SAINT PETER, Minn. – The No. 5 ranked Gustavus women's hockey team got their season underway Friday night in style with a 3-2 win over No. 6 St. Norbert.
The Gusties got their revenge over the Knights, who knocked Gustavus out of the NCAA Tournament last year via a 3-1 decision in the NCAA First Round. The Gustavus team scored all three goals on the power play, including goal contributions from two first-year players.
The Gusties started hot, taking an early 5-0 shot advantage just five minutes into the first period. At the 12:12 mark, St. Norbert sent Gustavus on the power play for the second time of the night and wasted no time with a goal just 16 seconds into the advantage with a goal by first-year Makaela Reinke (Hayward, Wis.), the first of her collegiate career. 2025 Laura Hurd Award finalist Lily Mortenson (Sr., Champlin, Minn.) picked up where she left off, adding an assist on the goal to Reinke and Noelle Hemr (So., Blaine, Minn.) added the second assist to start up her point tally. After the first period, the Gusties led 1-0 with a 10-4 shot advantage to head into the first intermission.
The second period picked up where the first period left off, with another power play goal early in the frame. This time, Eva Nelson (So., Buffalo, Minn.) was the recipient of a feed from Mortenson and Hemr, in which she collected the puck and shot the puck into the right side netting past the St. Norbert goalie to extend the lead to 2-0. The Knights struck back, though, later in the period when they scored a power play goal for themselves, firing a screened shot on net from the blue line that just got past the glove of Lily Timmons (So., Lake Elmo, Minn.). The Gusties extended their shot differential in the second period, wrapping up the second frame with a 30-8 shot advantage across two periods.
2:02 into the period, St. Norbert went on a 5-on-3 advantage and made their mark quickly, scoring just 10 seconds into the power play to tie the game at 2 apiece. Just four minutes later, McKenzie Perry (Fy., Rockford, Minn.) opened her account with the first goal of her collegiate career, putting in a rebound off of a shot by Nelson to take back the lead. The Knights pulled the goalie late in the third period, but nothing showed, ending the game with a 3-2 ranked win to start the season for the Gustavus women's hockey team.
Hemr, Mortenson, and Nelson all contributed two points for the Gusties in the opener and Reinke led the way with nine shots, followed behind by Nelson and Kylie Scott (Jr., Dayton, Minn.) with five. Timmons played the full game in net with nine saves on a night where the Gusties limited the Knights to 11 total shots, compared to the Gusties' 42. All five combined goals were scored on the power play, the first time Gustavus hasn't scored even strength since February 21, 2025 in a 1-2 loss to Hamline.
The Gusties turn around and play St. Norbert again tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. to wrap up the weekend series.
