ST. PAUL, Minn. – The College of Saint Benedict hockey team got its weekend started on the right foot Friday night when it defeated St. Kate's 3-1 in St. Paul, Minn.
 
Friday's win marked the second of the year against the Wildcats for CSB, which also defeated St. Kate's 4-2 in a nonconference game earlier this season in Princeton, Minn. The two teams wrap up the season series at 4:15 p.m. Saturday at the MAC in St. Cloud.
 
The Blazers, who were looking to get back in the win column after losing a game and tying the second against Concordia last weekend, didn't waste any time scoring. Saint Benedict got on the board at the 1:04 mark of the first period when Stephanie Kirk scored her sixth goal of the season unassisted to put the Blazers up 1-0.
 
Saint Benedict made it 2-0 midway through the first period when it was able to take advantage of a power play. Katie Cristan scored her first goal of the season and put the Blazers up 2-0 off an assist from Hannah Esselman at the 10:27 mark.
 
The Wildcats made it a one-goal game less than three minutes into the second period when Bailey Rasmussen scored, but Elli Marvin netted her seventh goal of the year 12 minutes into the period to push CSB's lead back to two. Neither team scored in the third period, and the 3-1 score held up.
 
Jenna Traut finished with 25 saves in net for the Blazers, who had 23 shots to the Wildcats' 26. Marvin finished with four shots on goal and Cristan and Kirk each had three. Samantha Geissler made 20 saves for St. Kate's.