ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Aurora Opsahl recorded her career-first hat trick to lead the College of Saint Benedict hockey team (6-4-2) to a 4-0 non-conference victory over Lake Forest (9-6) on Wednesday night at the Ritsche Arena.

For Saint Benedict, the victory resulted in a third consecutive shutout – all at home – in moving to 6-4-2 on the season. For the first time in school history, the Bennies recorded three straight shutout victories. Prior to the win tonight (Jan. 3), the Bennies had 8-0 and 6-0 non-conference shutout wins over Dubuque.

"I was proud of the team for coming out strong the first game back from the holiday break," said CSB head coach Lindsay Macy, whose team will be back on the ice on Friday (Jan. 5) afternoon at 3 p.m., at Ritsche Arena. "They were competing from the drop of the puck and applying the skills we have been working in practice. I was excited for Rory (Aurora Opsahl) to bury the puck and, of course, Kate (Moffat) for earning a shutout. Those things don't happen without a whole team effort," she said.

Opsahl is the second CSB student-athlete to record a hat trick or better in the past three games. In the 8-0 win over Dubuque on Dec. 8, Ava Stinnett tied a school record with four goals. Stinnett also had the other goal against Lake Forest. With three goals from Opsahl and the one by Stinnett both are tied for the team lead with 10 goals on the season. Opsahl has 27 career goals and now has six game-winning goals while Stinnett registered her 22nd career goal. Stinnett, who also had an assist against Lake Forest, and Opsahl lead the team with 13 points.

In goal, the Bennies had another solid performance from junior Kate Moffat, who had her second shutout of the season and her third of her career. She recorded 26 saves against Lake Forest. With the performance, Moffat improve her goals against average to 2.30 as she improved to 4-3-2 on the season.

Game Summary

Saint Benedict opened up a quick lead in the opening period as Opsahl tallied a pair of goals, which were number eight and nine of the season, for a 2-0 lead. Then, Ava Stinnett's power play goal at 16:15 gave CSB a 3-0 lead. On the goal by Stinnett, her sister, Shae Stinnett, and junior Jenna Timm assisted. Opsahl opened the scoring at 6:47 on an unassisted, even strength goal. At 9:57, she had an even strength goal as A. Stinnett and first-year Emily Wendorf provided assists. Then, Opsahl concluded the scoring for the game with her third goal at 17:43 of the second period off an assist from junior Sami Boerboom.

CSB had 32-26 shots on goal advantage, including 19-to-8 in the decisive first period when the Bennies tallied three goals. In addition, Saint Benedict won 56.5 percent of the face-offs with 29-of-51. Shauna Miller won 11-of-16 and Mia Lopez recorded 5-of-9 wins in face-offs. Opsahl led CSB with five shots while Corrine Brown and Jamie Benzie each had four.