The St. Catherine University hockey team went 1-1 to open the 2014-15 season, but hoped it could start off the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) season on the right foot against a Hamline University squad that had yet to see any competition this season. Despite allowing the Pipers to tie up the game with just over 10 to play in regulation, the Wildcats were able to pull out a 3-1 win thanks to two late-game goals Friday evening at Drake Arena in St. Paul.
"After a slow start, I thought the second period went well once we killed off a penalty," said Head coach
Brad Marshall. "That was probably some of the best hockey I've seen
Randi Fabsits (Tinley Park, Ill./Victor J. Andrew) play in awhile. Jordan Solheim (Thief River Falls, Minn./Thief River Falls) was solid in the defensive end all night. Hamline kept working all night and we should expect a similar game tomorrow night."The Wildcats didn't start out the way they had hoped getting outshot 7-6 in the opening 20 minutes with half of those shots coming on two scoreless power play opportunities. Despite the slow start, they managed to take a 0-0 tie into the second period and finally got on the board when Fabsits took matters into her own hands skating end to end and making a move in front of two Hamline defenders before beating Mary Shefveland at 13:52 of the second period.
Following Fabsits' unassisted tally, the Wildcats managed to hold off the Pipers until 9:20 into the third period when Kasey Marquardt beat
Samantha Geissler (Elk River, Minn./Elk River) on a set up from Jaimee Nowicki and Haleigh Bolton to tie the score at 1-1 and put the pressure back on the Wildcats.
But the Wildcats had a enuogh fight left and took advantage of a defensive mistake by the Pipers when from deep in the defending zone
Maddy Zastrow (Greendale, Wis./Greendale) dished a pass out to
Megan Killmer (Savage, Minn./Burnsville) who scored the game-winning goal on a breakaway chance beating Shefveland to the left side with just under 4:30 remaining in the game. For security,
Alex Pederson (Park Rapids, Minn./Park Rapids) added her second goal in as many games less than two minutes later on an assist from
Zoe Verkerke (Menominee, Mich/Menominee) giving the Wildcats their first MIAC win of the season.
Geissler finished the game with a 23 save effort in goal for the Wildcats and picked up her first win of the season, while Shefveland stopped 28 shots for the Pipers. Killmer and Pederson led the Wildcats in shots on goal with five a piece, while Verkerke and
Annie Buttermore (Mahtomedi, Minn./Mahtomedi) each had four. Killmer now leads the Wildcats in scoring with three goals and five points.
With the win, the Wildcats improve to 2-1 on the season and open conference competition 1-0. The Wildcats will complete the two-game MIAC series against the Pipers Saturday night in a 7 p.m. contest at Oscar Johnson Arena in St. Paul.
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