The St. Catherine University hockey team finally recovered after a long winless streak with a win and tie against Bethel University to keep them alive in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) playoff hunt. The Wildcats still needed to face a No. 6 Gustavus Adolphus College squad, though, along the road to a postseason berth. Despite taking an early lead over the Gusties, the Wildcats gave up three goals in the second period and couldn't recover in suffering a 4-1 loss Friday evening at Drake Arena. 

The Wildcats came out strong against the Gusties and put pressure on reigning MIAC Athlete-of-the-Week Lindsey Hibbard early. Then, the Wildcats got a golden opportunity to flex their special teams muscles just over half way into the opening period. Mallory Ryan (Cottage Grove, Minn./Park) then blasted a shot from the right side on a set up from Karly Nelson (East Grand Forks, Minn./east Grand Forks) and Megan Killmer (Savage, Minn./Burnsville) to give the Wildcats an early 1-0 lead. 

The second period was a different story from the first, though, as the Gusties came out putting the pressure on forcing teh Wildcats to take several penalties. On a 5-on-3 advantage, Diana Draayer found the equalizer for the Gusties at the 10:00 mark of the second period when she beat Abbi White (Wyoming, Minn./Forest Lake) close in front. 

Just as time expired from the Wildcats remaining penalty just 38 seconds later, the Gusties scored when Erica Power was left open in front of White and beat her high stick-side giving her team a 2-1 lead. The Wildcats managed to keep the Gusties off the board until there was just over a minute remaining in the period and Emily Reichert scored coming out of the left corner near the goal line to give the Gusties a 3-1 lead. 

After being outshot 15-0 in the second period, the Wildcats managed to hold the Gusties to just four shots in the third period. With just over five muinutes remaining, Head Coach Brad Marshall pulled White to give the Wildcats an extra attacker. The Gusties were able to take advantage, though, when Reichert scored her second unassisted tally of the game at 15:30. 

White finished the game with 29 saves in goal for the Wildcats, while Hibbard stopped 12 of the 13 Wildcat shots on goal to lift them to their 12th MIAC win of the season. Annie Buttermore (Mahtomedi, Minn./Mahtomedi) led the Wildcats with three shots on goal, while Nelson and Bailey Rasmussen (Grand Rapids, Minn./Grand Rapids) had two each.

With the loss, the Wildcats fall to 5-9-5 on the season and 3-6-4 in the MIAC with 10 points in the standings. The Wildcats will face the Gusties for game two of the MIAC series Saturday with puck drop scheduled for 2 p.m. at Don Roberts Arena in St. Peter, Minnesota. 

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