The Gustavus women's hockey team celebrates one of its five goals in a 5-0 victory over Augsburg College on Friday.
ST. PETER, MINN. – Following a stretch of nearly six weeks without playing a conference game, the Gustavus Adolphus women’s hockey team was able to seamlessly work its way back into MIAC play, as it came away with a 5-0 victory over Augsburg College on Friday evening at Don Roberts Ice Rink. With the win, Gustavus moves to 6-0-1 in the MIAC and 10-2-2 overall.
“Our whole team played really well,” said head coach Mike Carroll. “We didn’t play the greatest last weekend, so we wanted to focus this week in practice on getting ourselves back into the groove and getting our forwards and defense to be in sync. The biggest thing was effort, the desire and the willingness to win races, get dirty and play physical. We talk a lot about it, but until you can actually do it, you can’t have a lot of success and I think our kids can gain some confidence after today. We played a full 60 minutes and that was fun to watch as a coach.”
Gustavus looked fresh and crisp from the first puck drop and was able to control possession and keep the puck in the offensive zone for a majority of the first period. No penalties were assessed to either team throughout the first frame and it looked as though the first period would fly by with no goals from either team. But with just 22 seconds remaining, Marissa Brandt (Sr., Vadnais Heights, Minn.) fired a slap shot from near the Augsburg blue line that remained untouched until it hit the bottom right hand corner of the net, just out of the reach of Auggie goaltender Erika Allen. The goal was the second of the season for Brandt and came off an assist from senior Carolyn Draayer (Deephaven, Minn.).
Carolyn Draayer had three points in the Gusties’ 5-0 win over Augsburg on Friday, including two goals and one assist.
In the second period, the Gusties continued to apply pressure and were rewarded when Katie Aney (Fy., Rochester, Minn.) collected a Rachel Skoglund (Fy., Forest Lake, Minn.) rebound and dumped in her fourth goal of the season to make it a 2-0 Gustavus lead with 15:36 remaining in the second period. The goal came on a power play due to a tripping call on Augsburg’s Sarah Buckner.
“Each of our lines played with intensity and desire and every player contributed,” said Carroll. “As a coach, there wasn’t much more you could ask for tonight…each of our girls came to play and we won the hustle battles.”
The second period continued, with the Gusties visibly showing more physicality and aggressiveness than previous games and not shying from contact. Carolyn Draayer was called for tripping at the 16:40 mark, and despite being a player down, her sister, Diana Draayer (Fy., Deephaven, Minn.), was able to collect the puck off the first faceoff and muscle away an Augsburg defender to make a shorthanded shot. That particular play wasn’t rewarded with a goal, but approximately 30 seconds later, Diana Draayer found teammate Allison Eder-Zdechlik (Jr., Stillwater, Minn.) on a breakaway. Eder-Zdechlik found herself one-on-one with Allen and hit pay dirt when her shot flew between Allen’s legs to give the Gusties a 3-0 lead. The goal was Eder-Zdechlik’s eighth of the season and was her second shorthanded goal.
“We’re not the biggest team, so we have to choose to get into battles where we can get low with our leverage and grind it out,” said Carroll. “If we take the easy way like we did last weekend, we’re not going to be good enough to be successful. We have to be willing to do those little things and it’s so much more rewarding when you do that. When you don’t, you know you’re not giving a full effort and are taking shortcuts and that it’ll end up costing the team. The ‘compete’ level was there tonight and that’s something we need to have day in and day out to win the conference.”
Much of the third period went by without scoring or stoppage of play, but Carolyn Draayer was able to add to the Gustie lead with 2:59 remaining in the game when she was able to score her seventh goal of the season off an assist from Eder-Zdechlik to put Gustavus ahead 4-0. Less than two minutes later, the senior captain struck again with another goal, which was again assisted by Eder Zdechlik.
“It was nice to see Carolyn rewarded for her efforts tonight,” said Carroll. “Again, our entire team played well, but Carolyn was finally able to get rewarded on the stat sheet which hasn’t always been the case this year. She and the rest of our seniors did a tremendous job of leading in practice this week, and as a coach, I’m thankful to have the leadership that she and our other upperclassman provide.”
Lindsey Hibbard (Jr., Princeton, Minn.) earned her third shutout of the season by playing the full 60 minutes, making 10 saves and bumped her record to 8-2-2 on the season. Allen took the loss for Augsburg and saw her record drop to 4-3-2 on the season. She allowed five goals and made 33 saves.
The Gusties were back to their aggressive shooting on Friday as well, as they outshot the Auggies 38-10. Augsburg’s 10 shots were the lowest amount of shots Gustavus has allowed an opponent this season.
“We made an effort to focus on playing well and taking pride in playing on our own ice,” said Carroll. “That hasn’t been the case recently and we know we owe it to our fans to always put our best effort on the ice so I was happy with the way we did that tonight.”
Gustavus and Augsburg will play their series finale tomorrow evening at Ed Saugestad Rink, with face-off scheduled for 7 p.m.
“We’re in this stretch of games now where each game is crucial,” said Carroll. “We just need to take it one game at a time. If we continue to play with the will that we played with tonight, we’ll be fine in most games. That being said, we know Augsburg is going to come out firing tomorrow, and it’s up to us to match that intensity and continue playing with the fire that we played with tonight.”