Tommies Recap presented by Fredericton Region Solid Waste

(Fredericton, NB)

The STU Tommies Women's Hockey team faced their cross campus rivals for the second time in the Covid exhibition season on Friday.

What felt like a playoff atmosphere for University Hockey in March, both teams battled in games that, despite the lack of fans, had playoff intensity.

Stephanie Goertzen (Caledon, ON) scored 3:20 into the first period on a Power play goal to break the deadlock among the 7 shots Hailey Martens (Ladysmith, BC) faced UNB, while STU's Caroline Pietroski (Etobicoke, ON) turned away 14 in the opening frame.

Both teams saw increased play through the neutral zone with UNB gaining more opportunities at the net, but Pietroski continued to shine turning away 9 more shots in the middle stanza. 

Although the second period proved scoreless, the third period saw a see saw battle in the early moments, when UNB's Grenier scored 5:55 into the frame, and the Tommies replying quickly on another power play goal courtesy of Olivia Reid (Aurora, ON) while Grenier was sitting in the box.

Captain Alex Woods (Courtice, ON) sealed the deal with 1:18 remaining to guarantee the victory for the Tommies.

Special teams were effective for the Tommies after killing a 5-on-3 in the third period and scoring two power plays goals.

Pietroski who earned first star of the game mentioned that STU needed to "keep in mind that the team shouldn't doubt ourselves and keep going with their effort."

Paige Grenier felt that there were "lessons to be learned and that you focus on the next game and take the 3-game series" in anticipation of Saturday's rematch at the Aitken Centre

Coach Sarah Hilworth gave credit to the STU netminder.  "We had a little bit more flow today and we had our chances, but we didn't capitalize."  "We need to be tenacious and show more grit and compete level and match it tomorrow."

Coach Peter Murphy thought the team showed a better effort after shaking off some rust.  "We had a better start tonight which was good, with a little faltering in the second period, but we came back and played our game in the third period."

Check out tomorrow night's 3rd game of the Battle of the Hill, live at 7pm on 3Sixty.Live (no fans permitted)