GENEVA, Ill. – The Trine University women's hockey team finished the season after being eliminated from the 2023 Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) Slaats Cup Playoffs with a 5-1 loss to Aurora University.
The nationally-ranked Spartans scored the only two goals of the first period, building a 2-0 lead. They added to that lead in the final seconds of the second period to send the game to the final intermission with a 3-0 score.
After a fourth goal from the home team, the Thunder finally got on the scoreboard in the fifth minute of the third period. The goal came following a steal in the defensive zone. After dumping the puck into the offensive end of the ice, sophomore Kailey Mleko kept the puck in the team's possession and passed it back to the center of the ice where classmate Ellie Warhoftig was waiting to fire the shot. The puck went behind the goalie and out the far side where Mleko was ready for the rebound. Again, the puck stayed out of the goal but was behind the goalie, Warhoftig got the rebound and final got the payoff making the score 4-1.
Aurora scored the final goal of the game in the 18th minute making the score 5-1 when it went final a few minutes later.
Freshman Casey Frank played the game in net and again faced over 60 shots. She finished with 56 saves despite recording the loss.
The Thunder finish the 2022-23 season with a 10-17-0 overall record having gone 6-10-0 in NCHA play.