This past weekend, the Gustavus Women’s Hockey team was crowned champions of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for the 16th time in program history.
With a close race for the MIAC title, it came down to the last weekend of games to determine the regular season champions.
On Friday, Feb. 21 the Gusties traveled to Bethel University for the first of two games against the Royals that weekend.
Sophomore Kristina Press was first to make her mark in this pivotal game for the team by scoring just 7:23 into the game on an assist from fellow Sophomore Grace Shulte.
With time winding down in the first period, First-year Hailey Holland extended the Gustie lead to two off of an assist from First-year Molly McHugh.
The team locked in on defense heading into the second and took advantage of a power play at the 16-minute mark.
Once again it was the First-year combo, with a McHugh assist finding Holland for her second consecutive goal.
In the third period, First-year Lindsey Bjerke capped off the scoring for the Gusties with assists going to Sophomores Jordyn Peterson and Jamie Byrne.
The Black and Gold outshot Bethel 37-16 and Sophomore Emilia Helms-Leslie had a solid performance in net, saving all 16 of the opponents’ shots.
“I was pleased with a lot of things tonight, but one thing in particular was the way we responded to Bethel applying a lot of pressure early in the game,” Head Coach Mike Carroll said. “Uncharacteristically, we didn’t get into their end of the ice too much, but [Press] had a nice goal and we got another one to take a two-goal lead into the second. Then we played really well in the second and third in all phases of the game.”
With the title race coming down to the wire, the Gusties needed one more win against the Royals to secure the MIAC Championship and No. 1 seed going into playoffs.
The team faced off against Bethel once more in its final game of the season in front of a crowd of Gusties at the Don Roberts Ice Rink Feb. 22.
The team proved to be too defensively sound throughout the game for the Bethel attack, and this resulted in yet another shutout for the home team.
On the attacking side, two Gustie players decided to take matters into their own hands.
While every win is a team win, it was hard to ignore the efforts of McHugh and Press that day, who scored and assisted on all three goals, respectively.
Carroll said he was incredibly proud of the team’s efforts and its motivation to build on the program’s success.
“It’s a really nice first step in what we want to accomplish,” Carroll said. “Every day in practice and every time they walk into the rink they see banners up there. We never talk about it but that shows what the expectation is and what has happened here in the past. It makes it even that much harder, but they’ve embraced it from the get-go and it’s been really fun working with a bunch of new players and some good leaders. I’m really proud of them.”
The Gusties finished their regular season with an overall record of 20-3-2 and are currently ranked No. 4 in the nation heading into postseason.
With this first place finish in the regular season, the Gusties have a first round bye in the playoffs and will play the winner of No. 4 St. Thomas and No. 5 St. Mary’s at 2 p.m. on Saturday.