Erica Power scored the Gusties' lone goal in a 1-0 victory over St. Kate's on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of Alex Nadeau '16)
SAINT PETER, MINN. – Following 58 minutes of scoreless hockey, the Gustavus Adolphus women’s hockey team was able to get the goal it needed to secure its fourth straight MIAC sweep in a 1-0 victory over St. Catherine University on Saturday at Don Roberts Ice Rink. Gustavus, which is now 13-0-1 in the MIAC and 17-2-2 overall, is currently riding a nine game win-streak. The loss moves St. Kate’s to 3-7-4 in the MIAC and 5-10-5 overall.
“We found a way to get it done today,” said head coach Mike Carroll. “It was one of those games where we didn’t really expect it to be that way…we thought if we came out hard, it’d be a little easier. I did think we had a pretty good first period, so credit has to go to St. Kate’s. Now we can put this series behind us and get ready for a big one against St. Thomas next weekend.”
Gustavus outshot St. Kate’s 30-12 throughout the game, its ninth game in a row in which it held its opponent to 20 shots or less. However, unlike last night’s game in which they scored four goals, including three in the second period, the Gusties were not able to find the net until the final two minutes of the game. After Allison Eder Zdechlik’s (Jr., Stillwater, Minn.) shot rebounded off Wildcat goalie Samantha Geissler, first-year Erica Power (Lakeville, Minn.) was there to clean up the mess as she flipped a shot into the upper-lefthand corner of the net from the left post to give Gustavus its lone goal on the day and extend her point streak to four.
“We’ve talked a lot about how our team hasn’t been able to score a ton of goals, but as we showed today, we have resiliency and have players that are able to get big goals at the right time,” said Carroll. “We had a tough time getting to the net today and I felt like we were content hanging out on the perimeter, which was their game plan. They did a nice job with that, but we do need to continue to work on our finishes as well.”
Lindsey Hibbard (Jr., Princeton, Minn.) played the full 60:00 minutes between the pipes for Gustavus and made 12 saves. The shutout was Hibbard’s seventh of the season and she has now allowed only one goal in her past five games. Geissler suffered the loss for St. Catherine after allowing just the one goal and making 30 saves.
Saturday’s game also marked the final game of Gustavus’s January Term, as students will begin second semester on Monday.
“The team has set some goals and split the season into quarters,” said Carroll. “We just completed our second quarter and that included J-Term and touring week. Now we start a new quarter, which is the rest of the regular season. The biggest thing from my end is to see us get back into more of a routine. It’s also important that with classes starting that they’re all getting enough rest so that on the weekend we can be ready to go.”
Gustavus will face last season’s MIAC champion University of St. Thomas in a home-home series next weekend. Game one will take place on Friday, Feb. 13 at St. Thomas Ice Arena in St. Paul, while game two will be played on Saturday, Feb. 14 at 2 p.m. at Don Roberts Ice Rink.
Gustavus 1, St. Catherine 0 (Box Score) | Photo Gallery