Box Score
Senior Program
Heading into a weekend series with St. Olaf College, the St. Catherine University hockey team was in control of its own postseason destiny needing just one win against the Oles to clinch a second-consecutive Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) playoff berth. Thanks to a shut out effort in goal from senior
Alex Hall (Burnsville, Minn.) and a hat trick from
Megan Killmer (Savage, Minn.), the Wildcats defeated the Oles 4-0 to stamp their ticket to the MIAC playoffs Friday night at Drake Arena in St. Paul.
"We stressed all week about playing beter 5-on-5 hockey," said Head Coach
Brad Marshall. "To get all four of our goals at even strength is what we needed. Obviously to have Alex play so well on senior night was nice to see, as well as Megan and her performance. She was stuck at 47 (career) points for a long time. It was a nice way for her to get 50."
Hall stopped all 33 shots that came her way – including 13 in the third period where the Oles really brought the pressure in attempt to salvage their season – for her fifth win and first shutout of the 2013-14 season in net for the Wildcats.
Killmer's hat trick was the first of her collegiate career and her three points brings her career total to 50, which ranks just outside of the top-10 all-time in program history. The junior captain got the Wildcats on the board early when she buried a rebound off a
Randi Fabsits (Tinley Park, Ill.) shot to give her squad the 1-0 lead after one period of play.
In the second period, the Oles started to control play, but
Kira Kuntz (Dickinson, N.D.) generated a momentum shift when she socred her sixth goal of the season on a set up from
Annie Buttermore (Mahtomedi, Minn.) to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead at 16:10. Kilmer would then add an unassisted goal after picking up her own rebound off of Ole goaltender Cassie Alexander with six minutes to play in the game before adding an empty net goal to seal the Wildcats' playoff fate.
Killmer led the Wildcats with her three points, while Kuntz also added an assist for her third multi-point game of the seson. Killmer broke a goal-scoring drought that goes back to December when she recorded a goal in the Wildcats 5-3 win over Saint Mary's University.
With the win, the Wildcats improve to 11-9-1 on the season and 8-6-1 in the MIAC and hold the tiebreaker over the Oles should both teams end the season with 17 points. The Wildcats' postseason seed will be determined at the completion of next weekend's final regular season series against Concordia College. The Wildcats will look for the series sweep of the Oles Saturday as they travel for a 2 p.m. contest in Nortfield, Minn.
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