WINONA, Minn. – The No. 4 Gustavus women’s hockey team’s seven-game unbeaten streak came to end Friday night at Saint Mary’s with a 2-2 tie. The Gusties move to 7-0-1 overall and 4-0-1 in the MIAC, while the Cardinals are now 2-5-1 overall and 2-2-1 in the league.
“I was really proud with how we battled through the third period and finished the game on a good note,” Head Coach Mike Carroll said. “We didn’t come ready to play tonight and you have to hand it to Saint Mary’s, they played hard and bottled us up. We found a way to get a point so we just have to learn from it and be ready to go tomorrow.”
Saint Mary’s started the scoring with 5:34 left in the first period before Jordyn Peterson (So., Brookings, S.D.) netted the equalizer two minutes later. Peterson’s unassisted goal was her third of the season and the score remained 1-1 at the first intermission.
The Cardinals regained the lead 4:45 into the second and maintained the advantage late into the third period before Kristina Press (So., Cottage Grove) scored her fifth goal of the season, unassisted with five minutes remaining, and the game was sent to overtime.
Despite the Gusties outshooting the Cardinals 6-1 in the extra five minutes, they were unable to net the game-winner. Gustavus outshot the home team 46-19 throughout the game. The Gusties were not penalized in the game but went 0-5 on the power play. Katie McCoy (Fy., Grafton, Wis.) made 17 saves in goal.
“We have to play with some grit and urgency from the drop of the puck,” Carroll said. “It’s like we talked about all week during practice is that we are here to work. We need to increase our intensity and battle in practice. If you don’t, those habits carry over into the game and that’s sort of what happened to start the game tonight. We tried to get by doing things the easy way, but then we figured it out and that’s the positive thing moving forward.
The series wraps up at 2 p.m. Saturday in Saint Peter.