SAINT PETER, Minn. – No. 5 Gustavus women’s hockey completed the series sweep Saturday afternoon with a 5-2 win over Saint Benedict. The Gusties improve to 17-3-2 overall and 13-1-2 in the MIAC, which is good for the conference lead, while the Bennies drop to 11-10-1 overall and 5-11-0 in the league.
“It means the world [to be in control of the conference lead],” Head Coach Mike Carroll said. “We got off to a slow start last night and finished well. With the trip home and an early game we were concerned with getting off to a fast start but we played really well right out of the chute today. We had a little bit of a hiccup at the end of the first period. I thought start to finish we played a really good complete game. As far as energy on the bench, hustle, systems, so I’m really happy with that. We got to play everyone on the bench and took care of business.”
Hailey Holland (Fy., Aberdeen, S.D.) scored her 11th and 12th goals of the season within 90 seconds of each other in the first period. The first came on a pass from Kristina Press (So., Cottage Grove) at the 6:19 mark and Gabby Slykas (So., Frankfort, Ill.) helped the second at the 7:48 mark. The Gusties held a 2-0 lead after the first period.
Kristen Cash (Sr., Roseville) scored her third goal of the season at 10:10 in the second, assisted by Holland. Six minutes later, Molly McHugh (Fy., Minnetonka) tallied her 13th goal of the season with the help of Cash and the Gusties carried a 4-0 advantage into the locker room at the second intermission.
Jordyn Peterson (So., Brookings, S.D.) made it a 5-0 lead 12 minutes into the third, assisted by Heather Olinger (Fy., Prior Lake) and Kayla Vrieze (So., Eagan). The Bennies ended the shutout with a goal at the 14:52 mark and another at 17:43, but it was too little, too late.
Emilia Helms-Leslie (So., Fairbanks, Alaska) earned the win in goal after making 12 saves in 53:50.
The Gusties outshot the Bennies 39-16. Both teams were unsuccessful on the power play with the Gusties going 0-3 and the Bennies 0-1.
Gustavus has a non-conference game at UW-Superior at 7 p.m. Tuesday, which was rescheduled from Nov. 26.
“At this stage of the season it’s good to look forward to a game on Tuesday because I’m sure the girls are sick of practice,” Carroll said.