SAINT PETER, MINN. – The Gustavus Adolphus women’s hockey team suffered its first MIAC defeat of the season in a 3-2 loss to the University of St. Thomas on Saturday at Don Roberts Ice Rink. The loss puts Gustavus at 14-1-1 in the MIAC and 18-3-2 overall, while St. Thomas improves to 10-2-4 in the MIAC and 11-8-4 overall.
“It was a great battle out there today,” said head coach Mike Carroll. “Unfortunately for us, it seemed like St. Thomas just wanted it a little bit more. It looked like we were tired…I don’t know if it was from it being the first week of school and us not getting proper rest or if it was just an off day. Regardless, St. Thomas did what they needed to do to win. If we see them again in the playoffs, we’re going to have to be sure and come back and be that much better.”
Senior co-captain Courtney Boucher (Hastings, Minn.) got the ball rolling for Gustavus early on a power play opportunity when she collected Diana Draayer’s (Fy. Deephaven, Minn.) rebound shot off Tommie goalkeeper Taylor Neisen’s chest pad and scored her third goal of the season at the 6:04 mark in the first period. Draayer was credited with the assist, which was her 10th of the year.
Five minutes later, St. Thomas’s Courtney Umland found open ice just a few feet inside the Gustie blue line and flicked a shot that bounced off Gustavus goaltender Amanda Koep’s (Jr., St. Michael, Minn.) skate and dribbled in behind her to tie the game at 1-1. However, Boucher had the answer when she collected another Draayer rebound at the left post and caught Neisen’s momentum shifting the opposite direction to put in her second power play goal of the game with 3:30 remaining in the first period to give Gustavus a 2-1 lead.
Play remained scoreless until the third period until Umland found the net again on a power play opportunity 4:41 minutes into the third period. Then, with just 1:53 to go in the game, Umland completed the hat trick when she fired a slap shot from the top of the right circle and past Koep’s right glove into the bottom left corner of the net to give St. Thomas the 3-2 advantage and eventually, the win.
“We didn’t bury our chances early like we needed to, especially 5-on-5,” said Carroll. “Power play we did really well and have been doing really well as of late. It was one of those games where we let them hang around when we had chances to put them away. In last night’s game, we had some trouble with odd-man rushes, and we cleaned that up today at the beginning, but it killed us down the stretch. It’s disappointing, but we did accomplish our main goal this weekend which was to wrap up home-ice for the entirety of the playoffs.”
Koep suffered her first loss of the season between the pipes for Gustavus after allowing three goals in 59:39 minutes and making 19 saves to bring her record to 2-1-0. After allowing four goals Friday night, Niesen had a bounce back effort for the Tommies on Saturday as she logged all 60:00 minutes, allowed two goals and converted 27 saves.
Gustavus outshot St. Thomas 29-22, won 38-of-52 face-offs and scored on 2-of-3 power play opportunities, but committed four penalties, allowing for three St. Thomas power play goals.
The Gusties will be back on the ice for their final regular season home-home series next weekend when they take on Bethel University. Gustavus will welcome the Royals to St. Peter on Friday for a 7 p.m. game at Don Roberts Ice Rink and will travel to Blaine, Minnesota for game two on Saturday at 2 p.m.