SAINT PETER, Minn. – The No. 5 Gustavus women’s hockey team remained unbeaten in conference play, shutting out St. Thomas 1-0 Friday night. With the win, the Gusties improve to 12-2-1 overall and 8-0-1 in the conference while the Tommies drop to 9-3-3 overall and 8-1-0 in the MIAC. Gustavus also move into first place in the league with a one point edge on St. Thomas.
“Being a close game like that we didn’t give ourselves a lot of margin for error,” said Head Coach Mike Carroll. “But I’m proud of the girls for hanging in there and playing a full sixty minutes.”
Neither team was able to find the back of the net in the opening period, but the Gusties dominated puck possession for the majority of the opening twenty minutes. The best chance for either team came at the 15:34 mark when St. Thomas’s Allie Monrean had a breakaway opportunity but was denied by goaltender Katie McCoy (Fy., Grafton, Wis.). The Gusties would outshoot the Tommies 15-10 and won 10-of-16 face-offs in the first.
Gustavus got a prime scoring opportunity six minutes into the period when St. Thomas was called for a tripping penalty, but the Tommies killed it off as they have all season, with a 100 percent penalty kill percentage. Molly McHugh (Fy., Minnetonka) scored the lone goal of the game at 13:11 when she received a pass from Kristina Press (So., Cottage Grove) in the slot and put it top right corner past the Tommie goaltender. Kristen Cash (Sr., Roseville) also tallied an assist on the goal. The Gusties again dominated the shots on goal with a 21-4 margin.
The Tommies got another breakaway opportunity again at 5:56 but McCoy stayed strong in net and covered it up with ease. Even with a more even puck possession by both teams in the third, the Gusties were able to maintain their one goal lead throughout. St. Thomas endured a costly checking penalty at 2:49 and the Gusties used the one skater advantage to wind down a full two minutes of play. The Tommies were finally able to pull their goalie with 33 seconds but only registered one shot that ended up being knocked down by Kayla Vrieze (So., Eagan).
McCoy completed her third shutout of the season, stopping all of the Tommies 21 shots on goal. She remains atop the MIAC with a .958 save percentage. For McHugh, she tallied her seventh goal of the season, improving her point total to 13. Press got her team high seventh assist while Cash brought her assist total to five.
“It was a team effort, but Katie came up big stopping a breakaway or two, and I think plays like that resonate through the forwards and the defense,” added Carroll. “Now we’ve got to be ready to go up to their place tomorrow and give it another solid effort.”
The victory marks the first in the all-time series against St. Thomas since Nov. 13, 2015.
The Gusties will play the second game of this series tomorrow night in Mendota Heights at 7:30 p.m.