Antigonish, NS - The U SPORTS No. 5 ranked StFX X-Women topped the visiting No. 3 ranked Saint Mary's Huskies 3-0 Wednesday evening at the Charles V. Keating Centre in a battle of the top two teams in the AUS.
With the win the first place X-Women (10-1-2) move ahead of the Huskies (9-3-1) by three points in the AUS standings.
StFX goaltender Carley Molnar (London, ON) turned aside 20 shots to shut out the Huskies, seven of which came from the fast-paced, yet scoreless opening twenty minutes. Huskies goaltender Rebecca Clark (Keswick, ON) turned aside eight shots that period and 26 shots total.
A pair of X-Women freshmen scored the first goals of their career in an X-Women jersey – Patti-Anne Tracey (Antigonish, NS) and Amy Graham (Nepean, ON).
Tracey had the opening and game-winning goal late in the second period. Emily Power (Airdrie, AB) lead the rush out of the blue and white zone and then dished the puck over the Kristen McKinley (Rothesay, NB) who set up Tracey on the 2 on 1, as she scored her first AUS goal.
Shots in the period were tied at eight apiece.
Despite the Huskies starting the third period on the power play, StFX netted both goals in the final frame. Their second goal of the game came 2:32 into the third period. Lindsey Donovan (Miramichi, NB) passed along the blue line to Santana Gravelle (Lumsden, SK) who then snapped a shot from the point that was tipped in by Lydia Shurman (Summerside, PE).
While Huskies defense Beatrice Harrietha (Guelph, ON) was serving a four-minute spearing penalty, StFX scored a power play goal as Graham found the back of the net on an unassisted rebound shot that bounced over Clark at 16:20.
Shots in the third period favoured StFX 13-5.
Patti-Anne Tracey was awarded first star and Subway Player of the Game honours. Second star was awarded to Lydia Shurman and third star went to Amy Graham.
The X-Women's next game will take place Saturday at 2pm at the StFX Keating Centre where they will face off against Mount Allison in their last home game until after the holiday break. The Huskies will also Saturday at 2pm, visiting the Université de Moncton.
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Courtesy Kiana Pace, StFX sports information