The Lindenwood women's ACHA division I ice hockey team picked up a 4-2 victory over the Arizona Wildcats Sunday morning at the Maryville Ice Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Led by three points from senior forward
Ardyn Hawryshko and 23 saves from emergency goaltender
Alison Blaskovich, Sunday's win was certainly a momentum builder for the Lions.
After playing the previous night, both teams were a little sluggish to start the rare early morning game. The Lions outshot the Wildcats 10-8 in the first 20 minutes of play, but neither team was able to get on the scoreboard in the first period.
By the second period, the Lions offense had awoken as they peppered the Wildcat netminder with 28 shots on goal. The Lions got on the board first at the 10:03 mark when
Julia Schoonbaert scored her second goal of the season.
Hilary Pearce and Hawryshko each picked up assists on Schoonbaert's goal. Eight minutes later, the two forwards got on the scoresheet again as Hawryshko netted her 16th goal of the year off a Schoonbaert feed, extending the Lindenwood lead to 2-0. The Lions defenseman turned goaltender,
Alison Blaskovich, stopped all 10 shots faced in the second period and kept the Lions ahead by two goals heading into the third period.
Arizona cut the Lindenwood lead in half early in the third period, but the Lions got their two-goal lead back at 16:10. After a Wildcat hooking penalty sent the Lions to the power play, Hawryshko found the back of the net 15 seconds into the man advantage off dishes from
Ava Bilton and
Hilary Pearce. An Arizona power play goal 29 seconds later brought the Wildcats back within one, but
Ava Bilton put the game on ice with an empty net goal at 19:49. Bilton's empty netter was her fourth tally of the year.
The Lions offense was on full display on Sunday as they put 54 pucks on net, their second most in a game this season. Hawyrshko scored the game-winning goal and tallied three points on Sunday giving her 32 for the season, the sixth most in ACHA division I. For Pearce, her two assists give her 20 for the year which is the second most on the Lions this year. Lindenwood rallied behind the play of their goaltender Blaskovich who made 23 saves on 25 shots and earned her first career win on Sunday. The Lions 4-2 victory snaps their four-game losing skid and improves their record to 11-15-2.
The Lions now head to Lebanon Illinois to face the McKendree Bearcats in their final regular season series before the Women's Midwest Collegiate Hockey Conference Tournament. Game one of the series is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. next Friday from the McKendree Rec-plex.
