ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University women's hockey team rode a three-goal third for their first win of the season, coming from behind for a 4-3 victory over visiting Marian (Wis.) University. Junior Michelle Byker earned the first star of the game by leading the team with three points in the contest.
The first period belonged firmly to the Sabres. They began the scoring 10:35 into the contest and would go on to finish the period with three goals. The last came with just 16 seconds remaining in the period and gave them a 3-0 lead at the intermission.
The Thunder looked to be in real trouble when in the tenth minute of the second they committed their first penalty of the game, giving Marian a power-play opportunity. Down a skater the home side not only refused to allow a fourth goal, the flipped the script with a goal of their own. After collecting a loose puck, senior Makena Thompson looked to clear it from the zone. Sophomore Payton Hans chased the clear into the offensive zone, retaining possession and working past the final defender before beating the goalie.
The team looked to be carrying the momentum into the intermission down 3-1, but a late penalty looked to derail that. Trine took a five-minute major with just seconds remaining to give the Sabres a long advantage to begin the third. The Thunder defense came up big killing off all five minutes.
They received a power play of their own in the seventh minute and increased it to a 15 second 5-on-3 opportunity in the ninth minute. Byker won the ensuing faceoff back to junior Taryn Raisanen who passed it two her defensive partner, senior Gabrielle Hicks, before switching sides. Raisanen then received the puck and fired a blistering shot into the top left corner of the net.
Then in the 13th minute of the period, sophomore Lea Connor made a herculean effort to take the puck back from the Marian in the offensive zone. She chipped a puck wide of the net, following it behind before carrying it to the near faceoff circle and threading a pass through four Sabre skaters. Byker collected the pass and skated around the rest of the zone ending up back where the play started and firing a shot into the back of the net to knot the game at three.
The Thunder got one more power play chance just a minute after the goal. A minute into the advantage the team lost a faceoff in the offensive zone, but Raisanen and Byker combined to keep the puck in the zone. Byker ended up with a shooting chance from the top of the far faceoff circle and put it on net. The save rebounded wide and sophomore Kailey Mleko was able to put it back past the goalie. Her first goal of the season gave the team the 4-3 lead.
The defense, led by freshman Casey Frank, locked down for the final minutes to secure the victory, including over a minute with the opposition's goalie off the ice. Frank finished the first win of her young career with 29 saves.
Trine improves to 1-7-0 overall and 1-4-0 in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) play following the victory. They will look to finish off the weekend sweep when they face Marian again tomorrow, Saturday, December 2. Opening puck drop is scheduled for 2 p.m. in Thunder Ice Arena.
