The No. 1 St. Thomas women’s hockey team shut out the No. 5 Hamline Pipers 2-0 to claim the MIAC championship title Saturday at St. Thomas Ice Arena.
The Tommies (17-1-2 MIAC, 24-1-2 overall) will receive an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament after defeating the Pipers (14-2-2 MIAC, 21-3-3 overall). The win marks the fifth time the Tommies have won the MIAC playoff championship in the last six years.
“To go out and play as well as we did is always a good feeling as a coach,” coach Tom Palkowski said. “We preach defense and that’s been the way we’ve done it for years, everything starts in our end and we go from there.”
The Tommies started the first period slowly, but struck first when forward Estee Frantz scored her third goal of the season, assisted by forwards Anna Erickson and Sarah Moy. The team extended their lead when Moy scored her sixth goal of the season on a breakaway, assisted by forwards Anna Solheim and Shae McLean.
Moy credited her success to her teammates.
“I think it was a collective group effort, all week our team has been working super hard. It was really awesome to see how well we were playing against them,” Moy said.
Senior goalie Kenzie Torpy stopped all 30 shots she faced, but said shutting down the Pipers was a team effort.
“I think they’re one of the top scoring teams in the country. We just did the little things in our d-zone and it worked well for us,” Torpy said. “It’s big for us to get a shutout there.”
The Pipers led the MIAC in goals, assists and short-handed goals.
“We talked the other day about taking away time and space. I think for the most part we did,” Palkowski said. “In the third period we kind of have had a lapse, but overall their top players didn’t get going.”
The Tommies will now wait for the NCAA tournament selection show on Monday to find out their first opponent.
Brennan Campbell can be reached at camp3460@stthomas.edu.