Goaltender Kenzie Torpy stopped 32 of 34 shots as the No. 7-ranked St. Thomas women’s hockey team ran its unbeaten streak to eight games with a 6-2 win over Wisconsin-Stevens Point Sunday at St. Thomas Ice Arena.
The Tommies (9-1-1 overall) tied Bethel 2-2 on Nov. 20 but haven’t lost since dropping a game to Gustavus on Nov. 13. St. Thomas ended Stevens Point’s season with a 5-0 win in the NCAA quarterfinals last year, and coach Tom Palkowski said the Tommies anticipated a tough match from the “physical” Pointers (6-6-2 overall).
“They’re a good team. They work extremely hard,” Palkowski said. “We’ve struggled a little bit against physical teams so far this year, but we kind of figured it out this week.”
The Tommies took the lead in the first period after forward Rylie McDonell beat Pointer goaltender Sydney Conley high to the glove side.
St. Thomas held steady for the remainder of the first frame and added a second goal within the first three minutes of the second period. Forward Kathryn Larson’s shot caught Conley off guard, and the puck bounced out of the goalie’s arms and into the net.
The Tommies killed off a five-on-three power play for the Pointers in the second period after defensemen Nuala Flood and Tori Bailey were each assessed penalties. In all, St. Thomas would be called for six penalties Sunday.
“Power-play goals are great, but when you can kill penalties it really changes the momentum,” Palkowski said. “They’re all excited because they got a five-on-three, and they think they’re going score, and then we turn the tide.”
St. Thomas jumped out to a 3-0 lead just over two minutes into the third period when forward Hannah Burns scored her fourth goal of the season.
“We worked hard. We just kept trying to get it deep and move the puck and get it to the net,” Burns said.
Stevens Point responded with a goal from forward Cara Lemirande and proceeded to employ some unorthodox techniques to try to get back in the game. The Pointers pulled their goalie, opting for an extra skater on the ice instead, with just over 12 minutes left in the third period.
St. Thomas took advantage of the opportunity when forward Becca Zarembinski scored into an empty net.
The Pointers kept their goalie off the ice and relied heavily on their offense, but defenseman Hannah Bird’s well-aimed slap shot gave the Tommies another empty-net goal at the 11:49 mark of the third period.
Stevens Point answered with a goal on a power play, but the Tommies finished strong and capped off the win and weekend sweep – St. Thomas beat Stevens Point 1-0 Saturday – with a goal from forward Allie Borgstrom with just under two minutes to go in the tilt.
“It feels really good to sweep them. They are obviously one of the best teams we are going to play, and winning that … game is good for when nationals comes around,” Torpy said.
St. Thomas won’t resume regular-season play until a Jan. 16 game against St. Mary’s but won’t be idle over that period. The Tommies will be spending their break in Italy playing a little bit of hockey and getting to experience the country as a team.
“The girls are just excited for the trip,” Palkowski said. “We have three games, but we will take hockey as it goes … we’re over there for the experience and to have some fun.”
Rachel Weiss can be reached at weis3565@stthomas.edu.