Hockey X-Women defeat Panthers, shocked by Mounties

The hockey X-Women returned home from a recent road trip with a 3-2 shootout loss to Mount Allison and a 3-0 win over UPEI.

Saturday afternoon in Sackville, NB, StFX faced a wall in Mounties goaltender Meghan Corley-Byrne, peppering her with 61 shots in regulation time.

Abygail Laking and Catie Gavin scored late first period goals just 45 seconds apart to give the X-Women a 2-0 lead. Gavin scored on the power play and Marilynn Hay assisted on both goals. Laura Grant also assisted on the Laking goal.

The Mounties fought their way back into the game as Katelyn Morton scored with just under a minute left in the second period and Jillian Hunt scored 2:31 into the third. The X-Women could not solve Corley-Byrne, who had 59 saves in the game, compared to StFX’s Katie Greenway who faced 25 Mounties shots.

After a scoreless overtime, Jillian Greene was the shootout hero. The third shooter for the Mounties, Greene was the only player from either side to find the back of the net and in doing so earned the Mounties their first win of the season and an upset over the first place X-Women.

Corley-Byrne was named the first star and Player of the Game. StFX’s Laking was second star and Greene was the third star.

The X-Women were able to regroup on Sunday afternoon and earned a 3-0 shut out over the UPEI Panthers in Charlottetown. Three different X-Women scored one goal per period in the victory.

Abygail Laking scored her second goal of the weekend and sixth on the season 13:55 into the first period. Brittany Perkins and Catoe Gavin assisted on the play.

Marilyn Hay scored a second period power play marker to give the X-Women a 2-0 lead, and Perkins rounded off the scoring with a third period power play goal late in the game. Nicole Hansom and Carolyn Campbell both assisted on the Hay and Perkins goals.

The X-Women out shot the Panthers by a 40-12 margin and Katie Harvieux earned the win in nets for StFX. Kristy Dobson took the loss for UPEI who fall to 2-6-0 on the season.

The X-Women currently sit in first place with 15 points and a 7-2-1 record, three points ahead of both Saint Mary’s and Dalhousie. They will have a good test on the upcoming weekend as they will host McGill and Concordia from the QSSF conference in exhibition play. McGill will be at the StFX Keating Centre Friday night at 7:00 pm, while the X-Women will host Concordia Saturday at 2:00.