SAINT PETER, Minn – The Gustavus women’s hockey team had a close 3-2 finish over Hamline in their Saturday night game.
The Gusties have proved success in setting up scoring early on in the game this season and Molly McHugh (So., Minnetonka) kept the pattern going six minutes into the first period with an assist by Sophia Coltvet (Fy., Arden Hills). Gustavus would outshoot Hamline 13-6 and hold onto the one point lead before closing out the first frame.
Four minutes into the second period, McHugh centered a pass finding Tina Press (Jr., Cottage Grove) in front of the net for Press to record her fourth goal of the season. The Gusties continued to prove themselves on defense, killing all three of their penalties and held the Pipers to just five shots before going into the final period.
With what seemed to be a shutout game for Gustavus was halted by Hamline’s Jordan Hansen to even the deficit to a one goal game early on in the third period. The Pipers continued to put pressure on the Gusties until Clara Billings (So., Rochester) was able to find the back of the net on a five hole shot with assists credited to Heather Olinger (So., Prior Lake) and Gabby Slykas (Jr., Frankfort, Ill.) to give the Gusties a 3-1 lead.
However, Hamline was not going down without a fight. Just thirty seconds after Billings goal, Hamline retialited, crashing the net on a goal and bringing the score 3-2. The Gusties battled to keep their lead closing out the final seven minutes of the game.
Billings’ goal proved to be the game winner for the Gusties to remain 4-1-0 overall and 3-1-0 in the conference.
Katie McCoy (So., Grafton, Wis.) secured the Gustie win with a .875 save percentage and 14 saves.
“Our team played great,” said Head Coach Mike Carroll. “They came out and set the tone and used their speed. We had them on the ropes and the first period was good, second was really good, it was 2-0 going into the third and it could’ve very easily been 6-0. We had a talk in the locker room between the second and third because it was the exact same situation that happened the other night against Augsburg, so we challenged ourselves to make sure that didn’t happen again. If we give one up, we would bounce right back and we did. I’m really proud of our effort and everyone played a really good game. We were nicked up going in and those kids answered the bell.”