(ANTIGONISH, NS) The St FX X-Men handed the U SPORTS No. 1 ranked UNB Reds their first regulation loss of the 2018-19 season Saturday night, playing to a 4-2 win.
The win was hard fought, as the X-Men were outshot 29-16 by the Reds. Three of the X goals came on the power-play in a game that saw 62 minutes of penalties handed out.
Veteran X-Men goaltender Chase Marchand (Dartmouth, NS) turned aside 27 of the 29 shots he faced.
X-Men head coach Brad Peddle was pleased with his team's effort.
"It was a complete team effort from start to finish," said Peddle. "We asked everyone to do their job tonight and they were very focused, very disciplined, aside from some late penalties in the third period."
The late penalties saw the X-Men on the penalty kill for the final three minutes of the third period. The Reds pulled goaltender Rylan Parenteau (Saskatoon, SK) to go on a 6-on-4 advantage, then less than a minute later the X-Men were called on another minor infraction, so the Reds had a 6-on-3 power-play for 1:20.
They cashed in with a late goal by Matthew Boucher (Los Angeles, CA), after crashing the X net, but time ran out and the X-Men held on for the 4-2 victory.
"It wasn't the third period we wanted, and some of that was out of our control, but I really liked how the guys responded and dug in to kill off those important penalties," said Peddle.
St FX forward Matthew Graham (Bedford, NS) set the tone in the game, scoring just over a minute in, going top corner on Parenteau.
St FX's lead doubled four minutes later, while they were 15 seconds into a 5-on-3 power-play, with Holden Cook (Whitby, ON) scoring to make it 2-0.
Opening the scoring early again in the second frame, Graham's second goal of the game, on the power-play, make it 3-0.
UNB got on the board as they capitalized on the man advantage midway through the second period. Olivier LeBlanc (Quebec City, QC) fired a slapshot past Marchand, who was screened by Reds forward Kris Bennett (Brampton, ON).
With X again on the power-play, Bryson Cianfrone (Stoney Creek, AB) scored X's fourth goal.
The only goal of the third period came with just 21 seconds left to play, from Boucher, who was able to get a shot past Marchand just as the Reds power-play expired. The unassisted goal brought the score to 4-2 in favour of the X-Men.
For his two-point effort, X-Men forward Holden Cook was named Subway Player of the Game. Graham, with two goals for X, was the second star and veteran Reds forward Chris Clapperton (Cap D'Espoir, QC) was the third star.
The X-Men are now 11-8-2 and find themselves tied for third in the Atlantic University Sport standings with UPEI.
The Reds, now 18-1-3, remain in top spot with a ten-point edge over second place Saint Mary's.
X will visit Saint Mary's on Wednesday.
UNB will also play Wednesday, hosting fifth place Moncton (10-8-3) in the 27th edition of the Mark Jeffrey Memorial Game. Puck drop is at 7:00 pm.
RECAP BY: Kiana Pace and Krista McKenna/St FX Sports Information
PHOTOS BY: Kendra Vigneau/for St FX Sports Information