Antigonish, NS – The Saint Mary's Huskies (10-5-1) defeated the U SPORTS No. 5 ranked STFX X-Women 3-1 Tuesday night at the Charles V. Keating Centre, handing STFX (11-3-1) only their third loss of the season.
The teams played a cautious opening first period. The X-Women had a pair of power play opportunities but could not convert on the scoreboard.
Saint Mary's were first on the board with only 1:38 left in the period as Lauren Papp (Brampton, ON) squeezed a loose puck through the pads of X goaltender Jamie Johnson (Victoria, BC) after an initial save off a Shae Demale (Red Deer, AB) shot.
Shots favored the Huskies, 6-5 in the first period.
The second period was more of the same back and forth action between the conference rivals, with few significant scoring chances. SMU forward Mary MacDonald (Calgary, AB) had a consecutive shots in tight on Johnson past the midway point of the period but was stopped by the X netminder.
The Huskies defense did well to keep the X-Women at bay.
Demale scored her team-leading 12th goal of the season – and 50th of her career - with 3:43 left in the second to put the Huskies up 2-0. After picking up the puck off a turnover outside the blue line, she skated in alone around an X defender and wristed a high shot past Johnson.
The home squad pressured in the final few minutes of the period as Maggy Burbidge (Falmouth, NS) and Landyn Pitts (Antigonish, NS) had shots on goal, but the X-Women remained scoreless as Saint Mary's held onto their 2-0 lead after 40 minutes.
The Huskies also had an 11-8 advantage in shots in the middle period.
They thought they scored their third goal of the game midway through the third period as Keyara Nelson (Belleville, ON) tipped in a point shot from Eve LeBlanc (Petit-Rocher, NB) but the play was called off due to Nelson's high stick.
Saint Mary's had a couple key shots on a power play shortly after but were held off by the X-Women penalty kill.
It was STFX who then took advantage of special teams when Burbidge and Lea MacLeod (Dartmouth, NS) connected on the power play at 15:45. Burbidge fed a long pass across the slot area to MacLeod who made no mistake on the one-timer past Ridleigh Hansen (Red Deer, AB) in the SMU goal.
The Huskies responded quickly though as forward Aimee O'Neill (Glace Bay, NS) potted the insurance marker for the Huskies with 1:53 left in the game. She took the puck up the wing and cut towards the net, feeding a low shot past Johnson.
The X-Women pulled Johnson for the extra attacker but were unable to generate any scoring chances and the Huskies closed out the 3-1 victory.
Final shots in the game were 24-19 for the Huskies as Hansen picked up the win in the Huskies net.
Saint Mary's forward Ellen Laurence (Kentville, NS) was the first star and Subway player of the game as she had two assists on the night.
Papp was the second star and STFX's MacLeod was third star.
This game marks the final one of the first term as AUS breaks for the holidays. Both teams will resume competition on Wednesday, January 4th in a rematch when the Huskies will again play the X-Women at the STFX Keating Centre.
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Recap courtesy Krista McKenna, STFX Athletics