MINNEAPOLIS – Outshooting its opponents by a 45-14 margin and claiming its sixth game of the season with five goals or more, the No. 15-ranked Augsburg University women's hockey team clinched a semifinal berth in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference postseason playoffs, blitzing past the College of St. Scholastica 5-0 on Friday evening at Ed Saugestad Rink.

THE BASICS
FINAL SCORE: Augsburg 5, St. Scholastica 0
LOCATION: Ed Saugestad Rink, Minneapolis
RECORDS: Augsburg 18-6-0 overall (14-3-0 MIAC), St. Scholastica 7-15-2 overall (6-9-2 MIAC)

HOW IT HAPPENED
• Kennedy Stein (SR, Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest HS) claimed her second multi-goal game of the season with a pair of unassisted goals, Livia Brehm (SO, Detroit Lakes, Minn./Stillwater HS) scored her first goal as an Auggie and goalie Chloe Stockinger (SR, Sauk Rapids, Minn./Sauk Rapids-Rice HS) stopped all 14 shots she faced to record her fourth shutout of the season.
• A transfer from Suffolk (Mass.), Brehm scored her first goal in an Augsburg uniform and sixth goal of her collegiate career, redirecting a shot from the point by Stein for the Auggies' first goal of the game, 11:57 into play.
• The Auggies scored twice in a four-minute span late in the second period. On a 5-on-3 power play, Ella Olson (FY, Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove HS) scored her ninth goal of the season, redirecting a shot in midair by Nora Stepan (SO, Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview HS) at the 14:46 mark, with Elizabeth Fagerlind (JR, Kasson, Minn./Kasson-Mantorville HS) getting the second assist. Four minutes later, Stein stole a puck in her offensive zone and fired a five-hole wrist shot to the net.
• The Auggies finished the scoring with a pair of goals in a 57-second span late in the game. St. Scholastica pulled its goalie on a power play with 5:11 left, and Stein stole the puck from a Saints player at her own blue line, eluded a defender down the ice, and deposited the puck in the open net for her 13th goal of the season.
• Augsburg capped the game with a goal from Julianna Teske (SR, Warroad, Minn./Warroad HS) with 2:55 left, snapping a one-timer in the slot off a pass from behind the net by Sydney Rydel (SR, Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake HS). Dorothy Kearney (JR, Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing HS) had the second assist.
• Augsburg had its fourth game of the season with 40-plus shots, outshooting St. Scholastica by a 45-14 margin. Stockinger claimed her fourth shutout of the season and eighth of her career with a 14-save effort. The shutout was Stockinger's third in her last five starts.

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE
• Winners of 15 of its last 17 games, Augsburg clinched a first-round bye in the five-team MIAC postseason playoffs, and need just one of the three remaining conference points left in Saturday's (2/17) regular season finale to lock up the No. 2 seed and a home playoff semifinal game against the No. 3 seed next Saturday (2/24).
• Augsburg has now outscored its opponents by a 72-38 margin this season, and has recorded six shutouts as a team. 
• Augsburg held its opponents to under 20 shots on-goal for the seventh time this season.

FOR THE FOES
• Makenzie Cole had 40 saves in goal for St. Scholastica.

UP NEXT
• The two teams complete the regular season on Saturday (2/17) at 6 p.m. at the Mars Lakeview Arena in Duluth, Minn.