MINNEAPOLIS – The St. Thomas women’s hockey team had its season come to an end after a 6-2 loss to No. 4 Minnesota Saturday at Ridder Arena, eliminating them from WCHA playoffs.
The Tommies (8-25-1 overall, 3-24-1 WCHA) managed two goals against the Golden Gophers (25-5-3, 22-3-3) but were eliminated after losing Friday night 7-0.
“Today I feel like we got back to playing defense first and letting our offensive chances happen and that’s what happened,” coach Joel Johnson said.
Similar to Friday, the Gophers showed dominance early in the first period, taking a 1-0 lead just under two minutes into the game.
St. Thomas held Minnesota to just one goal in the first. The team had given up three in the first period Friday.
The Tommies started to bring the fire pushing into the second period.
After a Gopher goal was overturned on review, St. Thomas junior forward Brieja Parent evened the score with the Tommies’ first goal of the weekend just over a minute into the second period.
Minnesota quickly responded with force, scoring three goals within three minutes to take a 4-1 lead going into the third period.
Senior forward Maija Almich scored unassisted just under three minutes into the third, giving the Tommies hope and cutting the lead to 4-2.
Minnesota quickly stopped the Tommies’ momentum, adding two more goals that proved too much for the team.
Regulation, and the Tommies’ season, ended with a 6-2 Minnesota lead.
“I think looking back on the season, to be able to have more success than we did in year one is really impressive,” Johnson said. “Everything’s new, everything’s a moral victory…so we certainly are looking forward to the next year.”
The Tommies finished the 2022-23 season in seventh place in the WCHA, improving one place from last season.
Annabelle Wiskus can be reached at wisk9881@stthomas.edu.
Sam Larson can be reached at lars4378@stthomas.edu.