Tommies clinch second place with hard-fought 1-0 victory over Mounties

(SACKVILLE, N.B.) - Keyna Marcelline's goal with 1:23 to go broke the scoreless deadlock and lifted STU past Mount Allison on Wednesday night.

The goal spoiled the shutout bid for Kate O'Brien, who made her first career AUS start in the Mounties goal.

Marcelline dug the puck out of a crowd in the slot and fired it blocker side past O'Brien.

"We were going up against a goalie in her first ever game so it was real easy to think it was not going to be a tough night," said Tommies' head coach, Peter Murphy. "But Mount A came out and played a playoff game."

O'Brien showed great poise throughout, never looking out of position.

Despite the lone marker on the night, the teams combined to hit the goal frame six times.

The first post came four minutes into the first when Kayla Blackmore fed Jordan Miller on the 2-on-1 and she rung it off the inside of the post.

The Tommies kept coming in the second when Jordan Miller hit the bar again eight minutes in. Danielle Miller followed that up a few minutes later stealing the puck and creating chance point-blank but was turned away by the pad of O'Brien.

That's when the Mounties took over and staked up the Tommies at the blue line for a stretch in the later half of the second frame. Mount A kept pushing the puck to the net and came within inches of a goal.

The Mounties power play chance midway through the third was as good as any opportunity to break through. They sailed one off the post and were stopped by Kristin Wolfe on a couple of solid scoring chances.

But, it was inside two minutes when Keyna Marcelline, almost out of no where, was able to find the puck and rip it by O'Brien for what proved to be the difference.

"There's still a lot of work to be done," says Murphy.

"We've got to focus on 3-on-3 low in our zone. We were losing our checks a little. Power play still needs some work. We're seeing some progress though."

"We hit more crossbars and posts tonight. We'd just like to see some of those as post-down. Maybe they're saving them all for the playoffs."

The win was the second 1-0 victory in a row – one for each of the Tommies netmiders Sharun and Wolfe. The Tommies improve to 15-7-1, good enough to clinch second spot in the AUS standings.

Source: Matt Sheriko, St. Thomas Sports Information