Antigonish, NS – The Dalhousie Tigers stole a 4-2 game from the U SPORTS No. 6 ranked StFX X-Women Wednesday night at the StFX Keating Centre. The win snapped StFX's five-game winning streak.
Two power play goals in the third period were the difference in the game for the Tigers who are battling for an AUS playoff position.
It was the X-Women who opened the scoring in the game, scoring the only goal of the first period just over 13 minutes in. Sarah Bujold (Riverview, NB) won a face-off in the Tigers zone and the puck went right to the stick of Emily Power (Airdrie, AB) and she wristed a shot past Dalhousie netminder Fabiana Petricca (Woodbridge, ON).
StFX outscored the Tigers 9-5 in the first period, taking the 1-0 lead into the locker room after 20 minutes.
The second period opened with a quick flurry of goals. Keana Oshowy (Woodbridge, ON) brought the puck around the back of the StFX net, then found Corinne Desjardins (Ottawa, ON) open in the slot. Desjardins connected her pass and one-timed it past Carley Molnar (London, ON) to get the Tigers on the board.
The tie did not last long however, as on the ensuing possession the X-Women stole the puck in the Tigers zone and Emerson Elliott (Aurora, ON) fed freshman Lea MacLeod (Dartmouth, NS) who was wide open in front of the Tigers net and she made no mistake depositing it past Petricca. The goal came only 12 seconds after the DAL marker.
The Tigers evened it up again at 5:07 as Lauren Ellerton (Toronto, ON) brought the puck into the StFX zone and dumped a seemingly harmless long shot on goal but it beat Molnar and the game was evened once again at 2-2.
The tie held up through the remainder of the period. Shots favoured StFX 14-7 in the middle period.
Ellerton scored what would hold up as the game winning goal 1:33 into the third period while on the man advantage. Brooklyn Paisley (Shawinigan Lake, BC) got the puck across to the fourth year defenceman whose shot from the point beat Molnar on the far side as she notched her second goal of the night.
The Tigers went up 4-2 while on a 5-on-3 power play as Autumn Moors (Ottawa, ON) banged in the puck at 12:03 on a tic-tac-toe play from Bobbi Strople (Halifax, NS) and Taylor Carr-Babineau (Moncton, NB), giving the Tigers and insurance marker.
The X-Women continued to press for a goal to get back into the game and pulled Molnar with 1:40 left to play in favour of the extra attacker but they could not capitalize.
Petricca had 31 saves for the Tigers for the win and was named second star of the game. For her two-goal effort, Ellerton took home first star and Subway player of the game honours. X-Women defense Hannah MacDonald (Wetaskiwin, AB) was the third star.
The Tigers are back in action Friday night when they host the UPEI Panthers. The X-Women will be back on home ice Saturday night to host the same Panthers squad.
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Courtesy Krista McKenna, StFX Sports Information