Online Exclusive: Women’s hockey halts losing skid

Leblanc, Robichaud with two goals

Photo by Alice Hebb

Riding a three-game losing streak, the Tigers women’s hockey team broke out a 5 – 3 win over the last place Saint Mary’s Huskies Nov. 19 at Memorial Arena.

Dalhousie scoring leader Jocelyn Leblanc added two goals, while first-year Sarah Robichaud also scored a pair. Isabelle Germain had the other.

Picking up where the two teams left off in their first meeting Oct. 19, the two opponents played a cagey defensive first period, with both teams holding their respective blue lines and clogging the neutral zone.

The Tigers finally broke the deadlock late in the first period when Fielding Montgomery played a pass from behind the net to Germain, who made no mistake to give her team the 1 – 0 lead. Less than a minute later, Leblanc snapped a shot off an offensive zone faceoff to give Dal a 2 – 0 advantage.

Fighting back, the Huskies scored with just over a minute left in the first as Kaitlyn Abbass scored a highlight reel goal, dancing around a pair of Tigers defenders before slotting the puck home.

In the second period the Tigers took advantage of a pair of Huskies penalties. Robichaud scored off another faceoff win before Leblanc added her second of the night on a breakaway, igniting the home crowd.

Late in the second period, the Tigers made it 5 – 1 off an individual effort by Robichaud. She stole the puck on the forecheck, snapping a shot and picking up the rebound to slide the puck in the net for her second of the match.

With a four-goal cushion, the Tigers played out the remainder of the game, despite the Huskies clawing back for two tallies of their own.

The win moves the Tigers into fifth place overall in the AUS, just three points behind Mount Allison and UPEI.

Dal plays two more contests on the road before the holiday break. They are in Moncton at 7 p.m. Nov. 25 and in St. Thomas at the same time Nov. 26.