The CIS ranked No. 4 X-Women defeated the UPEI Panthers 6-2 in Wednesday night AUS women’s hockey action at the StFX Keating Centre. The X-Women scored five times in the first period to put the game out of reach.
The X-Women found their legs right out of the gate, pouncing all over the road weary panthers who arrived in a snow storm just hours before. CIS leading scorer Alex Normore opened the scoring on the power play at the 8:59 mark on a nice passing play from Jenna Pitts and Suzanne Fenerty. Pitts then capitalized at the 13:44 mark on a shot from the point, with assists going to Abygail Laking and Daniela Falconio to stretch the lead to 2-0.
With about five minutes remaining in the first frame, the X-Women broke the game open. Normore, Laking and Janelle Parent scored three unanswered goals to put the Panthers back on their heels heading into the second period as the X-Women took a commanding 5-0 lead. Parent picked up an assist on Normore’s second goal of the period (15:19), while Falconio notched her second assist of the game on the Laking goal (16:34). Parent’s goal came on the power play at 18:33 from Normore and Pitts.
UPEI settled down in the second period and the pace tightened up considerably. Both teams were trading chances but for the most part the period was a defensive struggle on both sides. Parent was able to break the stalemate at the 11:47 mark for her second goal of the game. Brittney Perkins and Pitts had assists on the play.
The rest of the period played out slowly as X started to trap the Panthers and it wasn’t until the 19:14 mark of the frame that UPEI finally beat X-Women goaltender Kristy Garrow when Kelsey O’Donnell (Christina Kelly) buried a loose puck home in front. The score remained 6-1 after two periods for the X-Women.
The third period was even tighter than the second period, as the X-Women focused on defense to ride the rest of the game out. The pace started to slow down but a resilient UPEI team never gave up, and continued to pressure the StFX net, outshooting the X-Women 9-4 in the final period. Panthers forward Ferran Brown (Janelle MacKenzie) was able to solve Garrow at the 15:13 mark for their second goal of the game. The first period was the difference in the game however, as the X-Women held on for the 6-2 final score.
The shots were closer than the score suggested as the X-Women outshot the Panthers 34-27. Bailey Toupin made 28 saves in goal for the Panthers while Garrow turned aside 25 shots to earn the victory for StFX. Jenna Pitts was named Subway Player of the Game as she recorded 1 goal and 3 assists in the win.
The AUS first place X-Women (16-3-0) continues action against the fourth place Mount Allison Mounties (7-6-4) this coming Sunday, February 5th in Antigonish N.S. for a 2:00 pm game time. The third place Panthers (10-8-0) have a week off before they battle second place Moncton (14-2-1) on February 11th.