Courtesy Glenn MacDonald, The Chronicle Herald
 
The Saint Mary’s Huskies couldn’t capitalize on their first six power-play chances on Tuesday night.

They made it count on their seventh opportunity.

St. Francis Xavier’s Brennen Wray was penalized for a check to the head early in the second overtime and Colby Pridham scored with 11 ticks left in the penalty as the Huskies skated away with a 3-2 victory over the X-Men in Game 2 of the Atlantic University Hockey Conference championship in front of 1,750 fans at the Keating Millennium Centre in Antigonish.

SMU captain Marc Rancourt threaded a cross-ice pass to Pridham, who fired a shot top corner past St. F.X. goalie Bryan Gillis 2:35 into the double overtime period. Pridham had a hat trick in the Huskies’ 7-1 victory in Game 1 Sunday night

The Huskies, the defending Atlantic conference champions, return home with a 2-0 series lead in the best-of-five final.

"I don’t think Pridham had much to shoot at but he hit it," said linemate Cody Thornton, who also assisted on the winning tally. "He probably closed his eyes and let it go."

St. F.X. struck first when Phil Mangan, the X-Men’s leading scorer in the post-season, opened the scoring 7:38 into the game.

Thornton tied it with a short-handed marker midway through the first and Rancourt gave SMU a 2-1 lead late in the period.

Chris Hulit tied it for St. F.X. 5:31 into the second period and the teams remained deadlocked for the next 57 minutes.

"We knew that they were going to come out hard and they did," Thornton said. "They came out, got the first goal and really took it to us. They pressured us on their penalty kill and they frustrated us.

"But we had a steady pull on the rope. We didn’t switch our game plan or panic. We seemed to squeeze it out. It was nice to get that last one to finish it off."

SMU held a 32-23 shot advantage.

St. F.X. forward Bryce Swan, who collapsed from severe dehydration and fatigue during the second period of Game 1 and was questionable for Game 2, did play Tuesday and picked up an assist on Mangan’s first-period marker.

The series now takes a sabbatical. With the CIS women’s hockey championship being held at the Keating Centre and the Real Home Show booked at the Halifax Forum this weekend, Game 3 is next Monday night in Halifax.

The league winner advances to the CIS championship, March 25-28 in Thunder Bay, Ont.

"We’re in it to win it," Thornton said. "We’ll battle hard through practice the next couple of days and get that hard work ingrained. We won’t deviate from the game plan and what we have been doing."