Petes’ Austin commits to Acadia

Wolfville, NS – The Acadia Axemen are proud to welcome goaltender Tye Austin to the hockey program. Austin is a 6’4” netminder from Pembroke, Ontario; he has played the last four seasons with the Peterborough Petes of the OHL. In 63 career regular season games with the Petes, he went 20-27-3 with a .876 save percentage.

We asked Tye, why he chose Acadia to continue his studies and his hockey journey, he said, “I chose Acadia after speaking with a few past and present Axemen, and everyone had nothing but good things to say about the high-end hockey program and the great people! I love the strong community aspect of Acadia and I’m excited to grow as a player and person there!

Austin will join Zachary Paputsakis, another 1^st year netminder, along with 3^rd string Conor McCollum, a 5^th year goalie, in the crease for the Axemen this season.

Tye had a strong rookie campaign in ’18-19, going 5-7 with a .879 SV% and continued to build on that season and had begun to hit his stride in the OHL right before the 2019-20 season was suspended and eventually cancelled. While the OHL season was cancelled from 20-21 and most players weren’t able to hit the ice all year, he was given the opportunity to train with the Belleville Senators of the AHL while they played out of Ottawa.This past season, his 4^th in the OHL, he was named the OHL goalie of the week last year from Nov. 22 – Nov. 28, and went on to post a 9-13-2 record with a .877 save percentage in 27 games.

Axemen coach Darren Burns likes the addition of Austin to his team’s crease saying, “We are really happy to be able to add Tye to the Axemen. We have heard some tremendous things about his work ethic and commitment to his team. We feel he is a player who is going to continue to get better each year because of his passion for the game. With his athleticism and commitment we feel confident that he will be a great addition to our team.”

Austin’s accomplishments off the ice have been just as impressive. Austin was the recipient of the Petes scholastic award in both 2019 and 2020 effectively being able to balance a busy hockey and school schedule. He was also awarded OHL’s East Division Academic Player of the Month for December 2019 and OHL’s Academic Player of the Month in January 2020.

We asked Tye to describe his game in goal, and he said, “Axemen fans can expect me to be a large presence in net, I’m a very athletic goalie that uses my size and ability to read plays to my advantage.”

Axemen training camp is now underway in Wolfville, with the team beginning pre-season action on Friday, September 23rd vs UNB.