Posted: Feb 24, 2013
It is the ninth AUS women's hockey banner for the StFX program, and improves their record to 26-1 this season, including a perfect 3-0 this weekend.
With the victory they will now advance to the 2013 CIS championship scheduled for March 7-10 at the University of Toronto.
Erin Brophy’s power play goal at 13:20 of the first period was the game winner as StFX erased a 1-0 Huskies lead to score four unanswered goals for the win. Veteran fourth year goaltender Katie Greenway (Guelph, Ont.) picked up the win with 20 saves.
AUS rookie of the year Sienna Cooke, a native of Surrey, B.C., had 24 saves in the Huskies net.
The win marked the third AUS banner won in the past six years and first since 2011. The X-Women were upset last year in the semifinals to the eventual champion UPEI Panthers. The X-Women exacted revenge on the Panthers with a 3-1 victory Saturday evening to advance to the final match.
StFX head coach David Synishin, named AUS coach of the year Friday for the fifth time in his career, commented, “We showed a lot of character this weekend after being down 2-0 yesterday and 1-0 today. The team stayed calm and focused all weekend and I am happy with the win.”
Third year defense and Antigonish, N.S. native Jenna Pitts was named tournament most valuable player for her efforts manning the StFX blue line. The AUS second team all-star was also named to the tournament all-star team, along with StFX forward Alex Normore (Bedford, N.S.).
Upon winning the championship, Pitts commented after the game, “It’s a great feeling, we really worked hard and I am glad we came out with the final we did. They worked hard too but I was happy to see us come out on top.”
The X-Women found themselves down by a goal early in the game as Caitlyn Schell (Waterford, Ont.) scored a power play goal 4:24 into the game. After Greenway made the initial save on goal, Schell pushed in a rebound under her pads as tournament all-star Brianna Soper (Oshawa, Ont.) assisted.
Fourth year forward Brittney Perkins from North Gower, Ont. replied with a goal for the X-Women at 7:41 to even the game at 1-1. She snapped in a rebound after the Huskies turned the puck over in their own zone. Freshman Schyler Campbell (Galloway, N.B.) assisted on the play.
Before the first intermission buzzer sounded, Antigonish, N.S. native Brophy notched the deciding goal for the X-Women while on the power play at 13:20. Captain Jenna Downey (Stratford, Ont.) assisted as she got the puck to Brophy after a giveaway and the fourth year forward made no mistake shoveling the puck past Cooke on the backhand.
The Huskies fought right back, however, and almost tied it up a minute later but Greenway’s toe save kept the puck out. Saint Mary’s had another close call with three minutes to play as Greenway came out to play the puck, beating her Huskies attacker and clearing it aside.
The 2-1 score held after 20 minutes of play as the shots were 16-8 in favor of the X-Women.
The second period saw StFX score the lone goal of the period, though each team had several quality scoring chances. Brophy rung one off the cross bar 30 seconds into the period, then Saint Mary’s defenseman Rebecca Mosher (Poplar Grove, N.S.) had a quality shot on goal less than two minutes later.
Normore missed high on a breakaway attempt, but it was third year X-Women forward Molly MacDonald (Wetaskiwin, Alta.) who solved Cooke as she tucked in a rebound at 11:13. Alyssa Hennigar (Upper Kingsburg, N.S.) assisted on the goal.
Normore again had a scoring chance late in the period as she pulled a couple of nifty moves around SMU defenders to get into scoring position, only to miss wide. Campbell went in alone on a breakaway attempt with less than two minutes to play but was stopped by Cooke, who would be later named to the tournament all-star team for her weekend efforts.
After two periods of play the X-Women held a 3-1 advantage and were up 21-14 in the shot department.
Cooke continued her strong play in the Saint Mary’s net in the third period, making several key saves on a StFX power play seven minutes in.
The Huskies then had a key chance to close the gap as they went on a 4-on-3 power play followed by a brief 5-on-3 opportunity, but were unable to pull the trigger.
The Huskies closed out the period with consecutive penalties, giving the X-Women nearly four minutes with an extra attacker to close out the game. Second year Huskies head coach Chris Larade pulled Cooke from the net but Normore was able to seal the victory for the X-Women with an empty net goal at 19:40.
Shots closed out 28-20 in favor of the blue and white as Brophy picked up player of the game honors for StFX and fifth year veteran forward Kaitlyn Abbass (Goose Bay, Nfld.) took home similar accolades for the Huskies.
Soper, Mosher and Cooke were all named to the AUS tournament all-star team, as were Normore and Pitts. St. Thomas forward Jordan Miller rounded out the all-star team selection.
With the victory, the X-Women move on to represent the AUS conference at the CIS national championship slated for March 7-10 in Toronto.