MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. — Five different goal scorers and 20 saves from their graduate student goaltender Calla Frank led the St. Thomas women’s hockey team to a thrilling 5-4 overtime victory over Minnesota State on Saturday in the final regular season game of the year.
“We feel really good about the way we finished the season,” St. Thomas coach Joel Johnson said after the game.
Both goaltenders in Saturday’s matchup were the same who stood in the net on Friday night when St. Thomas (9-24-1, 3-23-1 WCHA) broke their seven-game losing streak at the expense of the Mavericks (12-22-0, 6-21-0 WCHA).
The Tommies came into the game in seventh place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association standings, with a narrow one-point lead over Bemidji State. Saturday’s action in the WCHA, the final match day of the regular season, would finalize first-round playoff matchups.
A Tommie victory would guarantee a playoff matchup on the road against Wisconsin, and a loss of any kind would open the door to slip into last place in the WCHA, and be forced to play Ohio State in Columbus, ranked first in the country.
Family and friends joined the four St. Thomas players on the ice to celebrate senior day before the game. The following players were recognized:
Graduate student goaltender, Olivia King, senior defenseman Isalbel Lippai, as well as team captains, graduate student forward Allie Monrean and senior forward Brieja Parent.
“All four players have a unique impact on our program,” Johnson said. “It was really fun to watch them.”
Maverick junior forward Alexis Paddington opened the scorecard on Saturday after burying the puck behind St. Thomas graduate student goalie Calla Frank.
Tommie sophomore forward Mary Zavoral tied things up less than two minutes later when the Edina native scored unassisted on Maverick first-year student goaltender Hailey Hansen.
Mankato’s senior forward Jamie Nelson gave the Mavericks a two-goal lead halfway through the second period.
Hansen and the Mavericks survived a five-minute major penalty late in the second period, but would ultimately give up an even-strength goal from junior forward Abby Promersberger seconds later to knot things up at two a piece.
The momentum would snowball into another Tommie goal with 30 seconds left in the period from first-year student forward Keara Parker to give the Tommies their first lead of the game and send St. Thomas into the second intermission with a 3-2 lead.
Mankato would bring things back to even when a wild deflection last touched by Paddington slid behind Frank for her second goal of the game.
With 1:46 left in the game, Tommie first year student defenseman Ellah Hause put a shot on the Mankato net, which snuck behind Frank and was buried by junior forward Lauren Stenslie to give St. Thomas a late one-goal lead.
Stenslie would be called for tripping with 40 seconds left in the game, allowing Mankato to have an offensive zone face-off, and opted to pull Hansen from the net for a six-on-four advantage. Twenty seconds into said advantage, the Mavericks would tie the game with a goal from senior defenseman Charlotte Akervik, sending the game to a five-minute three-on-three overtime period.
Johnson explained what the message was to the players before overtime.
“I told my team, ‘we deserve to win this game,’” Johnson said.
First-year student Rylee Bartz would jam the puck behind Hansen to secure the overtime win for St. Thomas, and book the Tommies’ trip to Badger country next week.
St. Thomas finishes the season 10-24-1. Coach Johnson and his team finished with two more regular season wins than the 2022-2023 season.
St. Thomas will travel to Wisconsin next weekend and play the Badgers at LaBahn Arena in a best-of-three series quarterfinal round of the WCHA tournament.
“We feel really good about the way we finished the season,” Johnson said.
Karl Warner can be reached at warn5356@stthomas.edu.