St. Thomas, Saint Mary's to drop the puck on AUS women's hockey quarter-finals

UNB, STFX earn byes to semis following their 1-2 finish in the regular season

HALIFAX, NS (Feb. 20, 2025) – With their regular season all done, six Atlantic University Sport (AUS) women’s hockey teams now have their sights set on the 2025 championship.

Atop the mountain, for now, is the UNB REDS. The three-time defending champs look to be just as strong as ever after closing out the regular season with a league-best 21-5-1-1 record and 44 points – earning them a bye to the AUS semifinals.

Earning the second bye was the X-Women from STFX, who finished in second place with 41 points (18-5-1-4).

These two teams met in last year’s championship final, with UNB emerging victorious in a sweep of their best-of-three series.

While the REDS and X-Women wait to see who they will play in the semifinals, let’s take a look at our AUS best-of-three quarter-final matchups.

Quarter-Final #1
St. Thomas University (No. 3) vs Saint Mary’s University (No. 6)

Thursday night will see the AUS women’s hockey playoffs kick off with the third-seeded St. Thomas Tommies hosting the Saint Mary’s Huskies in Game 1 of their best-of-three quarter-final series.

St. Thomas enters the series after finishing third in the AUS standings with a 17-7-3-1 record – earning their most wins since the 2019 season when they finished first with a 22-5-1-0 mark and went on to capture the program’s lone AUS title. The Huskies eeked out UPEI for the sixth and final playoff spot with a 12-10-4-2 record, finishing just one point ahead of the Panthers.

In their season series the green and gold dominated Saint Mary’s, winning all four of their matchups.

Offensively, the Tommies are led by veteran Ekaterina Pelowich. She finished tied for second in goals scored this season (12) while adding seven assists for 19 points in 24 games – she missed four contests in January while helping Team Canada to a silver medal at the 2025 FISU Games in Torino, Italy with Huskies defenceman Abigail MacKenzie as her teammate.

Saint Mary’s is paced by Gillian Lapierre, who notched 16 points (7 goals, 9 assists) in 28 games this year.

Odds are pretty good that St. Thomas will start Katie Sweeney in net in Game 1 of the series. Along with starting 15 games for the Tommies and winning her last six starts, a third of her nine wins this season came against the Huskies. She brings with her a stellar 1.76 goals against average and .927 save percentage.

Saint Mary’s will counter with Ridleigh Hansen, who has started 19 games this year and drawn many of the tougher assignments throughout the season. Despite that, Hansen has recorded an impressive 2.06 goals against average and .923 save percentage.

Last season, the Tommies reached the semifinals before falling in the decisive Game 5 to the STFX X-Women. Saint Mary’s also reached the semifinals before being bounced in Game 4 by the eventual champions from UNB.

Saint Mary’s will be looking to earn their first AUS title since the 2017-18 season.

Game 2 of the series will be played in Halifax on Saturday, Feb. 22 in a 7 p.m. puck drop. Should a Game 3 be needed, St. Thomas will again host – this time on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m.

All games can be watched on AUStv.ca.

Quarter-final #2
Moncton (No. 4) vs Dalhousie (No. 5)

In what might be the toughest-to-call quarter-final on both the women’s and men’s side is the Moncton Aigles Bleues taking on the Dalhousie Tigers. Game 1 goes Friday night at 7 p.m. in Moncton.

Any way you look at it with these teams, it’s close.

Moncton edged the Tigers for fourth place with a 16-9-2-1 record and 35 points. Dalhousie finished just one point back with a 15-9-3-1 mark.

The Aigles Bleues scored 66 goals throughout the season. Dalhousie scored 63.

Even their head-to-head games failed to settle anything as they went 2-2 against each other – Dalhousie winning the first two and Moncton the last two.

Moncton boasts a 1-2 punch up front as teammates Erica Plourde and Valerie Hache finished second and third, respectively, in league scoring. Plourde recorded 23 points (12 goals, 11 assists) in 24 games while Hache tallied 21 points (9 goals, 12 assists) in 28 games.

Leah MacSween led the Tigers with 20 points (9 goals, 11 assists) in 28 games to finish tied for fourth in scoring.

In net, both teams have goalies that could arguably be dubbed as ‘the best in the league’.

On one hand, Moncton will lean on Annick Boudreau, who led the league in starts (23) while also recording a sparkling 1.73 goals against average and .930 save percentage. Her 14 wins were tied for the league lead with, you guessed it, the goalie who will be standing across the ice from her, Grace Beer.

On top of her 14 wins, Beer led the league with 697 saves and an outstanding .950 save percentage, while also posting a 1.83 goals against average.

Like Pelowich and MacKenzie in the other quarter-final series, this battle will also feature 2025 FISU Games Team Canada teammates as both Beer and Plourde played roles in helping Canada earn a silver medal.

Moncton’s last AUS title came back in the 2013-14 season, while Dalhousie is still in search of their first ever AUS women’s hockey crown.

Game 2 of this series will be played in Halifax on Sunday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. Game 3, if needed, will go on Tuesday, Feb. 25 back in Moncton at 7 p.m.

As always, you can catch all the playoff action on AUStv.ca.