ANGOLA, Ind. -- The Trine University women's hockey team kept it close against the visiting squad from the College of St. Scholastica until the Saints pulled away in the latter part of the third period for the 4-1 victory.
St. Scholastica built the early lead with a dominant first-period performance that saw them outshoot the Thunder 13-1. They scored two goals in the period to take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
As much as the Saints had dominated the first the Thunder responded with their own dominant performance in the second. Trine outshot the opposition 25-14 in the period and came away with a goal of their own to pull within one of St. Scholastica.
Sophomore Sula Argyris (Woodhaven, Mich.) started the scoring play by coming up with a loose puck in the neutral zone. She then passed it ahead to freshman Theresa DiMaggio (Shelby Township, Mich.) who carried it into the offensive zone. DiMaggio would then fire a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle which was turned aside by the Saints' goaltender. The rebound was left free however and freshman Ava Russano (Grosse Pointe, Mich.) was there to collect it and capitalize with her third goal of the season.
The Thunder almost tied the game a few minutes later on a backdoor attempt that somehow did not cross the goal line, but instead, they entered the second intermission trailing 2-1.
Trine kept up the pressure in the third but was unable to capitalize and the Saints snagged a goal in both the 15th and 16th minutes of the period to pull away for the 4-1 victory.
The Thunder fall to 6-8-1 overall and 4-5-1 in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) play following the loss. They will look to bounce back when they travel to face Aurora University for a pair of NCHA games. The first comes on Friday, Jan. 25 and is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. CST.