The St. Thomas University’s women’s hockey team are going to the Atlantic University Sports finals after a win against the Université de Moncton Aigles Bleues on home ice during a best of three semifinals series on Saturday.
The Tommies pushed their way through the quarterfinals to the semifinals after defeating the Dalhousie Tigers.
In game one of the semifinals the Tommies beat Aigles Bleues 4-3 at the J. Louis-Lévesque Arena in Moncton Feb. 25. The Tommies polished them off and out of the series in game two-of-three Feb. 27.
Over 600 fans attended the game at the Grant Harvey Centre including Dennis Livingstone, the national anthem singer for both STU’s men and women’s hockey games.
“There was a lot of things I was impressed with tonight. I screamed and yelled, it was great,” said Livingstone. “I loved every minute of it,” he said. “I screamed out my lungs.”
“I’m really excited, if they play as well as they did tonight they will get the AUS title and Nationals,” he said.
Tommies forward Emily Oleksuk beat Amelie Dion at puck drop to start the first period.
With only 28 seconds into the game, Lauren Henman scored making it 1-0 Tommies.
Aggression mounted by both teams after Tommies defender Samantha Squires received a two-minute penalty for tripping giving the Aigles Bleues a power play.
Dupere was able to land a solid slap shot that was saved by the glove of Tommies goalie Taylor Cook.
With 11:39 left in the first period, Marie-Pier Arsenault scored for the Aigles Bleues as their power play ended, tieing the game 1-1.
The first period remained evenly matched with the puck equally spent in both halves of the rink, ending the period with a tie and 11 shots on goal for the Tommies and eight for the Aigles Bleues.
The second period started with more aggression than the last as both teams tried to topple the other.
Both the Tommies and Aigles Bleues received a number of two minute penalties thorough out the second period without scoring on the power plays.
But with 4:15 left in the period Henman was able to place the puck inside the left post for her second goal of the game bringing it 2-1 Tommies.
Tommies were also ahead with 19-17 shots on goal.
As the UdeM bench banged their sticks off the boards Tommies Emily Olesksuk faced off with Dion for the third period puck drop.
At four minutes into the period, Cook made another big save keeping the Tommies ahead.
At 8:09 left in the game, Tommies Forward Emily Oleksuk scored giving her team a two-point lead 3-1 for the Tommies.
After a timeout by the Aigles Bleues they pulled their goalie with two minutes left in the game but were not able to score.
The game ended 3-1 Tommies, bringing them to the AUS finals against the winner between St. Francis Xavier X-Woman and the Saint Mary’s Huskies series.
