Women’s hockey falls in sweep to St. Cloud State

The Minnesota State women’s hockey team travelled north to St. Cloud this past weekend to take on the Huskies in their sixth series of the year. The Mavericks came into this series with a 5-5 overall record with the hopes of staying afloat above .500 before a surely difficult matchup with No. 2 Ohio State the weekend following.

St. Cloud had struggled to find themselves in the win column coming into this series, only winning two games up to this point. The Huskies were undefeated at home, however, which would prove to be very crucial for the outcome of the two game matchup against the Mavs.

MSU had been having a difficult time defeating some of the more tough opponents in women’s college hockey the few weekends prior, losing twice to both No. 1 Wisconsin and No. 3 Minnesota. The two teams would surely make this a good one, and that definitely came true in game one.

The first period of game one turned out to be a blank on the scoreboard for both teams, but both got it going after the first intermission. Minnesota State was able to strike first only 37 seconds into the second period behind a Jessica Kondas goal. 

However, it was not long, until St. Could also found the back of the net, where they were able to capitalize on an Ellen Nelson interference call to even the score at one. We coasted into the third from there, and just like the previous period the goals came early.

Only 3:56 in the third, Madison Mashuga of the Mavericks was able to get her second goal of the season on the Mavs power play due to a Huskies tripping call. And just like the previous period, the Huskies were able to respond quickly with a goal of their own at the 7:54 mark to even the game at two.

No one was able to get anything going before the final whistle so the two teams headed to overtime. It did not end how the Mavs had hoped, as St. Cloud forward Mackenzie Bourgerie called game 1:09 into overtime to claim game one.

Game one gave all the confidence in the world to the Huskies heading into Saturday’s contest, and they proved that to be true with a clean win against the Mavs 4-1 to claim the series sweep. St. Cloud found scoring from four different players in game two, one including sophomore forward Emma Gentry, who was able to collect two points on the day with a goal and one assist.

The game one hero Bourgerie found herself in the point column once again in game two, with two assists herself to make for one heck of a series. Junior forward Kelsey King was the only Maverick to find the back of the net for MSU in the second contest, as the Mavs now have another week off before travelling to Columbus on a six game skid.