Hockey X-Women thump Huskies

The X-Women hockey team built up a 3-0 lead after the first period and didn’t look back en route to an 8-1 thumping of the Saint Mary’s Huskies Saturday evening at the StFX Keating Centre.

The X-Women were led by rookie forward Abygail Laking who fired a natural hat trick in the game, adding to her league leading 6 points early on in the AUS season. Laking scored a second period power play goal to make it 4-0 for X and followed up with two third period goals.

Freshman forward Brittany Perkins added two goals in the X-Women offensive attack, which saw StFX go for 3 for 9 on the power play.SMU were 1 for 6 with the man advantage.

Rounding out the goal scorers for StFX were Carolyn Campbell, Marilynn Hay and Nicole Hansom. Hansom and Catie Gavin each chipped in with 2 assists each for X. Rebecca Mosher notched the lone Saint Mary’s goal early in the third period.

Katie Greenway earned the win between the pipes for StFX, who outshot the Huskies by a decisive 46-16 margin.

The win was a confidence booster for the X-Women who had previously lost a close 4-3 game to the Dalhousie Tigers the night before in Halifax.

The Tigers opened with a 2-0 lead with first period goals by Tessa Boudreau and Fielding Montgomery. Catie Gavin closed the gap for X, scoring with less then a minute to go in the first period, but the Tigers came roaring back early in the 2nd frame.

Liz Matheson and Jocelyn LeBlnac scored a mere 10 second apart just over a couple minutes into the second period to increase their lead to 4-1. The X-Women were bale to mount a comeback and scored two consecutive goals off the sticks of Brittney Perkins and Carolyn Campbell before the second buzzer rang.

Neither team could find the back of the net in the third period, however, and the score remained 4-3 in favour of the Tigers. Ashley Boutilier earned the win in nets for Dalhousie, who were outshot by the X-Women 32-25. Katie Harvieux took the loss for X.

With a 3-1-0 record, the X-Women are currently tied for first place with Saint Mary’s (3-1-0) early into the season. They will travel to Fredericton Friday night for a game against St. Thomas (1-3-0), then return home to host the Aigles Bleues (2-1-0) de Moncton Sunday afternoon at 2:00 pm.