The St. Catherine University hockey team saw two Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) points slip away Friday night in the final minutes against Augsburg College. Saturday, the Wildcats suffered the same fate as they couldn't generate much even strangth offense in falling 2-1 to the Auggies at Drake Arena in St. Paul. The first period got off to a slow start for both teams with the Auggies again outshooting the Wildcats 6-2 in a scoreless opening 20 minutes. The Wildcats collected just five shots through the first two periods and were outshot 21-14 overall. The Wildcats were also out-muscled all afternoon in the faceoff department with the Auggies taking a 35-19 advantage. However, the Wildcats' lone goal came on a power play opportunity to keep their impressive league-leading percentage. They also killed off four penalties to keep their perfect killing percentage in tact.
The Auggies got on the board first when Halie Gudmonson took a shot from the point to beat Wildcat goalie
Abbi White (Wyoming, Minn./Forest Lake) just 5:46 into the second period. The Auggies then built their lead to 2-0 when Kayla Fuechtman got help from Rachel Hennesey to beat white again on a 4-on-4 opportunity at the 15:11 mark.
After killing off a five-minute penalty at the end of the second and start of the third period, the Wildcats showed some life offensively and again took advantage of a power play opportunity when
Annie Buttermore (Mahtomedi, Minn./Mahtomedi) scored on assists from
Jordan Solheim (Thief River Falls, Minn./Thief River Falls) and
Alex Pederson (Park Rapids, Minn./Park Rapids) at 3:52 to cut the Auggie lead to 2-1. Despite finally outshooting the Auggies 9-5 in the third, the Wildcats couldn't recover and suffered their second-straight loss in allowing the Auggie sweep.
White finished the game with 19 saves in goal for the Wildcats, while
Jordan Solheim (Thief River Falls, Minn./Thief River Falls) led the offensive attack with three shots on goal. Buttermore,
Megan Killmer (Savage, Minn./Burnsville) and
Karly Nelson (East Grand Forks, Minn./East Grand Forks) each had two shots on goal.
With the loss, the Wildcats fall to 2-3-1 overall and 1-2-1 in the MIAC. The Wildcats will take the week off for the Thanksgiving holiday before returning to action at home against Saint Mary's University Friday, Dec.5, for a 7 p.m. game at Drake arena. The series will conclude Saturday, Dec. 6 on the Cardinals' home ice in Winona, Minnesota, at 2 p.m.Wildcat Hockey on TwitterWildcat Hockey on FacebookWildcats on TwitterWildcats on Facebook