Antigonish, NS – The StFX X-Women earned their first victory of the AUS season with a 5-0 shutout over the Dalhousie Tigers Wednesday evening at the Charles V. Keating Centre.
All of the X-Women goals came in the third period.
The X-Women held a 12-2 shot advantage in the first period but couldn't find the back of the net. The second period saw each team with seven shots on goal in a closely contested period. Both goaltenders, Carley Molnar (London, ON) for X and Mati Barrett (Stittsville, ON) for DAL made key saves to keep their team in the game.
The home team X-Women came out firing in the third period. Lisa Downey (Stratford, ON) scored what would be the game winning goal 2:48 into the third frame, just as a Tigers power play finished. She dumped in a Kara Power (New Glasgow, NS) rebound. Heather Tillsley (Aurora, ON) also had a helper on the play.
Third year forward Sarah Bujold (Riverview, NB) gave the X-Women a 2-0 advantage at 6:28, burying the puck into the back of the net off a nice pass across the slot from Kara Power. Daley Oddy (Cranbrooke, BC) had the second assist.
The third StFX goal was scored by forward Lydia Schurman (Summerside, PE) at 9:09. Kate Gotaas (Sherwood, Park, AB) broke through the Tigers defense and had a shot on goal. Barrett made the save but Schurman capitalized on the rebound.
The Tigers called a timeout after the third goal but to no avail as the X-Women came right back and scored another marker just 37 seconds later. Freshman defense Santana Gravelle (Lumsden, SK) scored her first goal in an X-Women jersey as the X-Women scrambled and pressured the Tigers net. Emily Power (Airdrie, AB) and Gotaas assisted.
Late in the period Dalhousie had a 5-on-3 power play and pulled Barrett to try and score some quick goals but Bujold beat a puck race and potted an empty net goal to give the X-Women the 5-0 victory.
Molnar had 14 saves in the StFX net for the shutout victory. Barrett, with 22 saves was tagged with the loss as the X-Women outshot the Tigers 27-14.
StFX was 0-6 in power play opportunities while the Tigers were 0-5.
Bujold was named the first star and Subway player of the game for her two-point effort. Gotaas was the second star and Tigers forward Lisa MacLean (Inverness, NS) received third star recognition.
Next on the schedule for Dalhousie (0-2-1) is a 3:30 pm home game on Saturday afternoon against the Aigles Bleues de Moncton (1-0-1).
The X-Women (1-2-0) will host the same Moncton squad on Sunday at 2:00 pm. The game marks the annual 'Pink in the Rink' fundraiser and awareness game.
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