Led by senior forward Kristy Oonincx and junior assistant captain Denelle Maguet, St. Cloud State upset No. 1 St. Lawrence 4-3 in overtime on Saturday. The win was the first on the road all season for the Huskies and the program’s first win ever over a No. 1-ranked team.
The Saints (15-2-2) struggled all weekend against St. Cloud (8-11-1) in the absence of top scorer Sabrina Harbec and defenders Annie Guay and Kerri Wallace, who were all competing with the Canadian U-22 national team. The Huskies took St. Lawrence to overtime on Friday as well, but the Saints managed to escape with a 3-2 victory in that game.
“Yesterday St. Lawrence found a way to win, and today it was our turn,” said SCSU coach Jason Lesteberg.
Today was a different story, as Maguet connected for the game-winner at 3:51 of overtime. As she was dragged down near the slot, she back-handed the puck into the top left corner of the SLU net on one knee to notch her ninth goal of the season. Senior Kristy Oonincx, who had five points for the weekend, tallied the secondary assist on the Maguet goal. Each time St. Cloud scored in regulation, St. Lawrence answered, but sudden death left the Saints no such opportunity.
“The game just went back and forth,” Lesteberg said. “Kristy scored a great goal with just over two minutes to go in regulation to give us the lead. However, SLU just never gave up.”
The Huskies jumped out to a 1-0 lead at 16:26 in the first period with a power play goal from senior forward Ashley Stewart. The Saints tied the score just 4:29 into the second period with a power play goal from Emillie Berlinguette. Senior Laurie Ross fired a shot from the point that was tipped by junior Crystal Connors on the near post, and the puck slid across to Berlinguette on the far post for the finish.
It was the same story in the third period as St. Cloud scored early and St. Lawrence answered quickly. Oonincx connected on her 10th goal of the season at 1:05 for the 2-1 lead. Just over four minutes later, Lisa Batchelor banged home a rebound off of a Carson Duggan shot to tie the game 2-2.
Oonincx stepped up again to give her team a 3-2 lead with just 2:30 left in regulation, but Kate Michael slipped the puck past SCSU’s sophomore goaltender Kendall Newell with just under a minute and a half to play to knot the score 3-3 and force the decisive overtime.
The Huskies finished with 35 shots on goal compared to the Saints 28. SCSU connected on 2-of-7 power play opportunities and SLU connected on just 1-of-4.
In goal for the Huskies, Newell finished the game with 25 saves. Moffat made 31 saves in her first loss of the season.
“Kendall played well,” said Lesteberg. “SLU has a quick team and Kendall stepped up to the challenge.”
With the split, the all-time series between the two teams stays dead-locked at 2-2-0.
The Huskies will now prepare for No. 5 Minnesota in a resumption of their WCHA schedule. SLU will look to rebound with its full roster against Yale and Brown in ECACHL play.
