X-Women close out first half on five-game winning streak

Antigonish, NS – The StFX X-Women closed out first half AUS regular season play on a five-game winning streak with a 3-2 victory over the Dalhousie Tigers Sunday afternoon at the Charles V. Keating Centre.

The top line of Kara Power (New Glasgow, NS), Daley Oddy (Cranbrook, BC) and Sarah Bujold (Riverview, NB) took care of all the socring for StFX in the game.

Power scored the first goal of the afternoon 7:02 into the first period off a nice passing play from Oddy who brought the puck into the Tigers zone. After deking the defense she passed it over to Power in front of the net who was coming in on the rush and Power made no mistake in firing it past Tigers goaltender Fabiana Petricca (Woodbridge, ON). Bujold picked up the second assist.

Shortly afterwards Bujold was hooked while on a partial breakaway towards the Tigers net. She was awarded a penalty shot but was stopped by Petricca.

Dalhousie almost tied it up a couple mins later, but Tara Morning (Aurora, ON) missed on the short side after pressure on X netminder Ariana Orasanin (Ancaster, ON) in front of the X-Women net.

With the period winding down the Tigers were able to tie the game with only seven seconds left on the clock. Ashley Money (Langton, ON) banged in a rebound after her teammates were pressuring in front of Orasanin and peppering shots. Annika Rose (North Vancouver, BC) and Lisa MacLean (Inverness, NS) picked up assists on the play.

Shots favored the X-Women 14-7 in the opening period.

The X-Women didn't waste much time regaining their lead in the second period. Power pounced on a rebound and backhanded the puck over Petricca on the blocker side only 33 seconds in. Daley and Bujold assisted.

Power almost connected with another goal around the nine-minute mark while on the penalty kill on a 2-on-1 with Heather Tillsley (Aurora, ON) but Petricca was up for the task and made the save.

Power's goal was the lone tally of the second period as the X-Women outshot the Tigers 11-9.

Bujold gave the X-Women a 3-1 advantage in the third period as she connected on a 2-on-1 with Oddy at 7:03. Oddy's hard cross-crease pass was re-directed in by linemate Bujold.

MacLean cut the lead down by a goal as she scored unassisted for the Tigers at 8:42. Orasanin didn't have much of a chance as MacLean jammed in the puck on the short glove-side.

The Tigers pressed for the tying goal and had a 5-on-3 power play opportunity that created several scoring chances but the X-Women penalty kill unit managed to hold them off.

Dalhousie pulled their netminder Petricca with 47 seconds left to play but were unable to string together any scoring rushes.

Final shots were 33-28 for the X-Women. Bujold was honored as the Subway player of the game and first star while Power was named second star and Dalhousie's MacLean was third star.

The game marked the final one of the first half of AUS regular season play as the conference breaks for the holidays.

Action resumes on January 7^th for the Tigers as they play at UPEI at 3:00pm, while the X-Women also resume play on January 7^th, travelling to St. Thomas for a 3pm game against the Tommies.

St. Thomas currently lead the league with a 12-1-1 record and 25 points. Saint Mary's (10-1-2) is in second place with 22 points, followed by UPEI (9-5-0, 18 points), StFX (8-5-0, 16 points), Moncton (4-7-3, 16 points), Mount Allison (3-11-0, 6 points) and Dalhousie (2-11-1, 5 points).