ST. CHARLES, MO. - Lindenwood Women's Hockey fell in their home opener to St. Thomas on Friday evening by a final score of 4-3.

The Tommies scored three goals in the first period to jump out to an early 3-0 lead, but the Lions would get on the board for the first time this season on a late power play in the first period. After a pass went wide off the stick of Molly Henderson, Ellen Wigermo retrieved the puck below the net and sent it out to Silje Gundersen. Gundersen passed it to the top of the blue line to Josey Dunne-Weeks who gave it right back to Gunderson for a one-timer that ended up in the back of the net to cut the Tommie lead to two with 2:38 left to play in the first. Tatiana Blichova led the Lions in shots in the first 20 minutes with two, while Zsofia Pazmandi, Michaela Paulinyova and Wigermo each had one. 

In the second period, the defense stepped up in a big way. Madison Bowtell had 15 saves in the period and the Penalty Kill unit went 2/2 to keep the Tommies off the scoreboard and only allowed three shots short-handed to keep the score at 3-1. The Lions came out in the third period with a lot of energy and finally broke through early on to cut the St. Thomas lead in half with 16:07 remaining in the game. After a kick save made by Bowtell, the puck found the stick of Ellie Muscedere who sent it up the ice to Ellen Wigermo. Wigermo skated up the right side of the ice and headed towards the middle of the defense where she fired a shot moving to her left from just inside the blue line and found the top left corner of the net to score a goal. Lindenwood had an opportunity to tie the game on the power play later in the period, but wasn't able to score as the Lions did not get a shot off. 

With less than two minutes remaining in the contest, the Lions pulled the goalie to get a six-on-five man advantage still trailing by one. After St. Thomas failed to clear the puck in Lindenwood's zone, Zsofia Pazmandi fired a turnaround shot towards the Tommie goaltender. The shot by Pazmandi created a rebound that bounced right to the stick of Silje Gundersen, who scored her second goal of the night to tie the game at three. Immediately after the game-tying goal, St. Thomas responded with a goal of their own after a Lindenwood turnover in the neutral zone with 58 seconds to go in the game. The Lions would not record a shot in the final 58 seconds as the Tommies took the first game 4-3. 

Zsofia Pazmandi and Tatiana Blichova led the Lions in shots with five a piece as Lindenwood had 21 shots on goal for the contest. Madison Bowtell recorded her second straight 30+ save performance, as she finished the game with 33 saves. 

Quote
"I think that takes a lot of maturity for such a young team to tie it back up after being down in the hole by three. Hopefully this was an easy lesson to learn and we come back out tomorrow ready to go." -Head coach Taylor Wasylk on tonight's game against St. Thomas.

The Lions will be back in action tomorrow afternoon for their second game with the Tommies. Puck drop is scheduled for 2 p.m.