SAINT PETER, Minn. – After a late flurry in the closing minutes resulted in a Blugold goal, the Gustavus women’s hockey team held on to win 3-1 over No. 9 University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in its first game back after the monthlong holiday break. With the victory the No. 10 Gusties move to 8-3-1 while the Blugolds fall to 8-3-2.
“The biggest takeaway is that we found a way to win.” said Head Coach Mike Carroll. “Our last game before the holiday was not a good effort on our part so it was good for us to come out and show improvement against a really good hockey team. We did a lot of good things in the game but you could tell we had a month off. It was encouraging to see our overall performance and our play from our goaltending though and to come out with a victory.”
The Gusties dominated a majority of the first period getting a lot of shots on net early and they were rewarded when Madison Bergren (Sr., Mahtomedi, Minn.) found the back of the net at the 10:48 mark of the first period off an assist from Rachel Lenz (So., Hanover, Minn.). After the goal though, the Blugolds came out firing for the rest of the period but Amanda DiNella (Sr., Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.) made all eight saves in the period to keep the game at 1-0 at the end of the first period.
The second period picked up right where the first left off with the Blugolds controlling the puck the majority of 20 minutes. They outshot the Gusties 15-2 in the period but once again DiNella was there to make every stop and hold the Blugolds at bay.
The third period was action packed with both teams having a lot of opportunities and three goals being scored. The Gusties found the back of the net first when Stephanie Anderson (Fy., Blaine, Minn.) got a rebound off a shot from Kayla Vrieze (Fy., Eagan, Minn.) and put the Gusties up 2-0. Laine Fischer (Sr., Northfield, Minn.), who made the original pass to Vrieze, was also credited with an assist on the play.
The Blugolds, who were coming into the contest at 28.6 percent on the power play, were unsuccessful in their first seven attempts on the afternoon but after the eighth Gustie penalty of the day, Eau Claire scored a power play goal at the 15:54 mark to make the score 2-1.
The Gusties played good defense for the rest of the contest and when the Blugolds put an extra attacker out and pulled the goalie with under two minutes remaining Kristina Press (Fy., Cottage Grove, Minn.) took advantage of a stolen pass and scored an empty net goal to give the Gusties the 3-1 score that would hold out for the victory.
In the contest there were 15 total penalties with Gustavus having eight of the them and Eau Claire having seven.
“We worked on the penalty kill a lot this week in practice and we didn’t play as aggressively as we had practiced on our first few penalties,” said Carroll. “With more experience and more opportunities throughout the game though, we actually started doing a really good job.”
In the contest, DiNella played tough in net making 36 saves while allowing just the one goal.
The Gusties will next be in action on Friday when they travel to St. Thomas for a 7:30 p.m. contest.