Coming off its first win in 2015 last Saturday over Concordia University Wisconsin, the St. Catherine University hockey team had a tough test in facing the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) defending regular season champion University of St. Thomas that re-entered conference play on a five-game losing streak. Unfortunately, the Tommies found a way to break their streak when their offense came to life in the final two periods handing the Wildcats a 4-0 setback Friday night in Mendota Heights, Minnesota.
Just after the midway point of the first period, it looked as though the stellar power play was going to give the Wildcats an early 1-0 lead over the Tommies. But, as bad luck has seemingly followed the Wildcats early in 2015, the goal was disallowed and the Wildcats settled for a 0-0 tie heading into the break.
After outshooting the Wildcats 15-5, the Tommies came out in the second period with the momentum and scored the first official goal of the game just 3:41 in when Hannah Bird beat
Kristen Pechacek (Park Falls, Wis./Chequamegon) giving the Tommies a 1-0 lead. Tara Baago then added her second of three points on the night when she scored at the 17:45 mark to increase the Tommie lead to 2-0 heading into the final period of the game.
The Wildcats tallied just three shots on goal in the second period and hoped to rebound in the third, but Courtney Umland made sure that wouldn't happen when she added the third Tommie goal of the game just over three minutes into the game. A fourth goal came for the Tommies off the stick of Hannah Burns with less than two minutes remaining in the game.
Pechacek suffered just her second loss of the season with a season- and career-high 40 saves ini the goal for the Wildcats.
Laurel Prodahl (Buffalo, Minn./Buffalo) and
Sara Brakke (Rochester, Minn./Mayo) led the Wildcats with three shots on goal each.
With the loss, the Wildcats fall to 4-7-2 on the season and 2-4-1 in the MIAC. The Wildcat rematch against the Tommies is slated for 2 p.m. Saturday at Drake Arena in St. Paul.
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