No. 5-ranked X-Women claim 9th AUS banner with 4-1 victory over Huskies

(SACKVILLE, N.B. ) - The CIS No. 5-ranked StFX X-Women capped off an impressive season with a 4-1 victory over the Saint Mary's Huskies in the championship final at the 2013 Subway AUS women's hockey championship hosted by Mount Allison University.

It is the ninth AUS women's hockey banner for the StFX program, and improves their record to 26-1 this season, including a perfect 3-0 this weekend.

With the victory they will now advance to the 2013 CIS championship scheduled for March 7-10 at the University of Toronto.

The X-Women, for the second game in a row, overcame an early deficit and scored multiple unanswered goals to power their way to victory.

The Huskies took the lead just 4:24 into the game when a Caitlyn Schell shot eluded Katie Greenway into the StFX net on the power-play.

Brittany Perkins answered for the X-Women three minutes later, and Erin Brophy's power-play goal with just under seven minutes to go in the period proved to be the eventual game-winning goal.

Molly MacDonald pushed the X-Women lead to 3-1 with a goal off an Alyssa Hennigar pass 11:13 into the second period, and took the two-goal lead into the locker room after 40 minutes.

The Huskies got into penalty trouble in the third period, and were unable to capitalize on power-play opportunities of their own.

The X-Women trio of Alex Normore, Jenna Downey and Jenna Pitts successfully killed off a 5-on-3 disadvantage without Saint Mary's mustering many good chances on the opportunity.

Normore then rounded out the scoring with a power-play breakaway effort into an empty net to seal the championship for the X-Women.

Katie Greenway made 20 saves in the win, and was sharp in the third period, while rookie sensation Sienna Cooke stopped 24 shots in goal for Saint Mary's.

Kaitlyn Abbass was named the Saint Mary's Subway player of the game, while the Brophy was selected as her team's Subway player of the game.

The tournament all-star team was comprised of Huskies' players Cooke (goaltender), Rebecca Mosher (defence), and Brianna Soper (forward) being selected along with Saint Thomas Tommies forward Jordan Miller.

Normore rounded out the all-star selections at forward, while Jenna Pitts doubled up on the tournament awards, being named an all-star on defence as well as being selected as the most valuable player of the championship.

Source: Wray Perkin, Mount Allison Sports Information
Photo courtesy of Tom Reid Photography (http://www.tomreidphotography.com/)