Fredericton, NB - The St. Thomas Tommies topped the StFX X-Women 4-1 Friday night at the Grant-Harvey Centre in a battle of U SPORTS ranked teams.
The Tommies had their 12-game winning streak snapped at the hands of cross campus rival UNB Wednesday night, but came out firing on all cylinders Friday evening.
Lauren Henman (Cow Bay, NS) wasted no time as she got STU on the board 27 seconds into the game, good for her AUS leading 15th goal of the season.
After the opening 30 seconds, both teams turned up the intensity defensively, and both goaltenders were outstanding, stopping all shots faced through two periods, some in incredible fashion.
It wasn't until the eight-minute mark of the third period that the second goal of the game was scored. Second year forward Megan Pardy (Courtice, ON) broke in and quickly deked to her backhand to slide in her first goal of the season to push the Tommies lead to 2-0.
The final period was vastly different from the two that preceded it. It saw four total goals and wide-open play from both teams.
Three minutes after Pardy scored, Olivia Reid (Aurora, ON) scored her seventh of the season, on a nice feed from Henman behind the net.
Lindsay Donovan (Miramichi, NB) answered for the X-Women, as she stepped into the slot and wired a wrist shot over the glove of Abby Clarke (Springdale, NL) to cut the Tommies lead to 3-1.
StFX continued the pressure as Reid took a hooking penalty with less than three minutes left in the game, but on the powerplay Kristen McKinley (Rothesay, NB) took an unfortunate penalty as she went hard to the net with the puck.
Henman scored her second of the game into the empty net to seal the 4-1 win for the Tommies (17-3-0), extending their lead in the AUS standings to nine points over the X-Women (11-5-3).
Clarke made 25 saves for the win, continuing her strong play this season. Carley Molnar (London, ON) made 27 saves in the loss.
Next up on the AUS schedule sees StFX heading to Sackville to face Mount Allison on Saturday, while the Tommies will head to Moncton on Friday to face the Aigles Bleues.
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Courtesy St. Thomas Sports Information