Peters and Huskies shut down Tommies

(HALIFAX, N.S.) - The Saint Mary's Huskies (9-10-0) continued their historical dominance of the St. Thomas Tommies (5-12-2) in the teams' third meeting of the season.

Anthony Peters made 25 saves to record his first shutout of the season while four different Huskies provided goals to lead Saint Mary's to a 4-0 victory against the Tommies on Friday at the Halifax Forum.

The Huskies have not lost a regular season game against St. Thomas in several years. Saint Mary's win tonight was its 27th in a row against St. Thomas dating back to the 2007-08 season.

Michael Stickland gave the Huskies a 1-0 lead six minutes into the first period. After a Cory Tanaka faceoff win, defenceman Stephen Gillard's point shot was tipped by Stickland over the pad of Jonathan Groenheyde.

Saint Mary's doubled their lead with two minutes to play in the first period when their skillful puck movement in the Tommies' zone allowed Jamie Doornbosch to sneak down from his point position, receive a pass from Ryan Hillier and fire a wrist shot from the slot to beat Groenheyde blocker side.

Doornbosch's goal concluded a dominant first period in which the Huskies dictated the flow, earning them a 19-5 shot advantage.

Thirteen minutes into the second period, Saint Mary's extended their lead to three on the power-play when Francis Menard scored on Groenheyde with a wrist shot to the short side. Stephen MacAulay set up the goal when his cross-ice pass through the Tommies' defensive box connected with Menard, who was left unattended by St. Thomas penalty killers.

With seven minutes to play, the game took on a more frenetic pace for Anthony Peters who faced only 12 shots in the first 40 minutes.

St. Thomas received 90 seconds of 5-on-3 power play time, which demanded Peters be sharp. The Huskies' netminder made two big left pad saves on Colin Martin in close.

Later in the power-play, Peters robbed Jonathan Bonneau of a goal when he made a spectacular glove save on the defenceman's slap shot.

The Huskies and Peters were able to fend off the Tommies to earn the shutout while Lucas Bloodoff scored in the empty net to bring the final score to 4-0.

Groenheyde played well in net for the Tommies, stopping 34 of 37 shots, but was not able to get any offensive support.

Saint Mary's will try for two consecutive wins tomorrow night when they will host the UPEI Panthers at the Forum.

St. Thomas will travel to Antigonish Saturday to play the StFX X-Men.

Source: Brian Mosher for Saint Mary's Sports Information