Tommies advance to championship finals with 3-1 victory over Aigles Bleues.

(FREDERICTON, N.B.) - The St. Thomas Tommies advanced to the Atlantic University Sport women's hockey championship, which resulted in an automatic berth at this year's national championship in Calgary.

S. Thomas clinched their spot in the finals with a 3-1 victory over the Université de Moncton Aigles Bleues in Game 2 of the best-of-three Subway AUS Women's Hockey semifinals Saturday night at the Grant-Harvey centre in front of a season record 619 spectators.  

AUS leading goal scorer Lauren Henman opened the scoring 28 seconds into the game on a gorgeous individual rush to give the Tommies an early 1-0 lead. 

"It was so important for us to get off to a good start, and set a tone for the rest of the game," Tommies head coach Peter Murphy said.

Moncton tied the game eight minutes later when Katryne Villeneuve went end to end on the power play and sniped the puck past Taylor Cook.  The frame ended knotted at one, with St. Thomas outshooting Moncton 11-8. 

The Tommies regained the lead with five minutes left in the second when Henman finished a great pass from Kelty Apperson for her second of the game. 

"I didn`t think our second period was all that good, we got a bit stagnant for a bit," said Murphy.

The third period saw Moncton come out with a lot of pressure, and almost tie the game, but with ten minutes remaining Emily Oleksuk buried a rebound to add an insurance goal and give the Tommies a two-goal lead with only minutes left. 

UdeM pulled their goalie with two minutes remaining in the third, but were unable to put anything past Cook.  The Tommies held on to sweep Moncton and book their ticket to AUS finals. 

Kelty Apperson continued her torrid pace, adding two more assists to her league-leading 12 points in four playoff games. 

"This was a great win for us, but I made sure to tell the girls that we still have a lot of work left to do. Our goal from the start of the season was to bring home a banner, and we are one step closer to achieving that," Murphy said.

The Tommies will face the winner of the St. Francis Xavier X-Women and the Saint Mary's Huskies series in the best-of-three championship final series next week.

Source: St. Thomas Sports Communications