After a solid 7-1 victory at Rider Arena in Minneapolis, Minnesota Saturday night, women's ACHA ice hockey dropped the second game of the series Sunday afternoon, earning a split with Minnesota in Women's Midwest College Hockey (WMCH) action.
The Lions took control of a penalty filled contest early on Saturday by opening up a 2-0 lead after the first period and extending it to 6-0 before allowing the Gophers to score midway through the third.
Risa Shatford put the first puck in the net for Lindenwood unassisted with 6:42 left in the first.
Ardyn Hawryshko then sounded the horn on a power play effort just under two minutes later on a play set up by
Ava Bilton and
Loki Antonio. Hawryshko made it 3-0 at the 4:32 mark of the second unassisted before earning a helper on a
Kim Turcotte goal with 2:25 remaining in the second. Antonio earned the secondary assist on the play, making it 4-0 after two.
Antonio split the pipes for her first career goal at 2:39 in the third off a feed from Turcotte to make it 5-0, then Bilton netted a shot with help from Shatford and
MacKenzie Drost with 11:50 remaining in regulation. Minnesota scored just 27-seconds later, but
Brynn Carter put the icing on the cake with her first career goal, assisted by
Annika Asplundh and Bilton at 9:24.
There were 12 different penalty calls in the game as Lindenwood outshot the Gophers 26-24.
Emily McDonald stopped all but one of the 24 shots she faced to earn the victory in goal for the Lions.
Things didn't go as well in the series finale, despite a nice effort again from McDonald in net. Minnesota took an early lead just under five minutes into the game, but Shatford tied things 1-1 with 14:48 remaining in the second off a nice pass from
Kennedy Frank. The score stayed knotted until the 4:36 mark of the third when the Gophers slipped what proved to be the game-winner into the net unassisted.
Lindenwood outshot Minnesota 19-17 and McDonald made 15 saves on the 17 shots she faced in a hard-luck loss. With the split, the Lions are 2-4-0 overall and 2-2-0 in the WMCH.
They get a nice three weekend break before hitting the road again for a two-game set with Miami (Ohio) University November 11-12. The opening faceoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. that Saturday evening and again at 4:40 p.m. late Sunday afternoon with both games taking place at the Goggin Ice Center in Oxford, Ohio.
