St. Peter, Minn. – For much of the first two periods, it wasn’t pretty, but the Gustavus Adolphus women’s hockey team came through when it most mattered and scored two third period goals en route to a 3-1 victory over Concordia College on Friday evening at Don Roberts Ice Rink. With the victory, Gustavus moves to 1-0-0 in the MIAC and 2-0-0 overall, while Concordia falls to 0-1-0 in the MIAC and 0-3-0 overall.
“It was nice to see that we found a way tonight,” said head coach Mike Carroll. “We sort of set ourselves up for a tough finish by not taking advantage of our chances early on, but it was nice to see we found a way to get a couple goals at the end.”
Gustavus looked to be in control early when sophomore Lydia Wagner (Zumbrota, Minn.) scored the game’s first goal at the 10:29 mark in the first period off assists from Erica Power (Fy., Lakeville, Minn.) and Diana Draayer (Fy., Deephaven, Minn.). The goal was Wagner’s first of the season, while Power and Draayer each earned their second assists in as many games.
Despite the early lead, Gustavus came out flat in the second period and Concorida took advantage. On their first power play opportunity of the night, the Cobbers tied the game at 1-1 when Bekah Wright scored just :08 seconds into the player-advantage at 4:22.
“We need to work on our d-zone, especially the lower half, and also limit our shots blocked on the lower point,” said Carroll. “I think a lot of that has to do with moving our feet, having some presence, being patient and trusting our skills. If we do those things, we’re going to have a better game tomorrow, but we’re going to need to bring our best.”
Despite their uninspired performance in the second period, the Gusties managed to turn things around in the third and score two goals that would go unanswered. With 8:24 remaining in the game, Power found herself with the puck at the right circle, made a nifty move to pull the puck between a Concorida defender’s legs and backhand a shot into the upper left corner of the net to give Gustavus a 2-1 lead. The goal was Power’s second in as many games and was her first career game-winner.
Concordia would not go out quietly, however, and used its size and physical play to put pressure on the Gustie blue line for the remainder of the game and force goaltender Lindsay Hibbard (Jr., Princeton, Minn.) to make several big saves to preserve the Gustavus lead. Hibbard played the entire 60 minutes to move to 2-0-0 on the season. She finished with 29 saves, while allowing only one goal.
“When you look at their players, you can see there’s a fairly noticeable difference in size,” said Carroll. “Our kids have been working hard in the weight room and they have been getting bigger and stronger, but we need to do a better job of using our leverage and staying low to the ice. It’s natural when you get tired to want to stand straight up when you’re skating, but in tomorrow’s game, we need to keep our knees down and trust our feet.”
With 1:23 remaining in the game, Klein added an unassisted insurance goal to seal the game for Gustavus and bring the score to a final at 3-1. The goal was Klein’s first of her career as she finished with two points after providing the assist on Power’s goal earlier in the night.
Concordia’s Madison Denny suffered the loss (0-2-0) between the pipes after allowing three goals and making 39. The Gusties finished with a 42-to-30 shots advantage and won 39-of-66 faceoffs. Gustavus also went 1-for-3 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.
The Gusties will be back in action tomorrow when they host the Cobbers for game two of the weekend series at Don Roberts Ice Rink. Opening faceoff is slated for 2 p.m. and Coach Carroll is predicting another tough game for his squad.
“Tomorrow is not going to be any easier,” said Carroll. “Concordia played a heck of a game tonight, a very physical game and a very spirited game and really gave us everything we could handle. We’re just fortunate that we came out on the winning side of that and we need to come in ready to go tomorrow.”