Aigles Bleues take 3-2 OT win

By Daniel Simpkin   

The Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleues beat the Dalhousie Tigers in overtime in women's hockey at the Halifax Forum on Saturday, November 20th.   

Through the opening sixteen minutes of action the game was largely a defensive stalemate between the Tigers and the Aigles Bleues. However, shortly after Jayden Stitt (Carleton Place, ON) conceded a penalty for checking, the Aigles Bleues capitalized on the player advantage and Alexia Desforges (Clarence-Rockland, ON) scored the opening goal, her first of the season, with four minutes left to play in the first period.  

Less than two minutes later, Olivia Eustace (Riverview, NB) found a seam to a fast break and answered back for the Tigers with their first goal of the game.  

The score at the end of the first period was 1-1.   

Quickly into the second period, Shani Rossignol (Notre Dame de Lourdes, NB) broke free for a shot, however, Taylor Beam (Brooklin, ON) came up with a big save for the Tigers to keep the score even at one goal apiece.   

Beam continued to stand strong in the Tigers net after narrowly saving a second fast break scoring opportunity from Aigles Bleues Defender Stéphanie Pélaldeau (Ottawa, ON) half-way through the second period.  

Unfortunately for the Tigers, Gabrielle Noordijk (Oakville, ON) got a penalty for hooking and gave the Aigles Bleues their second player advantage of the game. Wasting no time, Desforges capitalized and scored the second Moncton goal.   

After the restart Kennedy Whelan (Alliston, ON) cut-loose for a breakaway of her own and barely missed, clanging her shot off the left post of the Aigles Bleues net.  

Despite three more promising offensive pushes from the Tigers in the closing seconds of the period, the Moncton closed out in strong defensive form and maintained a narrow 2-1 lead heading into the final twenty minutes of play.   

The third period was gridlocked throughout the first 15 minutes.   

However, in the closing seconds of the third period, the Tigers entered desperation mode and pulled their goalie. In what will no doubt be a season highlight moment for the Tigers, Brooklyn Paisley (Shawnigan Lake, BC) sent the home crowd to into a frenzy and scored the tying goal with 52 seconds left to play.  

The Tigers and the Aigles Bleues faced off for 3-on-3 overtime period.   

Despite a few close calls, neither team was able to find the scoring formula in the overtime period and the teams prepared for shootouts.   

Eustace stepped up to take the first penalty shot for Dalhousie and scored.   

It was Maritza Labrie (Saint-Quentin, QC) that scored the game winning shot over Beam and won the game for the Aigles Bleues in a hotly contested penalty shoot-out.   

Notable performances included Eustace for Dalhousie with two goals and Paisley with the late tying goal.   

Desforges was awarded the Subway Player of the Game honours for the Aigles Bleues with a stat-line of two goals, and five shots on goal.   

Up next, Dalhousie travel to STFX on Wednesday November 24th and Moncton faces off against the UNB REDS on November 26th.