X-Women down Tommies 4-3

(FREDERICTON, N.B.) - The St. Thomas Tommies dropped a 4-3 decision to the St. Francis Xavier X-Women, Saturday afternoon in front of 229 fans at the Grant-Harvey Centre.

Schyler Campbell and Taylor Dale each had two points for the X-Women.

 Becky Conner had two points for the Tommies.

"Becky's done really well for us. She's small, but she's willing to go to all the spaces," Tommies head coach Peter Murphy said of the first-year forward after the game.

"She gets to dirty areas, she finds pucks, and she scores. She's done a really good job for us."

The X-Women opened the scoring early, with Jenna MacDonald beating Tommies goaltender Taylor Cook high on a floater from outside the blue line for a 1-0 StFX lead.

"Yeah you'd like it back and I'm sure she'd like it back, too," Murphy said. "It's one of those things where she didn't see it come off the stick and suddenly you lose it." 

The Tommies redeemed themselves when Kelty Apperson scored on a penalty shot—using a deke to beat StFX netminder Sojung Shin and finishing low in the open net. With 2:30 left in the first, Conner extended the Tommies' lead to put them up 2-1 after 20 minutes.

Midway through the second, Campbell evened the score for the X-Women. Campbell's was the lone goal in the period, leaving the teams tied 2-2 heading into the third.

Alisha Gilbert gave the Tommies a 3-2 lead early in the final frame, scoring her first-ever goal for St. Thomas off a rebound.

The X-Women picked up momentum midway through the frame, scoring two quick goals off the sticks of Campbell and Kara Power for a 4-3 lead.

The Tommies had a power play in the last two minutes, but couldn't find the equalizer.

"Today I think maybe we were trying to force a few things," Murphy said. "I thought our first two opportunities on the power play we looked better than we did later on. It would have been nice to capitalize on a couple, though."

The Tommies are back in action tomorrow when they host the Dalhousie Tigers. The X-Women will travel to Sackville for a game against the Mount Allison Mounties. 

Source: St. Thomas Sports Information