Defenseman Demi Cooper swipes the puck from St. Benedict athlete. Cooper was able to celebrate senior night with a nice comeback victory. (Matthew Curry/TommieMedia)
MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. — Forward Rachel Werdin led the No. 1 ranked St. Thomas women’s hockey team to a late 2-1 comeback victory over conference rival College of St. Benedict Saturday at St. Thomas Ice Arena.
After shutting out their rival 3-0 the night before, the Tommies (21-0-2 overall, 13-0-2 MIAC) celebrated senior night with a victory after trailing the Blazers(7-12-2 overall, 4-10-2 MIAC) at the end of the second period.
“I thought we played pretty decent,” coach Tom Palkowski said. “It’s our third game in four days… honestly, we’re gassed.”
Following a scoreless first period, Blazer forward Courtney Conlin scored the first goal of the game with assists from forwards Mollie Wise and Maddie Dockery with 11:44 left in the second period.
After heavily outshooting their opponent 26-11 in the first two periods, Tommie forward Rachel Werdin scored with an assist from defenseman Katie Winiecki with 16:30 left in the second period, igniting the players and the fans. Werdin would go on to score the game-winning goal late in the period with assists by Maddy Fiedler and Alyssa Wallace. 
Forward Rachel Werdin races to the puck. Werdin tallied both goals in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over St. Benedict. (Matthew Curry/TommieMedia)
“Sometimes you need to be down a goal to get your momentum going,” Werdin said. “‘It was nice to get that first one in and being able to keep rolling.”
For seniors like defenseman Demi Cooper, tonight’s victory was special.
“I was a little bit nervous after the second period,” Cooper said. “But it was really fun. All of the girls had a lot of energy, and it was senior night so that was really fun for me.”
The Tommies look forward to closing out their regular season against Hamline on Feb. 15 and 16.
Matthew Curry can be reached at curr1523@stthomas.edu.