Antigonish, NS – The U SPORTS No. 6 ranked STFX X-Women defeated the St. Thomas Tommies 3-1 on Friday night at the Keating Centre in AUS action.
The X-Women got out to a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes of play, outshooting the Tommies 13-9 in the first period.
Chloe Vukosa (Mississauga, ON) opened the scoring at 5:22 as she scored on a low glove-side shot on Tommies goaltender Katie Sweeney (Tecumseh, ON) after taking a nice pass through the defenders from Maggy Burbidge (Falmouth, NS).
Burbidge then got her second point of the night as she tallied herself at 15:25. She tipped a pass from Lea MacLeod (Dartmouth, NS) over the shoulder of Sweeney to give the home squad the two-goal advantage.
The Tommies closed the gap with a second period goal from Erin Arsenault (Oakville, ON). She scored the only marker of the middle period at the 4:51 mark, depositing a rebound in the slot after Claire Nimegeers (Wilcox, SK) forced a turnover in the X zone.
St. Thomas was then shut down in the period and outshot 25-6, but Sweeney was strong in the Tommies net and did not allow a goal as the X-Women held the 2-1 lead after 40 minutes.
The blue and white went up 3-1 as Vukosa netted her second goal of the game three and a half minutes into the third period. She took a cross ice pass from MacLeod as Sweeney had no chance on the play.
The X-Women again outshot the Tommies in the third period, 16-7 as final shots in the game played out in a lopsided 54-22 in favour of STFX.
Sweeney, with her 51 saves on the night, was awarded the third star of the game. Vukosa was the second star and MacLeod garnered first star and Subway player of the game honours.
Amaya Giraudier (Assiniboia, SK) picked up 21 saves in the X net for her fifth win of the season as the X-Women improved to 8-1-1, winning their fourth game in a row.
Both teams will be back in action on Saturday night. The Tommies head to Halifax to take on Saint Mary's, while the X-Women will be hosting UNB. Puck drop for both games is 7:00 pm.
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Recap courtesy Krista McKenna, STFX Athletics
STFX Athletics & X-Women Hockey extended big Xaverian thank you to Royal Canadian Legion member Mr. Willie Westenenk who joined us on this Remembrance Day game. Mr. Westenenk served from 1946-1951 in the Dutch Army before coming to Antigonish & working at STFX for 40 years.