Tommies Blanked by X-Women in Home Opener

The St. Thomas University Tommies were blanked by the St. Francis Xavier X-Women 4-0 in AUS women's hockey action Friday night at the Grant-Harvey Centre.

Despite the lopsided score, Tommies head coach Peter Murphy said he was pleased with what he saw on the ice from his team.

"I thought that score didn't reflect that game," he said. "It's good to have these games happening now so we can create a building season as opposed to a high season, which we've had the last couple of years, and then all of the sudden have a crash in the playoffs."

The X-Women came out firing and were rewarded with two quick goals. The first came at 2:34 when Nicole Halladay beat Tommies netminder Taylor Cook five hole on the power play. Sarah Bujold followed suit at 4:19, finishing top corner to put StFX up 2-0.

The Tommies eventually settled in and generated 11 shots on goal in the frame, but weren't able to beat the X-Women's Carley Molnar.

"The goals that went in, there's a couple things we could have done differently but we'll touch on those tomorrow," Murphy said. "Compared to last weekend, which wasn't terrible either, the effort, second effort, third effort, was better. I saw them doing things we worked on this week."

After a scoreless second period, the Tommies came out with pressure to start the final frame. They generated numerous scoring chances, but Molnar was solid between the pipes for the X-Women.

StFX didn't have a shot on goal until 11:21 when Daley Oddy beat Cook blocker side to give the X-Women a 3-0 advantage. Less than two minutes later, Kristen McKinley buried a rebound to extend the X-Women lead to 4-0.

The Tommies pressured in the dying minutes of the game, but weren't able to convert.

"We hit a post, they made a shin pad stop, a stick stop, a skate stop.  It was just one of those nights when nothing was going in," Murphy said.

"Good portions of that game I thought we outplayed them, we just need to get some pucks in the net."

Molnar was named the Subway Player of the game for her 25-save performance. Cook picked up the loss in net for the Tommies, turning away 24 out of 28 shots.

X-Women McKinley and Oddy were named the game's second and third stars, respectively.

The Tommies are back in action tomorrow when they host the Dalhousie Tigers at the Grant-Harvey Centre. The X-Women will travel to Charlottetown to take on the UPEI Panthers.