After a come-from-behind win on Saturday, the St. Thomas women’s hockey team fell 3-2 in a fiery game to St. Cloud State despite junior forwards Maija Almich and Allie Monrean’s one goal performance Sunday at St. Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights.
The Tommies (5-20-1, 3-17-1 WCHA) came into the game looking to sweep St. Cloud State (8-16-2, 3-15-2) for their second series sweep of the season, the first being against Rochester Institute of Technology in October.
“I feel like we played a more complete game,” acting head coach Bethany Brausen said. “If not, the most complete game of the season.”
Despite looking fairly matched, the Tommies were outshot 10-5 in the first period. They held firm, keeping the Huskies off the board despite a penalty and constant pressure.
The Tommies started the second period swinging, spending much of the early period on the attack.
The Huskies turned things around near the halfway point, scoring twice within one minute. First, sophomore forward Emma Gentry scored at 10:27, then sophomore forward Nicole Ness followed her just 18 seconds later.
The scoring ceased until Almich took a shot that bounced off the boards, and goalie’s pads, into the net with 2:51 left in the second period.
“Turns out missing the net works sometimes,” Almich said. “I got a lucky bounce off the goalie’s pads.”
The rest of the period remained scoreless, with St. Cloud still ahead by one goal.
Both teams began the third period with intensity. Neither side gave an inch until St. Cloud sophomore forward Allison Green finally found the net, putting the Huskies ahead by two with a little over a minute left.
The Tommies responded 51 seconds later as Monrean pulled the score within one once again. Monrean’s goal came with just 16 seconds left in regulation, giving the Tommies little time to score the equalizer.
“Even in the last seconds every single player was giving their best effort,” Monrean said. “I think that shows a lot of who we are currently and who we want to be in the future.”
Following Monrean’s goal, the Tommies played 16 seconds of hard-fought hockey but could not find the net again.
“It always sucks losing a game,” Monrean said. “It’s never going to be easy, but at the very end of the game all the fans were standing; that’s what we want to be.”
The Tommies take on No. 5 University of Minnesota-Duluth on Friday, Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. in Duluth.
Tommies in the Olympics
St. Thomas women’s hockey coach Joel Johnson has been away form his team for much of the season, as he was asked to be the head coach of the United State women’s hockey team for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
The Tommies have two players, first-year goaltender Saskia Maurer and first-year defenseman Nicole Vallario, who play on the Switzerland national team.
The three reunited in the Olympic preliminary rounds as the U.S. took on the Swiss Sunday. Johnson showed no favor toward Maurer, who made 17 saves in the contest, as the U.S. won 8-0.
Team USA takes on rival Canada at 10:10 p.m. on Tuesday in Beijing while Switzerland will face Finland at 7:10 on Monday.
Sam Larson can be reached at lars4378@stthomas.edu.
It was a good match and St. Cloud State is my fav team.