SAINT PETER, Minn. – No. 6-ranked Gustavus women’s hockey erupted for five third period goals Friday night in the home and MIAC opener, defeating St. Catherine 7-0 to improve to 3-0 overall.
The Gusties scored what proved to be the game-winning goal 8:18 into the first period as Kaitlyn Holland (Fy., Aberdeen, S.D.) and Emily Howard (Fy., Savage) assisted on Hannah Gray’s (Fy., Stillwater) first career goal. Twenty-one seconds later, Molly McHugh (Jr., Minnetonka) put the Gusties up 2-0 with the help of Kristina Press (Sr., Cottage Grove). Gustavus carried a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
“We talked about getting off to a fast start and we didn’t accomplish that,” Head Coach Mike Carroll said. “We did a lot of really good things, but when it’s only 2-0, one goal the other way and it’s a whole new game. I’ve been doing this long enough to have remembered many opportunities like that. Tonight, we hung on to win but we end up spending way more energy than we needed to.”
Despite outshooting the Wildcats 21-0 in the second period, the score remained 2-0 after 40 minutes of play. The offensive pressure paid off in the third frame. Hailey Holland (Jr., Aberdeen, S.D.) scored her first goal of the season 6:59 into the third with an assist from McHugh. Clara Billings (Jr., Rochester) gave the home team a 4-0 lead at the 10:56 mark, assisted by Jordyn Peterson (Sr., Brookings, S.D.). Steph Anderson (Sr., Blaine) then scored her first goal of the season at the 16:47 mark with the help of Billings. And Emily Olson (Jr., Delano) ended the scoring onslaught with 1:18 left on the clock on a power play.
“We talked about not spending too much energy between periods and the girls responded nicely and stayed patient,” Carroll said. “When you get a lot of shots and they don’t go in, you can get frustrated and try to do too much, that’s human nature, but they stayed patient and things paid off. It was good to see we got goals from every line.”
The Gustie outshot the Wildcats 53-4 and went 2-for-4 on the power play. St. Kate’s went 0-for-2 on the skater advantage.
Katie McCoy (Jr., Grafton, Wis.) earned her second consecutive shutout victory in goal, making four saves.
Game two of the series begins at 2 p.m. Saturday in St. Paul.