Women's Hockey 2/27/04 -- Augsburg 2, St. Thomas 2 (OT) 

BOXSCORE

STORY FROM UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS SPORTS INFORMATION

MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. (2/22/04) -- The University of St. Thomas women's hockey team secured its second consecutive outright Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship with Friday's 2-2 overtime tie with visiting Augsburg College at the St. Thomas Ice Arena.

The Tommies (18-4-2 overall, 16-0-1 MIAC), ranked eighth in the latest U.S. College Hockey Online (www.uscho.com) Division III national poll, had a 19-game win streak against conference foes halted but remained unbeaten (8-0-1) on home ice this season.

The teams, both bound for the five-team MIAC postseason playoffs, finish the regular season Saturday (2/28) at 2 p.m. at the Augsburg Ice Arena. A win would let the Tommies match Gustavus' 17-0-1 MIAC-record finish of 2001-2002.

Augsburg (13-9-2 overall, 9-6-2 MIAC) is 7-1-2 in its last 10 games, extending its unbeaten streak to seven games (5-0-2). After Friday's play, Augsburg is currently tied with St. Olaf (12-10-2 overall, 10-7-0 MIAC) and St. Mary's (14-8-2 overall, 10-7-0 MIAC) for third place in league play with 20 points each. However, both St. Olaf and St. Mary's have tiebreaker advantages over Augsburg. St. Olaf lost 5-4 to Concordia-Moorhead on Friday and host the sixth-place Cobbers again on Saturday at 2 p.m. St. Mary's topped Hamline 8-0 on Thursday and host the last-place Pipers on Saturday at 2:05 p.m.

Goalie Kristin Johnson (Jr., Minnetonka, Minn./Wayzata HS) stopped 26 of 28 shots in 65 minutes for Augsburg.

Becky Kilpatrick (So., Burnsville, Minn.) stopped 21 of 23 shots for the Tommies.

Sue Heinmiller's (So., Eden Prairie, Minn.) first-period goal gave the Toms a 1-0 lead, an advantage they would take into the third period. But on the opening faceoff of the last period, Auggie freshman Stacy Anderson (Fr., Huntington Beach, Calif./Marina HS) got the puck off the faceoff and turned it into a breakaway goal nine seconds into the frame.

St. Thomas regained the lead on Maureen Hardwick's (So., Warroad, Minn.) goal at 8:50, but Annie Annunziato (Sr., Commack, N.Y.) stole the puck in front of the net and tied the game with an unassisted goal at 14:02.

Neither team scored over the last six minutes of regulation and five minutes of overtime.

St. Thomas has the top seed for next week's five-team MIAC playoffs and will host a Thursday semifinal game at St. Thomas Ice Arena (5 p.m.) before the Tommie men's 8 p.m. playoff game.

Augsburg---------0/0/2/0--2
St. Thomas------1/0/1/0--2

1st period
1, ST-Heinmiller (Radzik) 5:03.

2nd period
No scoring

3rd period
2, A-Anderson (Annunziato, Chezick) 00:09; 3, ST-Hardwick (Turgeon, Stolz) 8:50; 4, A-Annunziato (unassisted) 14:02.

Goalies
Aug-Johnson 65 min., 2 GA, 26 saves (7-6-10-3)
UST-Kilpatrick 65 min., 2 GA, 21 saves (3-13-3-2)

Penalties
Aug -- 3 for 6
UST -- 6 for 12

Power Plays
Aug -- 0 for 5
UST -- 0 for 2