Tommies Earn 6th Straight Victory With 4-2 Win over Aigles Bleues

(Fredericton, NB) The St. Thomas University Tommies won their sixth straight game with a 4-2 victory over the Université de Moncton Aigles Bleues on Sunday afternoon.

Emily Oleksuk (Thunder Bay, ON) led the Tommies offence with 1 goal and 2 assists to move her into a tie for the AUS lead in points with 14. Katryne Villeneuve (Casselman, ON) had a goal and an assist for the Aigles Bleues as she also has 14 points on the season.

It was Leah Galati (Mississauga, ON) got the Tommies on the board in the first period as her wrist shot from the point squeaked through the legs of Audrey Berthiaume (St-Bruno, QC). Six minutes later Oleksuk scored on the power play on a nice feed from behind the net from Beck Conner (East St. Paul, MB) to push the lead to 2-0.

With the period winding down Katherine Duboc (Victoriaville, QC) responded for the Aigles Bleues, cutting the lead to 2-1 before the intermission.

The second period had both teams sitting back and no scoring would happen.

Early in the third period the Tommies got into penalty trouble, much to the dislike of head coach Peter Murphy who wouldn't comment on his team's lack of discipline.

With a 5-on-3 power play looming for UdeM head coach Marc-André Côté called a timeout to spark his team and hopefully get the tying goal. Just as the first penalty expired Villeneuve beat Abby Clarke (Springdale, NL) to tie the game at 2-2.

"Moncton is a tough team because they play a quick attack, just like how we like to play," said Murphy.

With 11 minutes left in the game Oleksuk came streaking down the right wing, banked the puck off the boards and around the UdeM defender, picked up and found a streaking Lauren Henman (Cow Bay, NS) for a tap in goal to give the Tommies the lead back.

"As soon as I saw Henman going for the back door it was just whether or not she was going to get it above the goal line to be able to put it in," said Murphy.

Villeneuve and Henman now sit tied in the AUS goal scoring lead with 10 goals each.

Olivia Reid (Aurora, ON) would seal the game with an empty net goal to make it a 4-2 win for the Tommies.

The Aigles Bleues head to Mount Allison in a midweek affair with the Mounties on Wednesday, while the Tommies will head to Moncton for a rematch with UdeM on Friday evening.