The CIS ranked No. 4 StFX X-Women were able to stymie the UPEI Panthers Sunday afternoon in Charlottetown, PEI as they came away with a 4-3 overtime victory in their last regular season game. Jenna Downey buried it on the power play in overtime to seal the victory for the blue and white.
The whole game was a see-saw affair, as both teams had the momentum at different points in the game. The dynamic line of Janelle Parent, Alex Normore and Brittney Perkins struck first as Parent scored at the 7:47 mark off feeds from her line mates.
Nicole Hansom was than able to grab some insurance for the blue and white as she increased the score to 2-0 when she capitalized off feeds from Leah Boucher and Erin Brophy at the 12:52 mark. The X-Women closed out the first frame with a goal from Perkins (Normore) at the 16:26 mark. The shots were 10-7 in favor of the X-Women after one period of play as the score stood at 3-0 for StFX.
The Panthers were able to settle their game down in the second period and make it a two goal match when Kelsey O’Donnell fired one home on the power play from Keirsten Visser and Janelle MacKenzie at the 11:20 mark. Both teams traded chances in the final nine minutes but to no avail as X-Women goaltender Kristy Garrow and the Panthers Bailey Toupin shut the door the rest of the period. Shots were 17-13 for the X-Women after two periods of play as the score remained 3-1 for the blue and white.
The third period is where the wheels fell off the train for the X-Women as the Panthers completed the comeback and scored two goals three and a half minutes apart to even the score at 3-3. Jessica Rosenbaum (Lindsay Oakes, Olivia Doughart) and Justine Wong (Christina Kelly, Ferran Brown) were the goal scorers for the hometown Panthers as they scored at the 10:56 and 14:33 marks, respectively.
The final six minutes solved nothing as the game headed to extra time. The shots were 27-20 for the X-Women after regulation.
Six minutes into overtime, Panthers Kelsey O’Donnell was called for tripping as she delivered a knee-on-knee hit that sent X-Women forward Janelle Parent off the ice with an injury. O’Donnell also received a game misconduct on the hit that sidelined the second-leading scorer in the country.
On the ensuing power play, X-Women defenseman Jenna Downey buried the overtime winner at 6:35 on a pass from Normore, to give the X-Women the 4-3 victory. The win marked their 20th of the season as StFX outshot the Panthers by a 30-23 margin in the game.
X-Women goalkeeper Kristy Garrow made 20 saves for the victory while Bailey Toupin turned aside 25 shots for the Panthers. Alex Normore played a prominent role in the win for StFX as she collected three assists to add to her nation leading totals.
The X-Women close out the regular season with a 20-4-0 record atop the AUS conference. At the upcoming Subway AUS Championship hosted by Dalhousie University this coming weekend, March 1-4 in Halifax, the X-Women will open play on Thursday in a 3:00 pm game against the sixth place host Tigers (9-12-3) team. The winner of this first round robin game will receive a day off on Friday, setting up a 3:00 pm Saturday game against the fourth place UPEI Panthers (13-10-1). The loser will play the Panthers on Friday, also at 3:00 pm. The winner coming out of Pool A (StFX, UPEI, Dalhousie) will meet the winner of Pool B (Moncton, Mount Allison, St. Thomas) in the championship game on Sunday at 2:00 pm.