By Wray Perkin
Mount Allison sports information
SACKVILLE, N.B. - The Saint Francis Xavier X-Women are the 2012-13 AUS women's hockey champions, capping off the Subway AUS Championships with a 4-1 victory over the Saint Mary's Huskies.
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 4:24 into the game when a Caitlyn Schell shot eluded Katie Greenway into the St. FX net on the powerplay.
Brittany Perkins answered for the X-Women three minutes later, and Erin Brophy's powerplay goal with just under seven minutes to go in the period proved to be the game-winning goal.
Molly MacDonald pushed the X-Women lead to 3-1 with a goal off an Alyssa Hennigar pass.
The Huskies got into penalty trouble in the third period, but were unable to capitalize on powerplay 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 any good chances on the opportunity.
Normore rounded out the scoring with a powerplay breakaway into an empty net to seal the championship for StFX. 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 Saint Mary's player of the game, while the X-Women's Brophy was selected as her team's player of the game.
The tournament all-star team was named, with 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 forwards, while X-Women defender Jenna Pitts doubled up, as an all-star on defence, while also being recognized as the tournament's MVP.
The X-Women, champions of the AUS for the ninth time, advance to the CIS
championships held in Toronto, Ont., from March 7-10.
