Women’s Hockey Set To Host Bethel For MIAC Playoff Championship

The Gustavus women’s hockey team will face Bethel for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Playoff Championship on Saturday at 2:00 pm at Don Roberts Ice Rink in St. Peter.  The Gusties enter with a record of 20-3-3 overall, while the Royals enter with a mark of 15-9-2.  The game will be broadcast live through the Gustavus Athletics web site with JJ Akin on the play-by-play and Tim Kennedy handling the color commentary.
Gustavus advanced to the championship game with a 5-2 win over Concordia at Don Roberts Ice Rink on Thursday night.  The Gusties scored four power play goals in six opportunities to knock off the Cobbers in a hard-fought affair.  Amanda Cartony continued her hot streak with two goals to lead the Gusties.  Cartony has scored 11 goals in the last eight games for Gustavus.  Others scoring against the Cobbers were Maddie Bergh, Whitney Schaff and Mollie Carroll.  Danielle Justice made  21 saves and picked up the win in goal for the Gusties.
Bethel picked up its historic 4-2 win over St. Thomas thanks in large part to a pair of goals by Biz Huss and strong goaltending from Jess Newstrom.  The Royals led 2-0 after two periods on goals by Huss and Allison Papko.  The Tommies cut the lead to 2-1 in the third period, but the Royals responded with two goals in nine seconds to secure the victory over the Tommies.  Huss scored at the 8:05 mark and then Sarah Kartak scored her fourth goal of the season at the 8:14 mark.  St. Thomas added a late goal to cut the lead to 4-2, but it was too little, too late at the Royals made their first MIAC Playoff win an important one punching their ticket to today’s title game against Gustavus.
The Gusties and Royals have not seen each other in over three months having played their regular season series on Nov. 19-20.  Gustavus swept the series in two hard-fought matchups winning 4-1 in St. Peter and 2-0 at Bethel’s Rink in Blaine.
This will be the first ever meeting between Gustavus and Bethel in the MIAC Playoffs. The Gusties, who will be making their 12th consecutive appearance in the MIAC Post-Season Tournament, have compiled an all-time playoff mark of 21-4-2, while the Royals, who are making their fourth appearance in the MIAC Playoffs, and third in the last four years have an all-time playoff mark of 1-3.  Gustavus is 7-2 in its nine MIAC Playoff Championship game appearances and will be attempting to claim its eighth consecutive MIAC Playoff Title.  The Royals, who are in the midst of the finest season in the program’s history, registered their first MIAC Playoff win on Thursday night against St. Thomas and will attempt to win their first MIAC Playoff Title in their first ever MIAC Title game appearance today against the Gusties.
The winner of today’s game will receive an automatic bid to the 2011 NCAA Championship which will begin with first round games next weekend.  The tournament field will be announced with a live broadcast on NCAA.com on Monday morning at 9:00 am (Central Time).

MIAC Playoff Web Site