The Saint Mary's Huskies women's hockey team handed the CIS No. 5-ranked StFX X-Women their first loss of the season Friday night at the Alumni Arena in Halifax.
Rookie forward Brianna Soper (Oshawa, Ont.) scored a pair of goals and Siena Cooke (Surrey, B.C.) was solid in net as the Huskies knocked off the X-Women 2-1.
Head coach Chris Larade says this was a big win for his young team.
"It shows we learned from our mistakes last weekend. Some of our fourth and fifth year players have never beat St. FX on this ice."
Both teams traded chances in a physical first period but the game was scoreless going into the second.
With just a little over five minutes left in the second period Soper broke the ice. She was all alone in the slot and was on the receiving end of a nice pass from Rebecca Johnson (Stoney Creek, Ont.). It took three whacks but the puck made it to the back of the net.
StFX roared back and dominated the play for the next couple of minutes but Cooke stood tall, making several challenging saves. Late in the second the X-Women would get into penalty trouble giving the Huskies a 5 on 3 power play to start the third period.
Soper would strike again early in the third as a point shot went wide off the boards but bounced right onto the rookie's stick and she buried it for her second of the game.
StFX scored about halfway through the third to make it 2-1 but it was the only puck that they would get by Cooke.
Cooke stopped 32 shots for the win including 14 in the third period alone. It is her third win of the season. Soper was named the Subway player of the game.
It was the Huskies' first win on home ice this season. They will next meet Dalhousie Sunday for a 2:00pm start at the Halifax Metro Centre.
Saint Mary's now sits fourth in the AUS with a 3-2-1 record while the X-Women remain in first place with a 5-1-0 record.
Source: Saint Mary's Sports Information