The St. Thomas University Tommies women’s hockey season came to an end in the Atlantic University Sport semifinals at the hands of the eventual champions, the University of New Brunswick Reds. The Tommies finished the regular season 11-11-0-0 and winning two of their last three games to get the fifth seed in the AUS playoffs.
The Tommies would defeat the fourth seeded UPEI Panthers in the AUS quarterfinals 3-2 on the Island, setting up a classic “Battle of the Hill” playoff matchup. The Tommies would fall 2-0 in the best of three matchup by scores of 2-1 and 3-2, respectively.
“I thought our playoffs were great,” said Peter Murphy, Tommies’ head coach, about his team’s run. “No blowouts, but hard fought and extremely entertaining games. The players played so hard and were very close to moving to an AUS Final.”
This season was a difficult one for every team, and Murphy said his team was no exception.
“The first term was as close to a normal year as we could hope. The team came together very well, and everyone had contributions to our success. We began to really play well towards the end of the term and it was almost unfortunate we had to stop for the Christmas break. The second term was very different. The delayed start and stop and start nature of the term was very difficult on the athletes.”
The Tommies offence this season was a score by committee scenario, with Mariah Carey and Emma Wilson tying for the team lead in goals with 6, and defender Aislynn Byers leading the team in points with 14. Goaltender Caroline Pietroski continued her strong AUS play by being top five in the AUS in both goals against average and save percentage, and finished second in total saves, with nearly 100 more than the next closest goalie. For their efforts on the year Byers, Pietroski and captain, Alex Woods, were all named AUS 2nd Team All-Stars.
Special teams for the Tommies was two different stories. They would struggle on the power play for the bulk of season, figuring things out down the stretch, but on the other hand, their penalty kill was the best in the AUS, and second in all of U Sports, killing 94% of their penalties.
“As much as we struggled on the power play earlier in the year, the work we put in paid off late as it came around when we needed it,” praised Murphy. “Our penalty kill this season was phenomenal, only giving up four goals all season and was second best in the country. Defensively we were very strong other than against StFX, and we had some very exciting games this year with rivals UNB as well as St. Mary’s. There is a lot of good things moving forward.”
The Tommies are graduating seven student athletes, Emma Pye, Mariah Carey, Megan Pardy, Olivia Reid, Florence Awde, Lauren Legault and Woods, with the latter two using up all of their eligibility.
“Obviously difficult every year when players leave the program, but there is a big group who were all part of the Championship season. Some real impact players for us over the long term in Woods, Carey and Legault, but all the grads have left their imprint on the program. Hopefully the lessons learned this year will be carried forward by the remaining team.”
Already having five recruits announced for the 2022-23 season, paired with the returning Tommies, Murphy adds there is plenty to be excited for in the future.
“We saw some real promising development in our forward group this year from some returning players. Jacey Dane certainly has shown improvement while we see continued strong play from Emma Wilson and Erin Arsenault. Ekaterina Pelowich stands out in our younger group, but they all show a real interest in learning and applying new skills. On the backend, Aislynn Byers has shown she is looking to pick up for Alex Woods when she leaves, and we saw confidence growing in Brooke Stanford and many of our younger defenders. In goal, Caroline had another strong season and Katie Sweeney showed that she is ready to emerge as a top AUS goaltender as well.”