X-Women knock off Huskies in overtime

Antigonish, NS – The StFX X-Women knocked off the U Sports No. 2 ranked Saint Mary's Huskies with a 2-1 overtime victory Wednesday evening at the Charles V. Keating Centre.

Sarah Bujold (Riverview, NB) was the overtime hero, scoring just 22 seconds into the extra frame to give the X-Women the win and improving to 7-5-0 on the season. StFX moves into a third place tie in the standings with UPEI (7-5-0). The Huskies drop to 9-1-2 and sit in second spot behind St. Thomas (11-1-1).

The two teams played to a scoreless first period as the home X-Women squad held an 11-7 shot advantage.

The visiting Huskies got on the scoreboard first with a shorthanded marker at 11:47 of the second period. Nicole Blanche (Dunville, NF) brought the puck into the StFX zone and from the corner passed it out front to Siobhan Birch (Mississauga, ON) who took the shot with X goaltender Ariana Orasanin (Ancaster, ON) making the save. The rebound came back out to Blanche's stick and she tucked it in the short side behind an out-stretched Orasanin.

The Blanche goal was the only one of the middle period as the X-Women outshot the Huskies 13-11.

Senior X-Women defenseman Heather Tillsley (Aurora, ON) tied the game up with a power play goal at 13:02 of the third period. As the power play unit set-up in the Huskies zone, Kara Power (New Glasgow, NS) worked the puck across the point to Lindsey Donovan (Mirimichi, NB) who fed it in to Tillsley down low. She made no mistake and beat Rebecca Clark (Keswick, ON) top shelf.

The goal came after SMU forward Mary Worndl (Kitchener, ON) missed a shot high on a shorthanded breakaway.

The game remained deadlocked at 1-1 at the end of regulation as both netminders made key saves for their respective teams to keep them in the game.

In the four-on-four overtime period, on the first rush into the Saint Mary's zone, the X-Women worked the puck around, Daley Oddy (Cranbrook, BC) passed it across the point to Nicole Corcoran (Bloomfield, PE) who let a shot blast. Clark made the save but the rebound came right out to Bujold in the open slot and she made no mistake firing it into the open side of the Huskies net.

With the game winner, Bujold received first star and Subway player of the game honors. Orasanin, with her fourth consecutive win on the season was the second star as she had 24 saves on the night. Clark with 30 saves was the third star.

The X-Women outshot the Huskies by a 32-25 margin. They will next see action when they host the Dalhousie Tigers on Sunday at 2:00 pm.

The Huskies play host to Moncton Saturday at 2:00 pm.

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