an early unassisted first period goal at 5:37.

Mason Wilgosh tied it up for the Panthers at 11:03 from Cody McNaughton and Matthew Brenton as the 1-1 score held after the opening period of play.

The Panthers outshot the X-Men 17-9 in the first period and went on to fire a total of 49 in the game to StFX's 31. 
 
Chris Desousa and Tracitto scored second period goals to give UPEI a 3-1 advantage after 40 minutes. Desousa's goal came at 9:32 from Derek Ryckman, while Tracitto's was unassisted at 18:50.

Tracitto rounded out the game scoring with a third period marker midway through the frame. Casey Babineau and Harrison McIver had the helpers.

Mavric Parks recorded the win in the Panthers net with 30 saves, while Drew Owsley put in a stellar netminding effort for the X-Men, turning aside 45 pucks.

Looking ahead to the best 2-of-3 AUS quarterfinal series against the Moncton Aigles Bleus, game one will open in Moncton, followed by game two in Antigonish at the StFX Keating Centre and game three back in Moncton, if necessary. Game dates and times will be announced as soon as they become available.

In four AUS regular season games against the Aigles Bleus this season, the X-Men hold a 2-2 record with both wins coming on home ice.

Back in October, the teams exchanged wins in back-to-back weekend games. The Aigles Bleus won 4-3 at home on October 19th then the X-Men won 3-2 at the Keating Centre on October 25th.

StFX also earned a 4-2 victory on home ice on January 5th, then Moncton won 4-2 on February 1st in New Brunswick.

The X-Men had a 4-2 pre-season victory over the Aigles Bleus in a game played in Shediac, N.B. on October 3rd.