Women split with UND

After being shutout each of their last three games, the SCSU women’s hockey team looked to pick up the offense at home this weekend against the University of North Dakota (UND).

They succeeded,scoring seven goals in their two games against UND, getting their first WCHA victory on Saturday at the National Hockey Center.

Friday

Friday, the Huskies took on UND and the scoring began quickly.

Just after the six minute mark the Huskies jumped to a 1-0 lead after senior captain Felicia Nelson slipped one past the UND goaltender on a power play.

“I think they’ve been getting the chances and things just opened up. It was great to see Felicia get them,” said SCSU head coach Jeff Giesen.

However, that lead did not make it past the first period as UND ‘s Holly Perkins made a power play goal of their own to even the score 1-1.

Two Meaghan Pezon second period goals gave the Huskies a 3-1 lead heading into the third period.

That’s when the Huskies appeared to fall apart. UND scored three third period goals to take a 4-3 lead.

SCSU senior and alternate captain Catilin Hogan scored a leading sixth goal with less than two minutes remaining to send the game to overtime.

“I said from the start, were only going to be as good as our seniors, we get them going and it will be easier for those freshmen to jump in behind them and get off there zero goals,” Geisen said.

The Huskies were not able to capture a victory as Kelly Lewis pushed one past SCSU net minder Ashley Nixon to close the game out.

Meaghan Pezon led the Huskies with 10 shots and the two second-period goals. She also had two assists.

Nixon had 23 saves in the loss. The Huskies out shot UND 41-28 in the contest.
Saturday

The Huskies gained their first WCHA win defeating UND 3-2 in a matinee Saturday at the National Hockey Center.

The Huskies came out of the gates quickly, drawing first blood on a Felicia Nelson goal at the 13:17 mark.

UND answered with less than a minute left in the first period as Jordan Slavin went unassisted past sophomore goaltender Taylor VanDenakker.

The second period proved to be full of good defense as neither team was able to score.
“We fore checked well, played good team defense and got some scoring from people from who needed to score,” Giesen said.

The Huskies came out of the second intermission with more energy, scoring a goal from Hogan at the 1:54 minute mark.

The game-winning goal for the Huskies came at the 12:29 mark, but not without a bit of controversy. Nelson took a pass from Hogan and appeared to get one past UND goaltender Steph Ney.

However, scoring officials had a difficult time deciding if Hogan deflected the shot into the goal.

After sorting it out, it was determined that Hogan did not deflect it as first thought and Nelson was credited with the game-winner.

Regardless, the Huskies were happy to get finally getting a win after six straight losing efforts.

“Right now any kind of win for us whether its in the league or not, we just needed a win. I think our girls are feeling pretty good, and we’ll just move on from there,” Giesen said.

VanDenakker got her first win on the season, stopping 22 of 24 of UND shots.

“She played very well, she played solid and that’s all we ask our goalies to do, get us a chance to win,” Giesen said.

Hogan had a goal and an assist to put her team lead in points up to 10. Felicia Nelson’s two-goal effort was her first multi-goal game this season.

The Huskies also won the face off battle 33-29, something they lost on Friday. 23 of the wins came from Hogan.

“Any time you can get the face off edge it’s a good thing, that means you have more possessions than they do it’s good,” Giesen said.The Huskies are at home again next weekend as they take on the nationally ranked Bulldogs of Minnesota-Duluth at 7:07 p.m. both Friday and Saturday at the NHC.