Lindenwood squared off for the first time ever against two-time defending NCAA Champion Minnesota, and while the Lions were outplayed in losing a 3-0 contest, they certainly weren’t outclassed.
“I was real happy with them,” coach Scott Spencer said. “I thought we competed for 60 minutes. I thought we had good sticks. I thought we made things hard for Minnesota. Nothing was clean and easy.”
It certainly wasn’t easy through a scoreless opening 20 minutes for the Gophers (1-0-0), but they got on the scoreboard by burying a couple of rebounds in the middle frame, with sophomore Sarah Potomak and junior Cara Piazza doing the honors.
“You can see that when their skill takes over, they’re a very talented hockey team,” Spencer said.
Senior defenseman Megan Wolfe completed the scoring in the waning seconds of the middle frame.
“The third one late —- that’s a back-breaker to get a redirect off a blocked shot,” Spencer said.
Redshirt-junior Sidney Peters took care of the rest, turning away all 10 shots from the Lions (0-1-0) to earn the shutout in her first game as Minnesota’s top goaltender.
Jolene deBruyn stopped 27 of 30 shots in her debut as Lindenwood’s main backstop.
“Jo played well through the game,” Spencer said. “She played well in the games she played last year. I think we’re going to be okay in net with her and [freshman] Morgan [Skinner].”
Lindenwood was trying to thwart a Gophers’ attack that is retooling after graduating the top two career point leaders in program history.
“We were changing lines up even throughout the game there, finished with something completely different than what we started with,” coach Brad Frost said. “It’s just a matter of trying to find those combinations. I think we’ve got a multitude of options, which is good, but it makes it difficult as well.”
Frost was impressed by what he saw in his first look at the opponent.
“As a six-person unit, I thought they played very strong defensively,” he said.
Minnesota began the evening with former Gophers great Hannah Brandt raising the banner to commemorate the team’s seventh national title. Senior captain Lee Stecklein has been a part of the last three of those.
“It felt incredible, just to watch that video and remember that year and those last two games was really special,” Stecklein said. “It just gave us a lot of energy, but it was also a great turning point. That year is done, and now we’ve got to start another exciting one.”
Game two for both teams comes Saturday in Minneapolis with a 2:07 p.m. CDT start.
