Gustavus 4, St. Olaf 3 (Box) | Photo Gallery
ST. PETER, Minn. – After falling behind 2-0 in the first period, the Gustavus Adolphus College women’s hockey team used the power play to its advantage to complete a strong comeback effort and defeat St. Olaf College 4-3 on Friday evening at Don Roberts Ice Rink. Tied 3-3 going into the third period, the Gusties scored the game-winner 2:34 into the final period to bump their record to 5-7-4 overall and 4-2-3 in the MIAC. With the loss, the Oles fall to 1-14-1 overall and 0-8-1 in the conference.
“We played a lot better as the game went on,” said Coach Mike Carroll. “In the first period, they got some funky goals, but those goals came as a result of a breakdown on a forecheck and a neutral zone battle that we didn’t win. However, the good part about our team was we showed resiliency and were able to bounce back on the power play to get some good things going. We challenged ourselves during that first intermission to go back out and take care of business. It wasn’t pretty at the end, but we got it done and it was a great team effort.”
The Oles’ Jane Vezina got the visitors on the board early, putting St. Olaf ahead 1-0 just 5:04 into the first period. Vezina struck again at the 16:14 mark on a shorthanded goal to put the Oles up 2-0 and seemingly shift the momentum heavily over to St. Olaf.
However, just 31 seconds later, Emily Reibert (Sr., Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) came to the rescue for Gustavus and took advantage of the power play the Black and Gold was still on to score her first goal of the season off an assist from fellow senior Allison Eder-Zdechlik (Stillwater, Minn.) and first-year Laine Fischer (Northfield, Minn.). The goal came when Reibert received a cross-ice pass from Eder-Zdechlik and found herself in the right place at the net’s back end to put it home.
Unfortunately for the Gusties, Vezina had more magic up her sleeve, and found the net again at the 3:33 mark of the second period to give the Oles a 3-1 lead and complete an individual hat trick. But Reibert had the answer once more, and scored her second goal of the night at 4:54 to cut the deficit to one off an assist from Georgia Eger (Fy., Stillwater, Minn.).
On the power play once more, the Gusties’ Erin Moes (Fy., Hastings, Minn.) sent a rocket from the blue line past Ole goalie Cassie Alexander at 11:00 to tie the game at 3-3. The goal was assisted by Erica Power (So., Lakeville, Minn.).
After outshooting the Oles 15-4 in the second period, Gustavus kept its momentum flowing in the third when Eger scored her third goal of the year to give the Gusties their first lead of the game at 4-3 just 2:34 into the final period. From there, senior goalie Lindsey Hibbard (Princeton, Minn.) was able to make some key saves, including three in the final two minutes of play to keep St. Olaf off the board and secure her team’s fourth conference win of the season.
“Lindsey has been sitting for a while, but working very hard and it was nice to get her back in there,” said Carroll. “She made some great saves down the stretch to help keep us in it, and we hope she can keep it going. It was also nice to see our orange line contribute with three goals, with Emily getting two and Georgia getting the other. That really helped balance the scoring, as we’ve been relying on EZ [Allison Eder-Zdechlich] and Erica [Power], and it was great to see us get contributions from top to bottom.”
Hibbard earned the win between the pipes for the Gusties after relieving Amanda DiNella (Fy., Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.) midway through the second period. Hibbard made 12 total saves in 35:06 to bring her record to 2-1-1 on the year.
“It’s that time where we have a month left of the season and it’s time for those kids we have with experience to chip in, so it was nice to see Lindsey and Emily do that in a big way tonight,” said Carroll. “We just need to continue focusing and come out strong tomorrow.”
The Gusties conclude their series with the Oles tomorrow evening at Northfield Ice Arena, with faceoff set for 7:30 p.m.