The Lindenwood Women's Hockey team (2-0-0, 0-0-0 AHA) completed the sweep over Post University on Saturday with a 7-0 victory. The back-to-back shutout victories marks the first time that this has occurred since January 17-18, 2020 when the Lions swept RIT by scores of 3-0 and 2-0 at Centene Community Ice Center.
Lindenwood wasted no time striking first, scoring the game's first goal less than two minutes into the first period behind
Renee Ng's first goal as a Lion. Ng was able to gather a rebound that came off the stick of
Paige Cline, and buried the puck into the back of the net to give Lindenwood an immediate 1-0 lead. 10 minutes later,
Tatiana Blichova lit the lamp for the first time this season after Post turned the puck over in their defensive zone, in which the Lions capitalized off of. Off the turnover,
Nicole Pietrucha gathered the puck at the top of the blue line and found Bichova in the middle of the slot, who sent a wrist shot past the left side of the Eagle goaltender to extend the lead to 2-0 with 10 minutes to play in the opening frame. For the rest of the period,
Ebba Ridderstolpe stopped all four shots that she faced, and the Lions took a 2-0 lead into the locker room after 20 minutes of play.
In the second period, the Lions scored four more times to take a 6-0 lead. Three of the four goals happened within a minute, coming off the sticks of
Raquel McCormack,
Tatem Starlight-Yellowfly, and
Paige Cline. McCormack's goal happened off a redirection in front of the net on the Power Play to put Lindenwood up four, and Starlight-Yellowfly was able to extend the lead to five off a rebound in front of the net that was created by a shot from
Grace Rentmeester. The final goal of the period was created off another Eagle turnover, in which
Krisztina Weiler gathered the puck along the left side boards and sent a cross ice pass for Cline to bury into the back of the net off a one-timer.
Maddalena Bedont scored the final goal for the Lions late in the third period, where Weiler won a faceoff that went directly to the stick of Elina Zillox. Zilliox immediately passed the puck to Bedont for a one-time slapshot that was sent past the Post goalie to give Lindenwood the 7-0 lead and held on for the victory.
Defensively, Lindenwood blocked nine shots for the second straight game and Ridderstolpe ended the contest with her first career NCAA shutout, finishing with 15 saves. Offensively, the Lions registered 43 shots on goal and were led by
Raquel McCormack who had six shots on goal. Weiler led the Lions with four assists, while three total skaters recorded multi-point performances.
"I'm really proud of the effort our group showed throughout both games this weekend." said Head Coach
Max Gavin. "They completed every shift, stayed committed to our habits, and continued to push from start to finish. A sweep is a great way to start the season, but I'm most proud of the way we earned it with effort, compete, and a commitment to playing for each other. There's still a lot we can clean up, but this was a strong step forward for our group."
The Lions will stay on the road next week as they will travel to Massachusetts for a two game series with Merrimack College. Puck drop on Thursday, September 24 is set for 4 PM CT followed by a 1 PM CT puck drop on Friday, September 25. Both games will be streamed on ESPN+.
