Huskies top Tommies 2-1 in double OT

(Halifax, NS)  The Saint Mary's Huskies kept pushing and finally broke through.

Mary Worndl (Kitchener, Ont.) scored 37-seconds into double-overtime to give the Huskies a 2-1 win over the STU Tommies in Friday night AUS women's hockey action at Alumni Arena.

The win gives the Huskies a 6-0-1 record and sole possession of first place in the AUS. The Tommies fall to 3-3-1 and sit fifth in the standings.

The Huskies won the day, but Tommie goaltender Abby Clarke (Springdale, N.L.) stole the show. Clarke finished with 38 saves and was the primary reason the game made it to a second overtime period.

It was the Huskies that controlled the majority of the play, outshooting the Tommies 40-16, but the Tommies generated a number of high-end scoring chances.

The quantity of shots that Huskies tender Rebecca Clark (Keswick, Ont.) faced wasn't high but the quality was. She was sharp when she needed to be, finishing with 15 saves on the game. She boosted her record to 4-0-1.

Huskies captain Breanna Lanceleve (Middle Sackville, N.S.) opened the scoring with just over five-minutes left in the second. Siobhan Birch (Mississauga, Ont.) got the puck to Beatrice Harrietha (Guelph, Ont.) just on the Tommies side of centre-ice and she sent the puck in deep. The puck took a Huskies bounce off the end-wall and came to Lanceleve in the low-left-slot and she chipped it upstairs short-side.

Tommies captain Emily Oleksuk (Thunder Bay, Ont.) answered for the Tommies just 34-seconds into the third. Olivia Reid (Aurora, Ont.) got in on the fore-check and forced a turnover in the Huskies' zone. Lauren Henman (Cow Bay, N.S.) picked it up on the left-wall and made a slick feed to Oleksuk who wired a wrister, from about the left-hash, mid-glove-side just inside the post.

With the Huskies on a four-minute power-play late in the third both goalies came up big. Clarke flashed the leather on a Hannah Askin (Waterloo, Ont.) point shot through traffic. And Clark was able to stretch out her right-pad and deny Becky Conner (East St. Paul, Man.) on a short-handed breakaway.

After five-minutes of four-on-four solved nothing, Worndl became the hero early into three-on-three action. Askin was able to spring Laura Polak (Bedford, N.S.) and Worndl on a two-on-one. Polak worked in on the left and slipped a feed across. Clarke made the initial save and Worndl stuck with it to pot the rebound for the game winner.

Up next, the Tommies travel to Sackville, N.B. to face the Mount Allison Mounties on Saturday, November 4. While, the Huskies host the Dalhousie Tigers on Sunday, November 5, 2 p.m  at Alumni Arena in Halifax.

Cam Honey-Webb, SMU Communications

Photo Nick Pearce