In the first weekend of AUS women's hockey action, the Saint Mary's Huskies, UPEI Panthers and StFX X-Women earned back-to-back victories.
The Huskies kicked off the season Wednesday evening as they faced their cross-town rivals, the Dalhousie Tigers, where the Huskies played to a 4-3 victory. Saint Mary's goals came from Siobhan Birch (PP), Mary McDonald, Taylor Keeping (PP) and Brooke Murphy (PP), while scorers for Dalhousie were Kennedy Whelan, Kaela Thomson and Danika Phillips. Despite the loss, Dalhousie's Fabiana Petricca finished with an incredible 59 saves in the game to earn herself the Subway Player of the Game title.
After the win on Wednesday, Saint Mary's then went on to blank the Universite de Moncton Aigles 5-0 Bleues Saturday evening in Halifax. Birch earned her second goal of the week, with other Huskie goals coming from Kaitlin Howarth, Miranda Hatt, Laura Horwood and Ellen Laurence.
The Panthers started their season on the road, facing the UNB Reds in Fredericton Friday night, where they earned a 2-0 shutout win. Goals in the victory came from Rachel Colle and Jolena Gillard.
UPEI then went on a earn a huge 6-0 win over the Mount Allison Mounties Saturday night. Cole and Gillard earned a goal apiece in the win, with Maria Clinston adding two on the night and Kelly Clements and Delaney Boehm also getting on the board. Despite the loss, Mount Allison goaltender Kaitlin Mowbray made 38 saves on the night.
The X-Women visited the Mounties on Friday, blanking them 4-0. Tyra Meropoulis led the X-Women with a short-handed tally and a regular strength goal on the night, with Lacey Dimaulo finding the back of the net and Kate Gotaas adding an empty netter to seal the victory.
In their home opener in Antigonish on Sunday, the X-Women topped the Tigers 4-1. Meropoulis added her third goal of the season, with Emerson Elliott scoring two and Kristen McKinley scoring on the power-play for the X-Women. Raeghan O'Leary was the lone scorer for the Tigers in the loss.
The Aigles Bleues hosted the St. Thomas Tommies Friday night, blanking them 1-0. Aude Masse scored the lone goal in the game.
The Tommies then went on to host the UNB Reds in their home opener Saturday night, where they fell 3-0. Lillian George scored two tallies on the night for the Reds, with teammate Myah Bowal also finding the back of the net.
Scores:
Wednesday, Oct. 2
Saint Mary's 4 at Dalhousie 3
Friday, Oct. 4
StFX 4 at Mount Allison 0
St. Thomas 0 at Moncton 1
UPEI 2 at UNB 0
Saturday, Oct. 5
Moncton 0 at Saint Mary's 5
UNB 3 at St. Thomas 0
Mount Allison 0 at UPEI 6
Sunday, Oct. 6
Dalhousie 1 at StFX 4