The St. Thomas University women’s hockey team suffered a tough loss against the Saint Mary’s University Huskies in a best of three Atlantic University Sports semifinals.
The first game was played on Feb. 21 in Halifax, N.S. where SMU won a hard-fought game 4-3.
The second game was played on Feb. 24 and the Huskies came out fighting looking to get an early lead.
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The Tommies played hard but suffered a devastating, one-point loss. (Shannon Cornelius/AQ)
They failed to capitalize on both of their power plays and Tommies goalie Abby Clarke was able to make some good saves.
However after a pileup in front of the net the Huskies were able to score halfway through the period.
The Tommies and Huskies fought hard throughout the rest of the period but neither were able to score again leaving the score after the first period 1-0 for SMU.
The Tommies came looking for blood in the second period and Olivia Reid was able to score just five minutes in.
Clarke was able to continue to make good saves and kept the Huskies from scoring on their power play.
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The Huskies put pressure on the Tommies in the third period and kept it up throughout. (Shannon Cornelius/AQ)
The Tommies made good shots but were unable to score on their power play, leaving the score tied 1-1 after the second period.
Tensions were high in the third period as both teams were looking for the win.
The Huskies were able to sneak one past Clarke four minutes in.
The Huskies put pressure on the Tommies and kept it up throughout the period and continued to out-shoot them.
The Tommies pulled Clarke in the last minute in an attempt to score and tie up the game but then lost their advantage as a result of a penalty and put Clarke back in with seconds left in the game.
The final score was 2-1 for the Huskies.
Tommies head coach Peter Murphy was upset with the loss, but proud of the team’s season overall.
- Head coach Peter Murphy was happy with the Tommies’ season this year. (Shannon Cornelius/AQ)
“The girls had a great season. We had some adversity with our schedule in the second half where we played, in a span of five games we played [St. Francis Xavier University], Saint Mary’s twice, and [Dalhousie University] as well. So some tough games all at once,” said Murphy.
“In spite of what people thought we were playing well in those games it was just a matter of not coming out on the winning end. I thought the girls did very well this year. Full credit to Saint Mary’s, they played a good game tonight, but it was a one-goal game which is what its been for most of the year.”
