Box Score Heading into a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) series against Bethel University, the St. Catherine University hockey team faced a tough task of trying to pull off an always-important MIAC win against a Royals' squad that boasts four players in the league's top-five in scoring. Unfortunately, the Wildcats weren't able to find a way to slow down the Royals' high-powered offense in suffering a tough 6-1 loss Friday night at the Schwans Super Rink in Blaine, Minn. 

"These are the games you'd like to forget about," said Head Coach Brad Marshall. "But when you only have 18 conference games, you have to be a little bit concered when its that one sided." 

All six of the Royals' goals were scored by one of the four leading scorers who combined for nine total points against the Wildcats. The league's leading point-scorer from a year ago – Cristina Masten – scored the Royals' first and last goal of the game, while Lindsey Burman also added two goals and Kalie Johnson picked up a goal and two assists for three points. 

Masten beat Wildcat goalie Alex Hall (Burnsville, Minn.) less than 10 minutes into the opening period on a set up from Johnson to start the Royals off with a 1-0 advantage after the first period. The Royals continued to build their lead in the second scoring eight minutes in before adding third goal with 41 seconds remaining in the period. 

After being down 5-0, the Wildcats finally got on the board at 12:21 of the third period when Annie Buttermore (Mahtomedi, Minn.) recorded her first collegiate short-handed goal – and the Wildcats' third of the season which ranks second-most among all MIAC teams – with assists to Maureen Ryan (St. Paul, Minn.) and Mallory Ryan (Cottage Grove, Minn.). 

But that's as close as the Wildcats' comeback would come as they fall to 6-4-1 in MIAC play and are now tied in fourth place in the MIAC standings with Concordia at 13 points. Hall finished the night with 27 saves in net for the Wildcats. 

"We would like to say it was just a bad game and move on," said Marshall, "but we can't have back to back games like this."

The Wildcats will have an opportunity for redemption and to turn the tables on the Royals in game two of the weekend series Saturday. Puck drop is scheduled for 4 p.m. at Drake Arena in St. Paul. 

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