Panthers drop second straight game in loss to UNB
Sydney Oitomen (Mississauga, ON) scored twice and added an assist to lead the UNB REDS in a 4-1 win over the UPEI Panthers in Atlantic University Sport women’s hockey action, Friday night, at UNB’s Aitken Centre.
FREDERICTON, NB—Sydney Oitomen (Mississauga, ON) scored twice and added an assist to lead the UNB REDS in a 4-1 win over the UPEI Panthers in Atlantic University Sport women's hockey action, Friday night, at UNB's Aitken Centre.
Oitomen's three-point effort earned her Subway Player of the Game honours.
"Everyone is ecstatic," said Oitomen, of the win. "UPEI, they've been on a bit of win streak, so this was a really big game. Everyone is really happy."
The REDS opened the scoring just 3:52 into the firsts period.
Marley Van Den Oetelaar (Whitby, ON) found a loose puck in front of Panthers' goalie Sarah Forsythe (Riverview, NB) and was able to shovel it in to give the home team the early lead.
The REDS went up 2-0 at the 13:37 mark when Myah Bowal (Terrace, BC) fed Oitomen who finished a nifty two-on-one play.
Less than a minute later, at 14:36, McKinley Nelson (Calgary, AB) put the visitors on the board with her 11th goal of the season.
In the second period, the REDS had a chance to add to their lead with 1:42 of 5-on-3 power-play, but the Panthers penalty kill held them off.
A short time later, working even strength, Alayna Wagstaff (Olds, AB) took a drop pass from Oitomen and wired a low wrist shot past Forsythe to give UNB a 3-1 lead.
Oitomen scored her second of the night in the third period, converting on her second attempt on a rebound given up by Forsythe.
"Every game from here on out is playoff mentality, so I just came ready to play and that was the mentality of our whole team."
With the win, the REDS are now 19-1-1-2 (W-L-SOL-OTL) and continue to sit atop the AUS standings.
The Panthers record drops to 14-8-1-0 and are still in third place.
"We knew we put up a good fight, but obviously, it wasn't good enough," said Nelson, of the Panthers night. "We've got a big game tomorrow, so we'll focus on the bounce back now and not the result we just had."
"We had a couple of power-plays where we weren't capitalizing," she added. "Our PK was strong though, which helped out a lot, but we need to take advantage of the opportunities we get."
It was a milestone night for two REDS.
Ashley Stratton (Mount Pearl, NL) and Tamina Kehler (Chilliwack, BC) played in their 100th AUS regular season game.
The pair are the all-time leaders in career games played in UNB women's hockey history.
The Panthers will over-night in Fredericton as they're scheduled to face the St. Thomas Tommies on Saturday evening.
The REDS next see action on Sunday, when they visit STFX. Game time is 3:00pm.
RECAP BY: Andy Campbell, UNB Athletics / PHOTOS BY: James West