ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The College of Saint Benedict hockey team put together a pair of impressive performances over the weekend in a nonconference sweep of Finlandia.
As a team, the Bennies put up more than 100 shots on net while giving up less than 40 to the Lions in the team’s first sweep since 2016-17. Individually, there was a handful of firsts – first goals, first assists, first shutouts, first multi-goal games. For its performance as a whole, the hockey team is this week’s CSB Team of the Week.
CSB started the weekend Friday with a 6-0 shutout of the Lions. That marks just the third time since 2016 that Saint Benedict has scored six goals, and the sixth time since 2014. In the first win of the weekend, first year Hannah Lynse recorded the first multi-goal game of her collegiate career after notching a goal and a pair of assists. Junior Bria Ferns scored her first goal of the season in her first game of 2019-20 after studying abroad in the fall semester, and junior Rylan Bistodeau scored a pair of goals, marking the first multi-goal game of her CSB career. Sophomore Maria Gaertner also notched the first assist of her career on Ferns’ goal in the third period.
Saturday, the Bennies scored five more goals to bring their weekend total to 11. In the first game of her Saint Benedict hockey career, Olivia Reid scored the first goal of her career, and Gaertner scored two goals for the first multi-goal game of her collegiate career.
Bistodeau, Gaertner, Lynse and Annika Brodt all finished with three points for CSB over the weekend. Bistodeau had three goals, Gaertner notched two and Brodt and Lynse both had a pair of assists. Maria Wallace and Bre Hess both added two points on the weekend, and 10 other players all had one point.
Sophomore goalie Maggie Gilchrist picked up the start and the win after stopping 16 shots Friday night, and junior Kailee Medved won her second game of the season after stopping 20 shots. The shutouts marked the first for both goalies, and the first for the team since CSB beat Hamline 6-0 on Feb. 8, 2014, in St. Paul.
CSB finished both games with 56 shots to total 112 on the weekend. Fifty-six is the most shots for the Bennies in a single game since it put up 57 against Northland in October 2016. The 16 shots CSB gave up to Finlandia Friday is the least for an opponent since Chatham in in October 2018. The sweep marked the first for the team since it beat Northland twice in Ashland, Wis., in October 2016, and pushes the team’s unbeaten streak to five games at 4-0-1. The two nonconference wins marked the sixth and seventh of the season for Saint Benedict, which ties for the most for the team since 2008-09 when CSB went 8-8-4.
CSB returns to conference play and looks to keep its unbeaten streak alive Thursday, Jan. 16, when it hosts Hamline at 7:15 p.m. The Pipers are 9-3-1 overall this season and tied for third in the MIAC at 5-1-0.
