MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. – The Gustavus women's hockey team fell to Augsburg in overtime Saturday night, 3-2, in the MIAC Playoff Championship at Ed Saugestad Rink on March 8.
Noelle Hemr (Fy., Blaine, Minn.) tied the game midway through the final period of regulation, 2-2, but the Auggies snapped the Gusties' four-year streak of championships with the overtime winner 11:03 into the extra frame.
Augsburg collected the MIAC's automatic bid to the national tournament, while the Gusties (21-6-0, 15-3-0 MIAC) will await Sunday night's selection show for their NCAA postseason fate.
The Auggies (23-3-1, 16-2-0 MIAC) got on the board first, as Nora Stepan scored 9:36 into the game for a 1-0 lead for the home team. After a couple of Gustie blocks and failed clears of the defensive zone, Stepan found a loose puck and shot it through a screen, beating
Lily Timmons (Fy., Stillwater, Minn.) for the advantage at the first intermission.
Brooke Power (5th, Lakeville, Minn.) evened the score 11:01 into the second, collecting a loose puck in the slot and rifling it over the shoulder of Augsburg goaltender Kayla Simonson. Aunna Schulte put Augsburg back up just five minutes later, collecting a rebound off a shot from the top of the circle and tipping it past the toe of Timmons for a 2-1 advantage heading into the final period of regulation.
Hemr knotted the score at 2-2 10:32 into the third period, scoring out front off a feed from
Lily Mortenson (Jr., Champlin, Minn.) in the corner to force overtime.
Schulte picked the corner over the shoulder of Timmons 11:03 into the extra frame to send her team to the national tournament, scoring her second overtime goal in as many games.
The Gusties totaled 39 shots to the Auggies' 31, four of which came off the stick of Mortenson, who was one of four Gusties to tally a point on Saturday. Power added six shots to the total, while
Kaitlyn Holland (Sr., Aberdeen, S.D.) and
Ellie Groebner (Fy., Apple Valley, Minn.) collected four alongside Mortenson. Timmons finished with 28 saves in net, while her counterpart Simonson made 37, including 10 in each of the opening periods.
Gustavus now awaits the NCAA Division III selection show on Sunday, March 9 at 7:30 p.m. CST. The newly-expanded 12-team bracket will feature eight automatic bids from conference championships and four at-large selections. The Gusties dropped to No. 7 in the NCAA National Power Index (NPI) for Division III women's hockey through games of Saturday night, March 8, and were the third-highest ranked team in the region behind Augsburg (No. 2) and UW-River Falls (No. 4). The NPI is used to select the at-large bids to the Division III championship.
