(HALIFAX, N.S.) - In a rematch of last year's AUS final, the Saint Mary's Huskies dropped their home-opener by a score of 4-1 Saturday afternoon to the CIS No. 3-ranked StFX X-Women at Alumni Arena in Halifax.
The Huskies started their season with a pair of road wins last week over UPEI (2-1) and Moncton (7-2), but they could not extend their win streak at home.
The X-Women spent most of the first twenty minutes in the Huskies' zone, but it took a sharp performance from SMU goaltender Sienna Cooke to get the home team through the first period unscathed. StFX directed 16 shots Cooke's way but could not manage to put a puck by her.
StFX carried their strong first period play into the second by scoring two quick goals.
Thirteen seconds into the period, Alexa Normore collected a Cooke rebound and fired it into the back of the net. Normore was not finished there as she tallied another goal on the very next play, just thirty seconds after she opened the game's scoring.
Later in the period, back-to-back penalties by Saint Mary's effectively gave StFX a full two minutes with a 5-on-3 power play. Sienna Cooke stopped all seven shots she faced while down two players as the Huskies' penalty kill was able to prevent the X-Women from increasing their lead.
Saint Mary's could not stay out of the box, however, which allowed the X-Women to go up by three goals, when StFX forward Taylor Dale shovelled a puck on net which got deflected by a Huskies stick up and over the shoulder of Cooke.
The X-Women to out shot their hosts by a 37-5 margin through the first two periods. With seven minutes remaining in the game, rookie Breanna Lanceleve was able to bring SMU to within two goals. Lanceleve forced an X-Women defender to turn the puck over at the right face-off circle where she put a hard wrist shot under the glove of StFX goaltender Sojung Shin. This was as close as the SMU women would come, as X-Women forward Daley Oddy regained the three goal lead when she capitalized on a Huskies defensive end turnover.
With the win, StFX improves their record to 3-0 while SMU is now 2-1. The Huskies will take the ice again to face the Dalhousie Tigers this Wednesday, October 30, at the Alumni Arena. Puck-drop is set for 7:00 pm.
Source: Saint Mary Sport Information