A four-goal performance by rookie forward Lauren Henman pushed the Tommies to a 7-3 win over the Dalhousie Tigers in game one of the AUS women's hockey quarterfinals, Tuesday night in front of 133 spectators at the Grant-Harvey Centre.
Becky Conner and Marina Sergina complimented Henman's four-point performance, tallying three points each for the Tommies.
Maggie Beaton, Elizabeth MacArthur, and Jennifer Thompson found the back of the net for the Tigers.
The Tommies had a strong first period, opening the scoring just 1:06 into the game with a goal from Henman.
"It's definitely a huge boost," Tommies head coach Peter Murphy said of the early goal.
"I was happy with the way we got it– it was sort of a dirty goal, something that was at the net and we just kept going for it. Those are the ones we hadn't been getting and that's kind of what we've been focusing on."
Sergina extended the Tommies lead at 16:11 after beating Tigers netminder Jessica Severeyns five-hole with a wrister from the slot.
The Tigers generated four shots on goal in the frame and couldn't capitalize, leaving the Tommies with a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes.
The second period brought on a flood of goals.
Andrea Fischer put the Tommies up 3-0 after finishing a rebound at 3:24 and Henman followed suit midway through the frame to give the Tommies a four-goal lead.
After STU's fourth goal, Jeanne Morin took over in goal for the Tigers.
The Tigers eventually solved Tommies netminder Abby Clarke when Beaton capitalized on a turnover at 13:35.
Despite the change in goaltenders, the Tommies added back-to-back goals late in the stanza—Conner buried a great dish from Kelty Apperson on a two-on-one at 18:47 and Henman completed her first career hat trick at 19:01 to put the Tommies up 6-1 heading into the third.
Thompson brought some life to the Tigers offense early in the third after burying a rebound at 2:35 to cut the Tommies lead to 6-2.
Henman reclaimed the Tommies' five-goal lead midway through the final frame after finishing her own rebound.
"We've never had someone score four goals in a playoff game," Murphy said, "but we knew what we were getting with Henman. She's a natural goal-scorer."
The Tigers didn't quit though, and were rewarded when MacArthur beat Clarke low to bring Dal within four of the Tommies, but that's as close as they would get.
The Tommies will travel to Halifax Thursday for game two of quarterfinal series. Game time is 7:30 pm.
Source: St. Thomas Athletics