Parker Burman-

This past weekend, the Gustavus Women’s Hockey team faced off against conference foe Saint Mary’s for a pair of contests that saw the Gusties victorious in both. In Friday’s game, the Gusties won 3-1 with Fifth-year Goaltender Katie McCoy earning her 67th career win and tying her all-time with former St. Thomas Goalie Kenzie Torpy for the MIAC record. With a shutout of Saint Mary’s for a 3-0 win on Saturday, McCoy is now the all-time winningest female goalie in MIAC history with 68 wins in her career.

Going into the weekend, the Gusties lead the MIAC with Saint Mary’s sitting in second place hoping to move up the standings. In game one, the Cardinals took an early 1-0 halfway through the first period and Saint Mary’s would hold this lead into the first intermission even though the Gusties held a 12-4 advantage in shots. The Saint Mary’s goal was just the second allowed this season by Gustavus ending McCoy’s shutout streak at just over four games.

In the second period with an early power play opportunity, Junior Forward Kaitlyn Holland buried her third goal of the season to tie the game for the Gusties at 1-1. In the third period, Gustavus was back on the power play with 1:59 of the two minutes having already expired, Senior Forward Brooke Power scored to give Gustavus their first lead of the game, at 2-1. Fifth-year Forward Hailey Holland picked up her second assist of the game after having fed a helper to both her sister and to Power.

The third period was dominated by Gustavus crushing any hopes that Saint Mary’s had of getting back into the game. Hailey Holland saw her chance to score in a game in which she already had two assists. Skating into the Cardinal zone, Holland, from a near impossible angle, sent a shot past the Saint Mary’s netminder to push the Gustavus lead to two goals.

Hailey Holland led the team with three points, including the put-away goal, in the third period. Her sister Kaitlyn led the team in shots with seven followed closely by Power and Junior Forward Hannah Gray, who both picked up six in the game.

The Gusties completed the weekend sweep of Saint Mary’s with the 3-0 shutout victory. Rather than waiting to fall behind as they had the night before, Gustavus jumped on Saint Mary’s early with a power play goal from Senior defenseman Sophia Coltvet. The goal for Coltvet was her fifth of the season setting a new career high, breaking last season’s high of four.

Hailey Holland added her second goal of the weekend as she scored the second Gustie goal of the game. Stripping the puck off of a Saint Mary’s stick in the neutral zone, she walked into the Cardinal zone and scored the unassisted tally to end the first period. After the first intermission, both teams’ offenses fell silent and both teams entered the second intermission with the Gusties still leading by a score of 2-0. Looking to pick up her second goal of the weekend, Power deflected in a pass from Gray that snuck past the Cardinal goalie to push the Gusties to a commanding 3-0 lead that they would hold the rest of the game.

Gustavus outshot Saint Mary’s 19-10 in the game with seven of the 19 Gustie shots coming off the stick of Power, who had 13 shots and two goals on the weekend. Saint Mary’s struggled in the face-off dot as they allowed the Gusties to win 36 of the 45 draws in the game.

Starting a new shutout streak after having lost it in game one of the weekend series, Fifth-Year Katie McCoy secured her 68th career win in a way she has so many times in her Gustavus career by shutting down the opposing offense. McCoy’s 68th win was Head Coach Mike Carol’s 499th of his coaching career and his next victory will put him at both 500 in his career but also move him into the top five all-time winningest coaches in NCAA history, regardless of level.

Gustavus will next host Aurora for a weekend series at Don Roberts Arena with puck drop at 7:00 p.m. on Friday and at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. Make sure to come out and support your Gusties as history is on the line this weekend!