X-Women ruin Huskies home opener

The CIS ranked No. 3 StFX X-Women ruined the Saint Mary's Huskies home opener in Halifax Saturday afternoon as they skated to a 4-1 victory.

The Huskies had a hard time handling the X-Women, who spent most of the first twenty minutes in the Huskies' zone. It took a sharp performance from SMU goaltender Sienna Cooke to get the home team through the first period unscathed as the X-Women directed 16 shots Cooke's way.
 
StFX carried their strong first period play into the second by scoring two quick goals. Just thirteen seconds into the period, Alex Normore collected a Cooke rebound and fired it into a yawning cage. Jenna Pitts assisted.

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. Schyler Campbell had the helper on the second X goal.

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. Cooke stopped all seven shots she faced while shorthanded.

The Huskies could not stay out of the box, however, which allowed the X-Women to go up by three goals, when StFX forward Taylor Dale shoveled a puck on net which got deflected by a Huskies stick up and over the shoulder of Cooke. Paige Belair and Nicole Corcoran assisted.
 
Saint Mary's had trouble breaking out of their own zone Saturday, which enabled the X-Women to outshoot them 37-5 over the first two periods.

With seven minutes remaining in the game, Breanna Lanceleve was able to bring SMU back within two goals. Lanceleve forced a turnover and put a wrist shot under the glove of StFX goaltender Sojung Shin.

This was as close as the Huskies would get to tying the game, as X-Women forward Daley Oddy regained the three goal lead when she capitalized on a Huskies defensive end turnover at 14:58. Campbell and Nomore picked up the assists.

Final shots were slanted heavily in the X-Women's favor at 43-10 as Shin picked up the win for StFX.
 
With the win, StFX improves their record to 3-0-0 while Saint Mary's are 2-1-1. The X-Women travel to Moncton Sunday for a 3:00 game against the Aigles Bleues (1-1-1).