Short-staffed Tommies fall to Panthers

The Tommies women travelled to Charlottetown for a rare mid-week tilt tonight against the defending conference champion UPEI Panthers.  It was a light lineup with Emily Ryan and Kenya Marcelline sitting out recovering from injuries, as well as Julia Sharun, Kayla Blackmore and Courtney Fox all staying behind due to academic commitments.

After a scoreless first period in which STU outshot UPEI 8-4, the Tommies got on the board first with Katie Brewster (Caley Steinert) scoring her 8th of the season at 3:15.  Despite giving up 12 Panthers shots to their own 8, and back-to-back penalty kills at the end of the second, St. Thomas took the 1-0 lead to the dressing room after 40 minutes.  The Panthers took the lead in the third with goals from Keirstin Visser at 7:13 and Christina Kelly at 11:15, the latter on the power play.  But the Tommies fought back and tied the game at 14:31 on the 1st of the season from Steinert (Danielle Miller).  The teams played through a scoreless overtime and onto the shootout.  After Christina Kelly beat Kristin Wolfe on UPEI's first attempt, Kelty Apperson pulled STU even.  But that was all the Tommies could muster, and Ferran Brown collected the shootout winner for the Panthers, who prevailed 3-2.

With the shootout loss, St. Thomas gained a point on first-place St. F-X and sit in second place at 8-2-1 for 17 points.  Wolfe made 27 saves on 29 shots in the loss.  Erin MacIsaac did not play after the second period, suffering an upper body injury.  The Tommies travel to Moncton for a 2:00 pm matchup on Sunday afternoon.