ANTIGONISH, N.S. — A Summerside native made key contributions in helping the St. Francis Xavier X-Women win the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) women’s hockey championship on Thursday night.
Team captain Lydia Schurman assisted on Lindsay Donovan’s short-handed goal at 12:02 of the second period that kickstarted the X-Women’s rally from a 2-0 deficit en route to a 5-3 win over the Saint Mary’s Huskies.
The win gave the X-Women a 2-0 sweep in the best-of-three final and the AUS berth in the U Sports national women’s hockey championship that will be hosted by the UPEI Panthers at MacLauchlan Arena in Charlottetown from March 12 to 15.
Relentless forechecking
Some relentless forechecking by Schurman resulted in her second assist of the game on Amy Graham’s goal at 4:43 of the third period that gave the X-Women a 3-2 lead.
The Huskies tied the game with a power-play goal at 12:40 of the third period, but Graham’s unassisted goal at 15:28 proved to be the title-clinching goal. An empty-net goal with three seconds remaining clinched the victory.
Schurman, who recently became the X-Women’s all-time leader in games played in her fifth and final season, was also entrusted with taking some important faceoffs down the stretch, including one deep in St. Francis Xavier’s end with just over one minute remaining and the Huskies goaltender on the bench for an extra attacker.
