University of St. Thomas Athletics
5-4-1
Trinity (Conn.)
5-2-1
Women's hockey falls in back-and-forth contest
1/3/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Hockey
MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. – For the second straight time in less than 24 hours, the St. Thomas women's hockey team fell to a team from the east coast on Saturday afternoon at the St. Thomas Ice Arena. After entering the third period in a 3-3 tie, the Tommies dropped the contest by the score of 7-4 to Trinity (CT).
With the loss, No. 8 St. Thomas falls to 5-4-1 on the year, while Trinity improves to 5-2-1 overall.
The Bantams opened the game with a pair of goals in the first period to take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. Lauren Fitzgerald got things started before Cheeky Herr added to the lead heading to the second period.
St. Thomas staged a comeback in the early stages of the second period. Just 35 seconds into the frame, Heidi Winiecki scored for the Tommies to cut the lead to 2-1. Maddie McGlade tied the game at 12:53 of the period and Allison Borgstrom gave UST its first lead of the game just 20 seconds later to capture the momentum.
But Trinity came back to score its own equalizer at 16:45 to tie the game 3-3 heading to the final period.
The Tommies stormed out of the gate in the final period once again, as Rachel Friberg gave UST the lead 1:49 into the frame.
However, the Bantams came back to score four unanswered goals, three of which came in the final three minutes to capture the 7-4 victory.
St. Thomas held a 45-33 shot advantage for the contest. Each team was scoreless on the power play, as Trinity went 0-for-2 and the Tommies were 0-for-1.
In net, Taylor Neisen suffered the loss after allowing six goals and making 26 saves. Trinity goaltender Sidney Belinskas was awarded with the win in a 41-save effort.
St. Thomas will be back on the ice next weekend when the Tommies travel to Stevens Point, Wis., for a weekend series against UW-Stevens Point. The two teams will square off on Friday, Jan. 9 at 7:00 p.m., before concluding the series with a 2:30 p.m., start on Saturday.
