Kelly Sabatine's Hat Trick Helps St. Lawrence in Overtime Win vs. McGill

The October 3 exhibition match between the defending ECAC Postseason Champion St. Lawrence Skating Saints and CIS Bronze Medal winning McGill Martlets possessed all the elements of an outstanding match.

With McGill superstar Melodie Daoust having returned from the Canadian National Women’s Team fall camp, the Martlets were poised for a highly competitive game.

In the first period, St. Lawrence had a 2-0 lead.

Kelly Sabatine opened the scoring with an even strength goal only 21 seconds into the contest. Victoria Leimgardt would score for St. Lawrence at the 14:36 mark, with assists going to Kailee Heidersbach and Jessa McAuliffe.McGill would be outshot by an 8-3 margin.

Heading into the second frame, Giulia Mazzocchi relieved Saints starting goaltender, Carmen MacDonald.

St. Lawrence opened their lead as Kelly Sabatine scored her second of the contest. Rylee Smith earned the assist, as the goal was scored at the 11:22 mark of the period.

A little over three minutes later, former Montreal Stars player Gabrielle Davidson would put McGill on the score sheet. Leslie Oles, another one-time Stars member, earned the assist. It was now St. Lawrence that found themselves out-shot, as McGill racked up 8 shots, compared to 6 by the home team.

With Mikaela Thompson now standing between the pipes for the Saints, she attempted to preserve the 3-1 lead. The goal tending change benefited the Martlets, as the club scored three unanswered goals.

At the 4:59 mark, Katia Clement-Hydra scored. Less than two minutes later, Darragh Hamilton buried the puck past Thompson. At the 13:00 mark of the period, Kim Thon-Tat would give the Martlets their first lead of the game.

Penalties would be the story of the third period for McGill.

In the first two periods, both teams had three penalties each. The third period saw McGill penalized three times, including a costly penalty at the 17:14 mark. Adrienne Crampton was called for holding and 34 seconds later, Sabatine logged her third goal of the game.

With the score evened at four apiece, the contest went into overtime.

Much to the dismay of the Martlets, the overtime frame lasted only 36 seconds. Dayle Wilkinson, with assists going to Kelly Sabatine and Rylee Smith, scored on Martlets goalkeeper Taylor Hough to seal the comeback.

Sabatine would lead all skaters with 7 shots on net, while McGill’s Melodie Daoust won 12 of 18 face-offs in a valiant effort.