AUS Hockey Stars James, Normore Face Off for Final Time
Photo: (Courtesy of Erica Roberts/AUS)
Lindsay James of the Mount Allison Mounties and Alex Normore of the St. Francis Xavier X-Women, former teammates on Halifax-based Metro Boston Pizza of the Nova Scotia Female Midget AAA Hockey League, will play their last regular season game against each other in Atlantic University Sport action this Sunday afternoon in Sackville, N.B.
From friends to foes, AUS hockey stars James, Normore face off for final time.
(Story courtesy of the Metro News, January 22, 2015 edition)
They look chummy when the game is done, but until that final buzzer sounds, it's all business between Mount Allison Mounties left-winger Lindsay James of Halifax and St. Francis Xavier X-Women centre Alex Normore of Bedford.
The fifth-year female hockey players, close pals when they're not suited up, face off against each other for what could be the last time in their Atlantic University Sport careers Sunday afternoon – and they won't be playing nice on the ice.
"It's really competitive," James, 22, said Thursday via a Skype call with friend and foe Normore, also 22, a former linemate on Metro Boston Pizza of the Nova Scotia Female Midget AAA Hockey League.
"Every game, you never know who's going to win," Normore agreed.
In fact, James scored the game-winner in double overtime last season to help the Mounties edge the X-Women in the final game of a best-of-three semifinal series, knocking the defending AUS champions out of conference playoffs.
Yet currently, St. Francis Xavier is in first place with 17 straight wins and just one loss, while Mount Allison is fighting for a playoff spot with a 5-12-1 record for seventh and last place in regular season standings.
"All the teams in the league are pretty close this year," said Normore, who has helped the X-Women to two AUS championships, in addition to CIS bronze and silver medals.
Normore's also a three-time AUS most valuable player, and was most recently named the league's female athlete of the week after breaking the X-Women scoring record with 200 career points, including a league-leading 27 so far this season.
"They have such a strong and deep team," James said, but emphasized "the season's not over yet."
After two seasons of playing midget together, summers spent dryland training side-by-side, and four years of battling it out for AUS bragging rights, that's just fine for the two bonded buddies, who are making the most of their university careers, both in school and sport, until the very end.
Normore, who has earned a Bachelor of Science in human kinetics and leaves for Spain next week to represent Canada at the Winter Universiade Games, said the plan is to finish this season "with no regrets."
"It's been a great ride, to share that same experience," said James, who leaves Mount Allison with the same degree in chemistry. "We've had a great five years."
The puck drops Sunday at 2 p.m. AT in Sackville, N.B.