Huskies Edge X-Women 4-3 to Take 1-0 Lead in Best of 3 Semifinal Series

(Halifax, NS) The top seeded Saint Mary's Huskies defeated the fifth seeded Saint Francis Xavier X-Women 4-3 in game one of their best of three AUS Subway women's hockey semifinal series Friday night at Alumni Arena.

The Huskies got on the board first when Caitlyn Manning (Cambridge, ON) scored in close off a rebound at 14:04 to give Saint Mary's a 1-0 lead. Saint Mary's increased their lead when Subway player of the game Breanna Lanceleve (Middle Sackville, NS) tallied in close off another rebound at 17:10 on the powerplay to make it 2-0. The Huskies kept it up when Laura Polak (Bedford, NS) potted a marker off a wild scramble at 18:23 to make the score 3-0 after the first period. In the second period, Saint Mary's picked up where they left off when Lanceleve got her second of the game when a attempted pass hit her skate and deflected into the net at 12:22 on the powerplay to take a 4-0 lead. St.FX finally got on the board when Kara Power (New Glasgow, NS) scored when she tipped in a point shot at 19:34 to cut the lead to 4-1 after two periods. In the third, the X-Women continued to get back into it when Schyler Campbell (Galloway, NB) tallied off a point shot at 1:55 to get it to 4-2. St.FX made things really exciting when Jenna MacDonald (Osgoode, ON) potted a marker from the slot at 8:54 to reduce the deficit to just one, but the X-Women could not complete the comeback.

The Huskies outshot the X-Women 36-28. Rebecca Clark (Keswick, ON) made 25 saves to get the win for the Huskies. Sojung Shin (Seoul, South Korea) stopped 32 shots in goal for the X-Women.

The Huskies will have a chance to sweep the series when they visit the X-Women in game two on Sunday at 2:00 pm.

SMU communications, photo Nick Pearce