Box Score ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University women's hockey team secured the sixth-seed in the upcoming Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) Slaats Cup Playoffs after finishing the regular season with a 4-0 victory over visiting Lawrence University. Sophomore Payton Hans led the way for the team recording her fourth hat trick of the season.
Despite the lopsided final tally, neither team made much offensive headway in the first period of the contest. The score remained blank heading into the first intermission, but the Vikings outshot the home team during the stanza 11-7.
The Thunder finally broke the tie in the seventh minute of the second period. Senior Grace Canty won a faceoff back to Hans in the offensive zone. Hans skated through the defense making a few impressive moves to do so, before firing a shot on net form in close. After the save, freshman Aleah Bienek fired a shot off the rebound forcing more action from the goalie. With the puck still loose, Hans finally put it past the goal and gave the team the 1-0 lead.
Despite once again winning the battle of shots, Lawrence failed to score in the second and Trine took their lead into the second intermission.
The Thunder pulled away in the final period, scoring three goals to finish the game with the 4-0 victory.
The first of the period came in the fifth minute. Junior Taryn Raisanen started the play by passing the puck up the ice and toward the offensive zone. Sophomore Kailey Mleko collected the puck and carried it well into the zone before firing a shot on goal. While the goalie made a save she let the rebound go wide and sophomore Ellie Warhoftig was waiting to score the goal.
Hans accounted for the final two goals. The first came unassisted in the eighth minute when she stole the puck in the offensive zone. Then she scored the final goal of the game in the 14th minute with senior Gabrielle Hicks adding an assist.
Freshman Casey Frank recorded the win in net for the team after posting another shutout performance. She finished the contest with 27 saves.
The Thunder finish the regular season with a 10-15-0 overall record having gone 6-10-0 in NCHA play. They will travel to face Aurora University in the opening round of the Slaats Cup Playoffs next weekend. Game details will be released when available.
