It was a rough game against St. FX for the Lady Tommies as they lost 3-1 at the Grant Harvey Centre on Saturday afternoon.
Kayla Blackmore opened the scoring for the Tommies, scoring 3:35 into the first period.
Things went downhill for Blackmore shortly after; an elbow caught her in the face and got under her mask somehow. She went off the ice thinking her nose was broken.
“I thought maybe I had some blood coming down, but it was good,” said Blackmore, who joked “it [her nose] can’t really get much worse.”
Both teams played hard and Coach Peter Murphy was pleased with the team’s performance.
“I can’t fault the girls, I thought they played an excellent game today,” he said.
Blackmore was pleased with the on ice effort level of the team.
“I’m obviously disappointed that we didn’t get the two points out of it, but we went in wanting to have a really good effort and play a full sixty minutes and that’s what we did” said Blackmore.
Murphy noted improvement in when the Lady Tommies are taking their shots on goal.
“I thought they were more inclined to put the puck to the point and then just go to the net, and just put it down.
Don’t look for the perfect play. And previously, I think that’s what they were doing.”
The Lady Tommies had 22 shots on goal to St. FX’s 33.
St. FX tied the game with a power play goal from Alex Normore at 6:11 in the first period. Catherine Civitarese scored two more goals for St. FX, once in the second and once in the third.
“She [Kristin Wolfe] played really well. She made some really nice stops for us in the game. And I think it boosted her confidence as well to know that she can go in and play against that team,” said Murphy.
Some of the 253 fans in the stands weren’t pleased with the way referee Chris Towler called penalties. Amy Duffield and Kelty Apperson both took penalties in the first period, for tripping and head contact respectively.
“I have an opinion, I’m not allowed to say it. He sees the game one way, we see it another,” said Murphy.
Apperson’s four minute penalty for head contact was the most questionable call of the game, not because it was made, but because it seemed unfair to most spectators that Apperson was given a penalty but not the player from St. FX.
Thankfully, Towler did assign a two minute head contact penalty to St. FX at 12:40 in the second period when things got rougher following an intense push for a second goal by the Lady Tommies. A fan heckled the St. FX player a little bit on her way to the box yelling “sit down and think about what you’ve done.”
Despite an intense game, the Lady Tommies weren’t able to get the goals needed to get back in the game, and lost their fourth game of the New Year.
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The Tommies however were able to pick up a much needed win Sunday afternoon against the St. Mary Huskies with a 2-0 victory.
Cassidy McTaggert opened the scoring with five minutes left in the second period. Jordan Miller and Erin MacIsaac had assists on the goal. Miller would score the Tommies second goal of the game a little over four minutes into the third period with Paige MacDonald and McTaggert grabbing the helpers.
Julia Sharun made 27 saves to earn the shutout. The much needed win means the Tommies are now 13-6-1 and are second in the AUS standings.
