CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — The playoff picture in the Atlantic University Sport Women’s Hockey Conference is a lot clearer after the Saint Mary’s Huskies picked up a big road win over the UPEI Panthers on Saturday, Feb. 7.
The Huskies pulled out a 3-1 win to clinch second place and a first-round bye. The St. Francis Xavier X-Women had already clinched the other bye.
The X-Women and Huskies entered Sunday’s second-last day of the regular season tied with identical 21-5-1 (won-lost-overtime losses) records. UPEI went into its regular-season finale against St. Thomas (13-13-1) locked in third place at 19-7-1 and will face Moncton (7-18-2) in the opening round of the playoffs.
The other quarter-final matchup will feature an all-Fredericton series between UNB (18-9-0) and St. Thomas (13-13-1).
Also Sunday, Saint Mary’s visits UNB and the X-Women host Mount Allison (3-21-2). Mount Allison and Moncton will conclude the regular season on Monday night.
Winning goal
Before 282 fans at MacLauchlan Arena on the UPEI campus, Shae Demale’s power-play goal at 2:29 of the third period broke a 1-1 tie and stood up as the game-winner. Miranda Hatt opened the scoring for the Huskies at 11:37 of the second period and closed out the game’s scoring with 54 seconds remaining in the third period.
Rachel Collie, assisted by Kaylee Dufresne, tied the game for the Panthers at 13:16 of the middle frame.
Rebecca Clark turned aside 22 of 23 shots for the Huskies while Camille Scherger allowed three goals on 28 shots in the UPEI goal.