SAINT PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus women’s hockey team hosted Saint Mary’s for a MIAC Playoff play-in game on Thursday night and took a 5-0 victory. With the win the Gusties move to 16-5-5 overall while the Cardinals end their season at 9-11-6.
“We talked about all week how it was going to be a battle for three periods,” said Head Coach Mike Carroll. “I guess our younger players were maybe a little nervous early on, and our older players hadn’t ever played in a Thursday playoff game so that might be why we came out a little slow. But we regrouped between the first and the second and came out and competed better and started flying and some good things happen and I was really proud of the girls.”
The first period was fairly slow paced as neither could really get an attack going. Amanda DiNella (Sr., Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.) made all five saves on shots that came her way while the Cardinal goalie was able to save all six shots sent her way.
In the second period the Gusties caught a break early when Jordyn Peterson (Fy., Brookings, S.D) scored her third goal of the season at the 1:06 mark when she centered a pass from behind the net that ended up bouncing off a Cardinal defender and into the net for Gustavus to take a 1-0 lead. Assists were give on the play to Gabby Slykas (Fy., Frankfort, Ill.) and Amelia Vosen (Jr., Nowthen, Minn.) Gustavus was able to get another goal at the 10:18 mark when Slykas took a shot that was blocked but Lilia Scheid (Fy., Stillwater, Minn.) corralled it in front of the Saint Mary’s net and put on some nifty stick handling to get one past the Cardinal goalie for her ninth goal of the season. Allie Stanger (Sr., Paynesville, Minn.) was credited with an assist on the play along with Slykas.
The third period was also heavily dominated by the Gusties, who outshot the Cardinals 13-4 in the period. 2:17 into the third Kayla Vrieze (Fy., Eagan, Minn.) had an unassisted goal when she skated the length of the ice and took a shot from the left side that found the top left corner of the net. Gustavus kept the scoring going at the 11:25 mark when Madigan Goldsworthy (Fy., Chaska, Minn.) scored on a rebound with assists going to Kristen Cash (Jr., Roseville, Minn.) and Vrieze. The Black and Gold capped off the contest with a Kristina Press (Fy., Cottage Grove, Minn.) empty net goal at 17:03 with an assist going to Stanger.
DiNella finished the shutout contest with 18 saves for the Gusties.
Gustavus will next be in action on Saturday when they travel to St. Thomas for a 2 p.m. contest.