ST. PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus women’s hockey team fell by a score of 3-2 against the University of St. Thomas Saturday afternoon at Don Roberts Ice Rink.
With the loss, the Gusties record falls to 1-2-1 (0-1-1 MIAC), while the Tommies earn their first win of the season to push their record to 1-3-1 (1-0-1 MIAC).
In the first period, the Gusties and the Tommies traded power play goals with St. Thomas scoring first, eight minutes in. Coming into the game, Gustavus had yet to allow a goal on the penalty, but St. Thomas erased that mark as Allie Borgstrom was able to put one past Gustie netminder Bailey Jackson (Fy., Chaska, Minn.) to give St. Thomas a 1-0 lead.
Near the end of the period, the Black and Gold answered with a power play goal of their own. Nice passing by Emily Gustafson (Sr., Esko, Minn.) and Erica Power (Jr., Lakeville, Minn.) allowed Kailtlyn Klein (Jr., Plymouth, Minn.) space to sneak one past the five-hole of Tommie goaltender Mackenzie Torpy, tallying her second goal of the season.
After an even first period, St. Thomas took control in second and was able to establish a 3-1 lead. Leah Schwartzman and Ellie Tabaka each notched their second goals of the season to give the Tommies a two-goal cushion. Gustie goaltender Bailey Jackson allowed three goals from 11 Tommie shots on goal and was replaced by Amanda DiNella (So., Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.) near the end of the second period.
“I think we sort of reverted back to some of the things that happened during some of our games last year, and we talked about that between the second and third period,” said Head Coach Mike Carroll. “It was good for us to be able to make the adjustments in the game to mentally and physically give them everything they could handle in the third period.”
DiNella stepped in and played well as the Gusties made a valient comeback effort in the third, cutting the Tommie lead to 3-2. Under two minutes into the period, Allie Stanger (So., Paynesville, Minn.) had a great individual effort as she made a move past a Tommie defender at the blue line and was able to roof her first goal of the season past the glove of Torpy.
The Gusties outshot the Tommies 10-6 in the third period but the one goal wasn’t enough as St. Thomas escaped with a 3-2 victory.
“This helped us sort of understand as a team what it takes to compete in our league,” Carroll commented. “We grew a lot these last two weeks with getting some experience. We got a point last night and we did some really good things this weekend but we know we have a lot to work on. We always want to win, but we are going to try to see if we can duplicate that third period more often. I think we have to ability to, it’s just going to take hard work. The attitude has been good, we just have to keep making those steps in the right direction. We will talk about having a good week practice next week to get ready for our next opponent.”
Next weekend Gustavus returns to conference play with a home and road series with Augsburg College.