Women's hockey keeps rolling with rivalry win

Alison Shrift's first period goal helped the Yellowjackets beat St. Scholastica 2-0 on Tuesday, their fifth win in a row.

Box Score

Yellowjackets 2, St. Scholastica 0

The Yellowjacket women's hockey team is going on break. Again.

Just two weeks after returning from a month-long respite, the Yellowjackets will have a ten-day hiatus. The break comes at a good time for a team that has been beseiged by illness and injury of late, but it also comes at a time when the Yellowjackets are flat out rolling, and taking a break when things are going well can be bad thing.

On Tuesday night the Yellowjackets crossed the bridge for their first meeting of the season against Twin Ports-rival St. Scholastica, and they kept the momentum going. Two goals in the first period provided all of the offense and Shanley Peters (Gnadenthal, Manitoba/Garden Valley Collegiate) backstopped the Yellowjackets to their second straight shutout, 2-0 over the Saints at Mars-Lakeview Arena in Duluth.

With the win the Yellowjackets have now won five games in a row and are unbeaten in their last nine (7-0-2).

And like their last win, all of the offense came in the opening frame.

The Yellowjackets scored the eventual game winning goal just 1:44 into the game when freshman Hailey Adair (Brooklyn Park, Minn./Champlin Park) finished off a set up from Karen Larson (Blumenort, Manitoba/Steinbach Regional Secondary) to stake the Yellowjackets to the 1-0 lead. Adair scored her fifth goal of the season with a perfect shot from the left side of the slot. A few minutes later the Yellowjackets extended the lead when Alison Shrift (Traverse City, Mich./West High School) scored her fourth goal of the season, almost from the exact same spot that Adair did, to make it a 2-0 game. Sheryl Kaskiw (Souris, Manitoba/Souris Collegiate) had the lone assist on the goal, which came at 7:49.

Shrift's goal also spelled the end of the game for Saints' goaltender Sheridan Friesen, who stopped 3-of-5 shots faced before yielding the net to Lindsey Hartfiel.

The Yellowjackets continued to apply offensive pressure throughout the contest, but Hartfiel closed the door, making 23 saves without allowing a goal, keeping the Saints in the game.

At the other end Peters earned her second shutout in a row and fourth of the season, stopping all 16 shots she faced. Peters has not allowed a goal in her last 150:38 of play.

For the game St. Scholastica took three penalties for six minutes, while the Yellowjackets took two for four minutes. The Yellowjackets were 0-for-3 on the power play and the Saints were 0-for-2 with the advantage.

The Yellowjackets (12-2-4, 2-2-2 WIAC) are now off until Friday, January 24 when they host UW-Eau Claire at Wessman Arena. Game time is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

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