With the regular season finished, the Gustavus men’s and women’s hockey teams have begun their playoff seasons. The Gustavus men finished their regular season with a 15-7-3 record while the women finished with the regular season unbeaten with a 24-0-1 record.
The Gustavus men’s quest for the MIAC Championship began last Friday night when they played against St. Olaf at Don Roberts Ice Arena. The men came out with a victory, beating the Oles 3-2. The following night, the men traveled to St. Paul and defeated the No. 1 seeded St. Thomas Tommies 1-0. Currently, the men are on an eight game winning streak and have been on a 10-1-2 run since the beginning of January.
The Gustavus men’s hockey team will now travel to St. Cloud on Mar. 2 to play for the MIAC Championship against St. Johns at 2:00 p.m. This will be the second straight season that the men’s hockey team have made it to the MIAC Championship game. The Gusties tied Saint Johns in both games they played during the regular season.
“We have an experienced group who is playoff tested. We have a lot of guys who have been through this before. We just need to take one game at a time and not get ahead of ourselves. Each group is certainly different. We have a different identity than we’ve had in previous years. I really like this group. I’m hopeful we can make another late push. This is one of our most experienced groups in recent years, and I hope the experience counts for something,” Men’s Head Coach Brett Petersen said.
As for the Gustavus women’s hockey team, they finished their regular season last weekend with a sweep against the College of St. Benedict. The Gustavus women traveled to St. Cloud last Friday night and won 1-0, then closed out the regular season the next day at home, beating St. Benedict 8-2.
This has been a historic year for the Gustavus women after finishing this season with an undefeated overall record and MIAC record as well. This was the first time in Gustavus’ history a Gustavus women’s hockey team has finished with an undefeated overall record and the second time in Gustavus’ history a women’s hockey team has finished with an undefeated record in conference play.
“Focusing on taking one game at a time and our team chemistry have all been huge factors to our success,” Senior Captain Lindsey Hjelm said.
“There are many things that go into it, but the biggest part is that every person on this team has bought into this program. I think our team is doing what we have talked about all season long and that’s growing to play the best at the right time,” Women’s Head Coach Mike Carroll said.
The Gustavus women began their playoff season on Thursday, Feb. 28 with a game against Bethel University.