Lisa Sablak’s (Fy., South St. Paul, Minn.) fourth goal of the season helped the #8-Gustavus women’s hockey team pick up its biggest win of the season in a 2-1 decision over #9-UW Superior on Friday night in St. Peter. The Golden Gusties outshot the Yellowjackets 44-8, but found themselves trailing 1-0 after the first period. UW-Superior lost its first game of the season when leading after the first period.
Gustavus dominated offensive play in the first twenty minutes as the team held a 15-1 shots on goal edge over UW-Superior. Unfortunately, the one shot was a short-handed goal scored by the Yellowjackets’ Stacy Anderson at 13:10. The Gusties were moving the puck out of their own end when Anderson intercepted a pass in between the circles and skated in against Gustavus goaltender Breanna Scavo (Blaine, Minn.). Anderson shot a backhand on Scavo’s right side that found space between the pipe and the goaltender for the goal. This was the first short-handed goal allowed by Gustavus in a span of 19 games dating back to February 3, 2007.
The Gusties responded in the second period by capitalizing on their third power-play opportunity of the game with a goal from Laura Vannelli (Sr., Apple Valley, Minn.). With four seconds left of the skater advantage, Kelsey Johnson passed the puck from left to right across the crease to find Vannelli for the one-timer at 8:55. Gustavus continued to control the puck, but went into intermission with a 1-1 tie.
Gustavus came out with increased tenacity in the third period as the Yellowjackets began to feel the pressure. As momentum swung more in the Gusties direction, UW-Superior called a timeout with just over nine minutes remaining in the period. After the ensuing faceoff, Lisa Sablak took a shot that deflected off of a stick over the goaltender’s right shoulder at 10:57. Molly Doyle (Sr., Richfield, Minn.) and Stefanie Ubl (Sr., Blaine, Minn.) were credited with assists on the play.
UW-Superior would have its opportunities later in period with two power play chances, including a two-skater advantage in the last 00:37 as a penalty was called against the Gusties combined with an empty net. The Yellowjackets were only able to get one shot through to Scavo however.
The win brought Gustavus’ all-time record to 8-0-1 against UW-Superior. Breanna Scavo picked up her eighth straight win of the season for an 8-1-0 record, making seven saves. Melissa Kunzelman suffered her first loss of the season despite making 42 saves in the losing effort.
Gustavus, which moved to 9-1-0 overall, will not return to competition until Friday, January 11 against St. Olaf in St. Peter for a non-conference contest. UW-Superior dropped to 7-3-0 overall.