An early third period goal broke a 2-2 tie in a favor of St. Cloud, and the Huskies added an insurance goal down the stretch for a 4-2 victory over North Dakota. The win guaranteed St. Cloud at least sixth place in the WCHA and moved them into a tie for fifth with Minnesota State.
“It’s a big win for us and it gives us a boost of confidence going into next weekend where, if we take care of business we can get up to fifth place,” said St Cloud coach Jason Lesteberg.
Senior Carrie Holldorf scored her sixth goal of the year just 59 seconds into the third period to give the Huskies (9-19-4, 7-16-3 WCHA) the lead over the Sioux (8-21-3, 5-20-1 WCHA) for good. She put a rebound top shelf on a backhander off junior Ashley Stewart’s shot from the slot.
“It was great to be able to put it upstairs backhand and hit the net,” Holldorf said. “It gave us a little assurance that we were gonna win the game.”
Stewart and Holldorf also hooked up on the goal that tied the game at 2-2 midway through the second period. Stewart took a feed from Holldorf and beat UND junior goalie Amber Hasbargen high to the blocker side.
UND would never see the lead again, and its dreams of a sweep were dashed, even though the game looked promising early on. The Sioux got on the board first during a power-play on a tic-tac-toe play to freshman Cami Wooster from senior Marissa Hangsleben. With Wooster all alone in front, Hangsleben fed her from the corner, and she put it through the legs of St Cloud freshman goalie Kendall Newell for a 1-0 lead at 10:12 of the opening frame. It was Wooster’s team-leading thirteenth goal of the year.
The Huskies tied the game at 1-1 when junior Kristy Oonincx one-timed a pass from freshman Denelle Maguet past UND goalie Amber Hasbargen. Freshman Laura Fast assisted on the play and also later netted the Huskies’ fourth goal at 13:44 of the third period.
Cami’s twin sister Cara scored her thirteenth goal of the year on a partial break that she put in just under the crossbar for a 2-1 at 18:01 of the first.
SCSU got good goaltending from Newell especially in the third when UND put ten shots on goal, and she made most of her 21 saves.
At the other end Hasbargen made 27 in a losing effort that dropped her
record to 5-14-1 for the year. She was the key penalty killer on a 5-on-3 power play that spanned 1:37 in the second period. UND killed off all four SCSU power plays while going 1-3 on their own.
“Any time you’re on the kill you need your goalie to come up big, and she did,” said UND coach Shantel Rivard.
UND travels to Bemidji State to close out the regular season next weekend. The two teams are battling for seventh place in the WCHA. St. Cloud finishes out at home against Wisconsin. The Huskies can clinch fifth place in the WCHA if they take more points next weekend than Minnesota State does against Ohio State.
