Women’s hockey avoids trip up in home opener
For their second successive game, the Dalhousie Tigers women’s hockey team found themselves down two goals early. But on Oct. 23, they battled back for a decisive 4 – 3 win over the UPEI Panthers in Dal’s home opener.
A two-goal performance from player of the game Jocelyn Leblanc gave the Tigers the push they needed to overcome the early deficit and a rash of penalties, which saw Dal chasing the puck for much of the first period.
Brittany McMacken was handed her second consecutive start of the season, making 10 saves in the first period and a total of 34 in the victory.
UPEI broke the deadlock just 36 seconds into the second period when Kelsey O’Donnell gave the visitors a 1 – 0 edge.
The Tigers found themselves back on the penalty kill a few minutes later, giving UPEI ample opportunity to add their second goal of the afternoon courtesy of Samantha Sweet, who was found all alone by O’Donnell.
Leblanc almost immediately answered back for the Tigers, going end-to-end and beating the goalie only to be denied by the post. Moments later, Leblanc found the back of the net, scoring on a tic-tac-toe passing play. The power play tally was assisted by Miranda McMillan.
Less than two minutes after the marker, Rachel Cox tied the game at two for the Tigers, and early in the third period it was Leblanc scoring again, handing the Tigers their first advantage of the match.
Christina Kelly would even the match at three for the Panthers six minutes into the third period, but the tie wouldn’t last. A Robyn Nicholson blast from the slot clinched the win for the Tigers with 2:51 remaining in the third.
It was the Tigers’ first win of the season after losing their opening two matches to St. FX and Saint Mary’s.
Dal’s star forward Leblanc was full of praise for her teammates after the win.
“We found ourselves behind early on and we had to dig deep to pull this one out.
“The new head shot rules [implemented by Hockey Canada] are taking some adjusting to and we obviously need to work harder on that, but Brittany [McMacken] came up big for us and gave us the chance we needed to win this.”
Leblanc is off to a hot start, with three goals and four points in the Tigers’ opening three games, but she credits her teammates.
“We’re all working hard and we all want to win. Our first game was tough and Wednesday [against SMU] was close as well. We really wanted this win today and hopefully there are more to come.”
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