MOORHEAD, MINN. – The St. Catherine University hockey team was hoping to get things started on the right foot in the 2017-18 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) season. The Wildcats faced Concordia College in its conference opener Friday evening with the goal of starting the MIAC season with a 1-0 record for the first time since 2012-13. Unfortunately, St. Kate's was unable to take the first game in Moorhead, Minnesota, falling by a final score of 5-3.
Despite the final score, the Wildcats led the Cobbers for the majority of the game.
Laken Muller (Inver Grove Heights, Minn. / Simley) got things started in the opening period, as she scored the first goal of the game at 13:37 to give St. Kate's a 1-0 lead over Concordia.
The Wildcats 1-0 lead held until five minutes in to the second period, when the Cobbers Josee Lundgren beat starting goalie
Kristen Pechacek (Park Falls, Wis. / Chequamegon) to even the score at 1-1. However, St. Kate's answered 10 minutes later, once against from Muller. The junior scored her second goal of the night to put the Wildcats ahead 2-1, as lead they seem poised to hold for the remainder of the game.
Unfortunately, it was Concordia who managed to score the next, as the Cobbers scored four unanswered goals on St. Kate's defense to take a 5-2 lead in the third and final period. Muller, though, made things interesting, as she scored her third goal of the evening to cut the lead to 5-3. Unfortunately, Muller completed her hat trick at 19:13 in the third period, leaving just 47 seconds for the Wildcats to either tie or take the outright lead. The 47 seconds wasn't enough, as St. Kate's eventually fell by a final score of 5-3.
"The game was closer than the final score," head coach
Brad Marshall said afterwards. "It was a good hockey game, but we need to fix some things in the final 20 minutes."
Muller became just the sixth player in history to card a hat trick in Wildcat hockey history, as she was the only person to score for St. Kate's Friday night.
With the loss, the Wildcats overall record falls to 1-3-0 and they have a 0-1-0 mark in MIAC play. St. Kate's will return to the ice at 2 p.m. Saturday for game two against the Cobbers.
