Antigonish, NS – Freshman forward Emerson Elliott (Aurora, ON) scored a hat trick to lead the StFX X-Women to a 4-1 victory over the Université de Moncton Aigles Bleues Sunday afternoon at the Charles V. Keating Centre.
The win was the second one of the weekend for the U SPORTS No. 6 ranked X-Women who improved to 9-1-2 in first place in the AUS conference, one point ahead of Saint Mary's (9-2-1). The Aigles Bleues, in fifth place, fell to 5-5-2.
With the three-goal effort, Elliott earned Subway player of the game honors and took over the AUS scoring race with 18 points on the season with nine goals and nine assists,
Her first goal of the game came just over five minutes into the second period as the teams played a scoreless first period. Taking a pass from linemate Daley Oddy (Cranbrooke, BC), she broke in alone, deked Moncton netminder Sabrina Labrun (Lasalle, QC) and lifted a backhand shot behind the goalie.
The Aigles Bleues got back into the game when the X-Women were served with three consecutive penalties giving the visitors lengthy 5-on-3 power play time. Brittany Poitras (Saint André, NB) connected with Marie-Pier Corriveau (Magog, QC) and Katryne Villeneuve (Casselman, ON) on a nice tic-tac-toe play, scoring while on the man advantage.
X-Women captain Oddy restored StFX's two goal lead with a power play marker of their own with 30 seconds left in the second period. Lindsey Donovan (Mirimichi, NB) and Elliott were in on the assists on what would stand up to be the game winner.
Elliott padded the StFX lead, scoring her second goal 3:46 into the third period. Lebrun made the initial save off a Nicole Halladay (Smith Falls, ON) shot but the rebound went right to the stick of Elliott who made no mistake firing it into the open side of the net. Lydia Schurman (Summerside, PE) also had a helper on the play.
Elliott's hat trick goal came at the 15:24 mark when she beat Lebrun up high off a set-up from the defensive pair of Emma Winters (Lower Sackville, NS) and Amy Graham (Nepean, ON).
The shots in the game were in the X-Women's favor, 30-22. Freshman goaltender Cassidy McEwan (Lloydminster, AB) picked up her first win of the season between the pipe for the X-Women.
StFX is back in action on Wednesday night, November 22nd when they host the Saint Mary's Huskies in a 7:00 pm game at the Keating Centre. The Aigles Bleues are also playing Wednesday night, they will head to Sackville, NB to face the Mount Allison Mounties, also at 7:00 pm.
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Courtesy StFX Sports Information