Third place battle won by Tommies

The St. Thomas Tommies and Saint Mary's Huskies were tied at the start of the day with 24 points apiece in the AUS standings but by the end of it someone was going to be all alone at number 3. It was the Tommies, as they picked up the hard fought 4 - 3 shoot out win against a tough Huskies team.

The game was a battle right from puck drop and felt almost like a playoff match up. STU would score the only goal of the first period when Caroline Hammerheim roofed a shot from the side of the net just after a PP expired with the only assist going to Kathleen Boyle. Shots favoured STU 13 to 7 in the period.

The Huskies would tie the score at 11:56 of the second when Melissa Young scored on a breakaway off a nice set up from the side boards from Danielle MacDougall. Shortly after that Kayla Blackmore was sprung on a breakaway but Jillian MacIsaac in the SMU net made a great save. Katie Brewster would bang one home in tight and regain the STU lead at 14:57 on the PP with helpers to Lyse Rossignol and Dominique Bernier. The second ended 2-1 and the shots were 12 - 6 for St. Thomas.

STU opened the scoring in the third at 1:26 as Katie Brewster scored her second of the day on the PP with Courtney Fox and Lyse Rossignol collecting the assists. Saint Mary's wouldn't fold their tent as Kaitlyn Abbass scored with a low shot at 8:48 and Kyla Thurston scored on a partial break away at 10:16 to tie the game. Shots were 10 to 7 for SMU.

Overtime solved nothing, so it went to a shoot out. Shots in OT were STU 2 for a game total of 34 and SMU 4 for a total of 29.

Here is how the shoot out went. Julia Sharun in net for STU, Jillian MacIsaac for SMU.

The Tommies scored on their first three shots, Dominique Bernier, Lyse Rossignol, and Kayla Blackmore. Caroline Hammerhiem missed on attempt #4, although there was some debate.

SMU's Kayla Thurston missed, Kori Cheverie scored, Lauren McCusker missed, and Danielle MacDougall missed.

Julia Sharun picks up the big win for the Tommies, who now sit all alone in third place, one point up on the Huskies. Next weekend St. Thomas plays UPEI on the Island and Sunday February 21st at home against our number 1 rival the U de M Aigles Bleues. We will wait and see if all-star Lucrece Nussbaum will be back from Vancouver for this one.

Men's and women's hockey story from The Daily Gleaner.

In other Tommies related news "The Has-Been Tommies", comprised of Catherine Boudreau, Rebekah Thompson, Amy MacLennan, Sarah Braam, and Kristina O'Brien, captured the championship in the inaugural women's division of the World Pond Hockey tournament in Plaster Rock, NB. Final score was 11-6. Photo and Daily Gleaner article