MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – No. 6 Gustavus women’s hockey continued its winning ways Friday night at Augsburg, claiming a 4-2 victory at Ed Saugestad Rink. The Gusties are now 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the MIAC, while the Auggies fall to 3-2 overall and 1-2 in the league.
After killing off a couple Auggie power plays combined with number of bigs saves by Katie McCoy (Fy., Grafton, Wis.), Hailey Holland (Fy., Aberdeen, S.D.) notched her second goal of the season 11:49 into the first period for the game’s first score before Augsburg netted the equalizer with 2:29 left in the frame and the two teams went into the first intermission tied 1-1.
“The youth on this team is something that we are trying to use to our advantage because they are fresh and eager to learn,” Head Coach Mike Carroll said. “They’ve been working hard and it’s good to see them have these results. What was really cool to see after the first period was how we responded because Augsburg got two power plays right away, which took our flow away, but we killed those off and got a goal and escaped the first period 1-1. The resiliency the kids showed in the second and third is something you’d expect from a veteran team. That was really encouraging.”
Alaina Halverson (Fy., Rochester) found the back of the net for the first time in her collegiate career 4:26 into the second period. Molly McHugh (Fy., Minnetonka) and Kristina Press (So., Cottage Grove) assisted on the goal. And with just over two minutes remaining in the second, Grace Schulte (So., Little Falls) found Jamie Byrne (So., Delano) for her second goal of the season and the Gusties carried a 3-1 lead into the second break.
Midway through the third period, Press added another insurance goal with the help of McHugh for a 4-1 advantage. The Auggies were able to add a goal late in the game with an extra attacker, but the Gusties held on for the two-goal victory.
“I think in the third period what was fun to see was that we were handling the puck really well,” Carroll said. “We were moving it around and being patient with it. We weren’t doing that early in the game and early in the season we’ve been panicky with the puck on our stick. We were much more calm in the third and that was encouraging because there was some stress going on.”
The Auggies outshot the Gusties in both the first and third periods, but the Gusties put the pressure on in the second with a 14-2 shot advantage. Gustavus ended the game with a 29-25 lead in shots. The Gusties spent eight minutes in the penalty box and killed off all four Auggie power plays to remain perfect on the penalty kill this season.
McCoy earned her second win in goal after making 23 saves.
The series concludes at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Don Roberts Ice Rink.