Women's ACHA ice hockey wrapped up its regular season with a series sweep at home against Minnesota, taking the first game 4-1 on Senior Night Saturday, and topping the Gophers 4-3 Sunday afternoon at the Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights, Missouri.
Madison Teague scored two goals to give the Lions a 2-0 lead. The first was a solo effort at 10:23 of the opening period. The second came at 6:58 in the middle frame on a pass from
MacKenzie Drost. Just 25-seconds later, Lindenwood added another off the stick of
Rylee Gee with help from
Kennedy Frank.
Minnesota scored its only goal at 2:01 of the third, but the Lions offset that with 14:36 remaining in regulation when senior
Hallie Fisher sounded the horn on a play set up by
Risa Shatford and senior captain
Tessa O'Connor.
Lindenwood outshot the Gophers 44 to 25 and senior
Emily McDonald stopped 24 of the 25 pucks she faced to earn the victory in goal.
The Sunday contest proved to be closer, but the Lions maintained control of the final outcome throughout, after jumping ahead 2-0 in the first on goals from Frank and Anaïs Fortier. After Minnesota scored later in the period to make it 2-1, Kiara Frank gave the Lions a 3-1 advantage that they carried to the end of the opening 20-minutes.
Ardyn Hawryshko made it 4-1 in the second, but the Gophers started chipping away at the lead from there, scoring twice unanswered to pull within a single tally. They pulled their goalie for the extra attacker with time running down, but Lindenwood prevented the equalizer to preserve the victory.
The Lions outshot Minnesota 31 to 30 as
Maia Busi stopped 27 of the 30 shots she faced to earn the win in goal.
Lindenwood completes the regular season with an overall record of 18-4-2 and 8-2-2 in Women's Midwest Collegiate Hockey (WMCH) action. The WMCH Conference Tournament is scheduled for February 25-27 at the Maryville Hockey Center in Chesterfield, Missouri.
Women's ACHA Ice Hockey Seniors
No. 18
Brookelyn Bell
No. 16
MacKenzie Drost
No. 96
Hallie Fisher
No. 88
Dakota McAlpine
No. 31
Emily McDonald
No. 20
Tessa O'Connor
No. 26
Callie Philippe
No. 4
Rayel Strayer
No. 8
MacKenzie White
