A new champion has been crowned. Your 2023 D-III Women’s Hockey NCAA Champions are Gustavus Adolphus! The first ever national championship for the Gusties and also the first ever national championship for a western conference team! To add to the craziness, this was also the longest-ever NCAA D-III women’s hockey championship game ever played.
Gustavus defeats Amherst 2-1 in triple-overtime!
Gustavus got the job done this weekend in Amherst, MA (Orr Rink) as they faced the hosting team Amherst in the championship game. This game took longer than everyone probably expected with it stretching into three regulation periods and then 2.5 overtime periods…
Starting from the beginning, neither team scored in the opening period and the SOG (shots-on-goal) totals were very low as both were playing great defense. Goaltending was also a key because both teams have top 3 goaltenders in D-III women’s hockey.
In the 2nd period, Gustavus netted the first goal of the game as Lily Mortenson came through at 14:46 of the middle frame. Mortenson scored the overtime winner on Friday in the semifinal game versus Plattsburgh to send her team to the championship, so she picked up right where she left off.
The tying goal wouldn’t come until late in the 3rd period when Amherst pulled the goalie to gain the 6v5 advantage. Carley Daly would score the tying goal that looked to be deflected in front of the Gustavus goaltender Katie McCoy who was pitching a shutout game. The deflection sent the puck by McCoy into the net, and we then headed to overtime after neither team scored in the final minute.
The game didn’t go just one, or two, but three overtime periods were needed to decide a winner in this game. In the 101:33 mark of the game (1:33 into the 3rd overtime period), Kaitlyn Holland scored the game-winner for the Gusties to deliver them their first ever national championship and the first ever title for a western conference team.
Some stats from the game, Gustavus outshot Amherst 61-34… Freshman goaltender Natalie Stott despite the loss, made 59 saves in the game and proved the moment wasn’t too big for her in her first ever NCAA tournament, or for that matter, NCAA championship. Katie McCoy made 33 saves in the win. At about the midway mark of the 2nd OT period, Gustavus had outshot Amherst 25-9 and seemed to have control of the game at that point but didn’t win it until the next period. In terms of penalties, Gustavus committed 4 for 8 minutes, Amherst 2 for 4, neither team was able to connect on the powerplay.
This year, the tournament had 8 east teams compared to 3 west, it’s nice to see them get one finally considering how outnumbered they are every year for a multitude of reasons that have nothing to do with the skill levels of the teams. Congratulations to your 2023 Champions Gustavus Adolphus and Head Coach Mike Carroll, who sits at 492 career wins with the program (stat via USCHO), he’ll hit the 500-mark next season as he will enter his 25th year!
