Antigonish, NS – The U SPORTS No. 8 ranked STFX X-Women improved to 19-3-2-0 on the season with a 3-1 win over the St. Thomas Tommies (12-8-2-2) Saturday night at the Charles V. Keating Centre. The win amrked their sixth in a row.
Freshman forward Ireland McCloskey (Barrie, ON) scored two goals and captain Maggy Burbidge (Falmouth, NS) had a pair of assists as the X-Women outshot the Tommies 51-17 in the game.
Veteran X-Women forward Anna MacCara (Trenton, NS) opening the scoring at the 15:43 mark of the first period when she batted the puck past Tommies goaltender Katie Sweeney (Tecumseh, ON) after an initial save off a Landyn Pitts (Antigonish, NS) shot.
The X-Women had more scoring chances in the period with a 16-7 shot advantage and took the 1-0 lead into the locker room after 20 minutes.
The second period starting to get a bit chippy as the teams exchanged several penalties. It nearly went scoreless but McCloskey tallied the second X goal with only 16 seconds left in the period. She banged in a loose puck after Burbidge dug it out from behind the net and got it to the front of the Tommies crease.
STFX held St. Thomas to four shots in the middle period and were up 33-11 in shots after the second with the two-goal lead.
The Tommies got on the board just over three minutes into the third period when Ella Chambers (Ottawa, ON) took the puck up ice on a 2-on-1 with Natalie MacKay (Salmon River, NS) and elected to shoot herself and was successful in getting it past Amaya Giraudier (Assiniboia, SK) in the X net.
The X-Women regained their two-goal lead with a power play marker at 12:21 as McCloskey scored her second goal of the night. After taking a pass from Burbidge she beat Sweeney on the short side.
The X-Women continued to pressure the Tommies and generate scoring chances for the remainder of the period and closed out the 3-1 victory.
Giraudier took home the win in the STFX net with 16 saves on the night. Her counterpart Sweeney turned aside 48 pucks in the Tommies net.
McCloskey earned first star and player of the game honours. Burbidge was the second star and Tommies defense Laura Brown (Scarborough, ON) was the third star.
STFX next sees AUS action on Wednesday night when they travel to Halifax to take on Dalhousie (11-12-0-1). St. Thomas will host Mount Allison (2-18-2-1) on Friday night. Puck drop for both games is 7:00 pm.
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Recap courtesy Krista McKenna, STFX Athletics