Blaine, Minn- The College of Saint Benedict hockey team played at the Herb Brooks Arena today (Nov 3) against St Olaf College and came away with their second tie this weekend, having tied the No. 10 ranked Concordia-Moorhead Cobbers last night. The final score for today's pseudo-home game against the Oles was 1-1. Coach Jennifer Kranz looked to try something new today as sophomore
Jenna Traut started in net for the Blazers, replacing
Kaitlyn Rolando who had started the previous two games. The sophomore faced quite a challenge today as the Oles outshot the Blazers 36-22, but came away with only one mistake. 12:24 into the second period, Nicole Stumpf, an All-MIAC player last season, buried a shot from right in front of the net after being assisted by Kelly McGarvey (1) and Devyn Hotho (1). It was Stumpf's second goal of the year.
The Blazers continued to play strong defense for the rest of the game as they attempted to come back in the second and third period. The rest of the second period saw zero penalties after the goal and when the third period came, both teams traded off penalties. The referees assessed 12 in this game (Blazers had 5, St Olaf had 7) and all were killed by both teams.
It wasn't until late in the third period when the Blazers saw their hard work come through. It came on a goal by
Ashley Olson (2) as she shot it from directly in front of the net with 2:07 left in regulation. This goal sent the game into overtime, a period that saw three total shots (one from the Blazers) and two penalties. St Olaf received a penalty within the first minute of overtime but the Blazers failed to capitalize on the opportunity. With less than two minutes left in overtime,
Mara Kohl was assessed a two-minute minor for hooking which kept the Blazers on a penalty kill for the remainder of the game. This proved to be inconsequential as St Olaf didn't even get a shot off for the rest of the game.
This weekend proved to be a successful one for the Blazers, coming away with two ties over two of the top teams from the MIAC last year. Next weekend will be another rare one for the Blazers as they take on rival St Thomas University at 7:30 pm on Thursday at the MAC and 2:00 pm on Saturday in St Paul, Minn.
