Jimmies women's hockey struggle in 6-1 loss to Minot State

JAMESTOWN — The No. 13-ranked University of Jamestown hosted No. 4-ranked Minot State looking to beat their rivals for the first time in program history. However, a bad first period sunk the Jimmies in a 6-1 loss on Sunday, Feb. 5, at Wilson Arena.

The Beavers (17-8-1, 13-6-1) had sustained zone pressure early on and it paid off as with 18:06 to go in the first period, Olivia Opheim scored to make it 1-0. The Jimmies (8-16, 5-14) thought they very quickly tied it up on a scramble in front as even the red light went on but the refs did not signal a goal and play continued. The Beavers added another one with 12:28 to go in the period when Gillian Gervin took a wrist shot through traffic past Drew’s glove side to make it 2-0. The Beavers tripled their lead later in the period when the Beavers’ Sydney Spicer intercepts a puck at her own blue line and got sprung on a breakaway and buried it short side to make it 3-0 with 2:46 to go in the first period.

“We didn’t come out ready,” Jimmies head coach Amber Schaack said. “We didn’t come out ready to play. Minot’s a solid squad, we have to bring our A game, so just being focused, being prepared right off the drop of the puck.”

The Beavers added another one midway through the second period before the Beavers’ Hannah Gray got called for interference at the 8:27 mark of the second period. That woke the Jimmies up as early in the advantage, the Jimmies’ Chloe Gauthier took a shot that found its way through traffic and in to make it 4-1 with 10:54 to go in the second period. The Beavers added another one in the second to go up 5-1.

The Beavers added one more in the third to get the 6-1 win. After the game, Schaack called all of her players over to the bench and gave her postgame speech there.

“We don’t need to say anything after the game, anything like that, just go to the locker room, get changed and move on,” Schaack said.

Throughout the eight games that the Jimmies and the Beavers have played against each other all time, the Jimmies have struggled on the power play as they went 1-for-10 in this game to drop their power play percentage down to 25%.

The Jimmies are back in action at 2 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 10, when they host Midland.

MSU 6, UJ 1

MSU: 3 2 1–6

UJ: 0 1 0–1

Scoring plays:

First period:

MSU: Olivia Opheim, 1:53

MSU: Gillian Gervin, 7:33

MSU: Sydney Spicer, 17:14

Second period:

MSU: Denali Sigurdson (PP), 6:58

UJ: Chloe Gauthier (PP), 9:06

MSU: Anna German, 16:28

Third period:

MSU: Jordan Kulbida (PP), 6:46

Goalie matchup:

MSU: Morgan Baker: 16 saves on 17 shots, one goal allowed

UJ: Lilah Drew: 29 saves on 35 shots, six goals allowed