Halifax, NS – The Dalhousie Tigers avenged an exhibition loss Thursday night in Antigonish by defeating the STFX X-Women 5-4 Friday night at the Halifax Forum in pre-season exhibition action.
The Tigers held a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes of play despite being outshot by the X-Women 14-12.
Olivia Eustace scored three and a half minutes into the game to give the Tigers the early lead but Tea Pearce scored for STFX – the first of her X career – just 24 seconds later from Maggy Burbidge and Kya Moss to even things up.
Anika Curri replied for Dalhousie midway through the period to give them back their one-goal lead and Ava Benedict made it a 3-1 advantage at the 15:14 mark of the second period.
The X-Women cut into the lead with a power play marker 30 seconds later off the stick of freshman defense Mackenzie Lothian but the Tigers responded with another goal less than a minuet later from Brooklyn Paisley.
Dalhousie held onto the 4-2 lead after 40 minutes but it was the visiting X-Women with a 14-7 shot advantage in the second frame.
Regan Duffy made it 5-2 for the Tigers early in the third period.
The X-Women tried to close the gap and scored their second power play goal of the game with just over three minutes to play. Ellie Brown tallied off a feed from Anna MacCara.
Less than a minute later McKiya Mazur made it a one-goal deficit as she scored X's fourth goal, but it would be as close as the blue and white would come as the Tigers held on for the 5-4 win.
Final shots were 38-30 in favor of STFX as freshman goaltender Brooklyn Oakes was tagged with the loss in the X net, having saved 25.
Maggie Baxter with 34 saves on the night earned the win in the Tigers goal.
The X-Women will be back in action next weekend when they travel to Montreal for the Theresa Humes Invitational tournament at Concordia University for three games against non-conference opponents. STFX will face-off against Queen's on Friday, Sept. 28th, followed by a match against Montreal Saturday. Sunday's opponent will be set following results from the early tournament action.
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Recap courtesy STFX Athletics