The St. Thomas University Tommies women’s hockey team’s season got off to a strong start on home ice over the weekend.
The Tommies edged the St. Francis Xavier University X-Women 5-3 on Sunday following a 4-3 overtime win over the Saint Mary’s University Huskies Saturday at Grant-Harvey Centre.
Saturday was a rematch of the Atlantic University Sport final in March, a best-of-three series that SMU won.
In Sunday’s game against StFX, Samantha Squires fired home the empty netter from the Tommies blueline with 13.7 seconds left to send the X-Women packing.
That goal came a minute and a half after a Teah Anderson shot beat StFX goalie Carley Molnar on a power play to put STU up 4-3 while StFX defender Nicole Corcoran served a hooking minor.
Emily Oleksuk got a shot past Molnar low blocker side at 15:12 in the third to tie it up after a Connor Garagan shot low in the slot got by Tommies goalie Abby Clarke 46 seconds into the frame.
“The third period was back and forth,” said Tommies head coach Peter Murphy.
“We got back on the offensive side, and we chipped out and got odd-man rushes fairly regularly.”
Lauren Henman got a partial breakaway and wired a shot through Molnar’s five-hole at 18:10 in the opening frame to get STU on the board.
Daley Oddy got a shot past Clarke’s glove to answer for StFX four and a half minutes into the second before Henman fired home a rebound at 8:49.
Clarke made 18 saves for the win, while Molnar blocked 33 shots in the defeat.
“We need to work on our power play, but the penalty kill is starting to come around,” said Murphy.
Tommies prevail in conference final rematch
Rookie defender Alex Woods was the hero in Saturday’s home opener as STU and SMU met for the first time since March 8, when the Huskies downed the Tommies 5-1 in Game 3 of the AUS final in Halifax.
As for Woods’ heroics, she bent the twine after a little more than two minutes of extra time.
The game winner came on the heels of Breanna Lancleave’s second goal of the contest with 0.9 seconds left in regulation to force OT.
Saturday’s game was roughly a minute old when Stephanie Ford struck first for STU.
Woods then potted her first of the game at 2:20 to give the Tommies a two-goal lead heading into the first intermission.
Lancleave cut the Huskies’ deficit in half 10 minutes into the second stanza before Caitlyn Manning knotted things up three minutes later.
The Tommies were back in the driver’s seat after a goal by Oleksuk 16 minutes into the third, but Lancleave ruined STU’s hopes of finishing SMU off in regulation three minutes later with SMU netminder Rebecca Clark at the bench for an extra attacker.
Tommies goalie Taylor Cook made 19 saves for the win, while Clark denied 28 shots for the loss.
STU will face the University of Prince Edward Island Panthers Friday at 7 p.m. on the road before hosting the Mount Allison University Mounties Sunday, Oct. 23 at 2 p.m. at Grant-Harvey Centre.
