ST. PETER, MINN. – A day removed from a 7-2 victory over St. Olaf, the Gustavus Adolphus women’s hockey team could not find that same groove on Saturday afternoon as it skated to a 1-1 tie with the Oles at Don Roberts Ice Rink. The tie was the Gusties’ first non-win in MIAC play and drops their record to 5-0-1 in the MIAC and 6-1-2 overall. Meanwhile, St. Olaf picked up its first non-loss of the season and improves to 0-5-1 in the MIAC and 0-8-1 overall.
“We have to hand it to St. Olaf, they came out with an aggressive game plan,” said assistant coach Steve Carroll. “Our kids need to understand that we need to play 60 minutes all of the time. I don’t know if we weren’t as mentally prepared as we should have been today, but they took it to us, their goalie played well and we were fortunate to salvage a tie.”
Gustavus looked crisp early and looked to be in control when Courtney Boucher (Sr., Hastings, Minn.) scored the Gusties’ first and only goal 8:31 into the first period off assists from Kaitlyn Klein (Fy., Plymouth, Minn.) and Emily Gustafson (So., Esko, Minn). The goal was Boucher’s second of the season and her fourth point in as many games. Gustavus had several other opportunities as the game continued and outshot the Oles 11-5 in the first period and 11-2 in the second, but could not find the back of the net and took a 1-0 lead into the game’s final period.
There, Gustavus continued to control possession and just missed on several shot opportunities, but it was the Oles’ Annie Pumper who tied the game at 1-1 on one of St. Olaf’s six third period shots.
Gustavus would end the third period on a power play but to no avail, and the game went to overtime. There, the Gusties continued to dominate possession and looked to have a great opportunity to win the game when St. Olaf’s Drue Engelman was called for interference creating another power play chance for Gustavus, but the home team could not convert, despite outshooting the Oles 5-0 in the extra frame.
Lindsey Hibbard (Jr., Princeton, Minn.) took the tie between the pipes for the Gusties, moving her record to 4-1-2 on the year. She allowed one goal and converted 12 saves.
“It was a physical game last night, so I’m not sure if fatigue set in or if it was just being too comfortable after winning 7-2 last night,” said Carroll. “Regardless, we didn’t come out with enough intensity today and as I said before, we just need to play for the full 60 minutes. We have a short turnaround with another game on Wednesday, so we’ll have to put this one behind us, have a few good days of practice and be ready to go for a very good UW-River Falls team.”
Gustavus will travel across state boarders to take on No. 7 UW-River Falls on Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. The game will be the Gusties’ fourth against a top-ten opponent this season.