By: Sean Crocker, BA'19
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The St. Thomas University Tommies fell to the conference leading St. Francis Xavier X-Women 4-3 in double overtime in AUS women's hockey action Friday night at the Grant-Harvey Centre.

The Tommies struck first with their top line as Reid found the back of the net finishing high on St. FX goalie Carley Molnar.

The X-Women then turned the puck over to Danielle Ring, who made no mistake on the ensuing breakaway, giving the Tommies a 2-0 lead over a powerful X-Women team.

The Tommies controlled the play for the majority of the first period, outshooting the X-Women 10-7.

Tommies head coach Peter Murphy was pleased with his team's performance on the evening, especially the dominant first period.

"I thought we played a great first and a little of the second," Murphy said. "We had a couple shifts where we got our opportunities."

The penalty kill has come up big for the Tommies recently and that trend continued on the night with the Tommies only allowing five goals on 25 penalty kills since the new year.

"We did our best to make sure Clarke could see the shots," Murphy said. "I thought we were strong on the penalty kill tonight."

The X-Women cut the Tommies' lead in half when Santana Gravelle lofted the puck in from the blueline to beat Abby Clarke.

They continued to pour the pressure on when Emily Power deflected a shot from defender Lindsay Donovan to knot the score 2-2.

The Tommies responded three minutes later when Reid sniped her second of the game to put the Tommies up 3-2 in the third period. 

Reid has come up big for the Tommies recently, recording four goals in the past five games.

"She has a tendency to score in pairs," Murphy said. "She's definitely having a great year and she's been playing pretty well of late."

Kristen McKinley of the X-Women responded shortly after to tie the game following a flurry of shots on the Tommies net to even the score up at 3-3.

The score held up through the end of the third period to force overtime.

After a scoreless five minutes of four-on-four, the X-Women put the final tally on the scoreboard in the second overtime when Sarah Bujold found her own rebound and buried it to lift the X-Women over the Tommies.

"People were just trying to sort out who had who," Murphy said of the goal. "We win as a team and we lose as a team and we don't try to point fingers."

The Tommies are back in action tomorrow night when they host the Saint Mary's Huskies at the Grant Harvey Centre at 7:00pm.