Box Score Box Score

The Saints women's hockey team was handed their first loss of the season by the fifth ranked University of Wisconsin-River Falls Falcons 6-2 at Mars Lakeview Arena on Friday night.

The loss to the Falcons (3-0-0, 3-0-0 NCHA) comes after the Saints swept the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Blugolds last weekend.

The scoring was stagnant in the first period as the goaltenders were both on their game early.  Shannon Connolly (Toronto, Ontario/Havergal College) made an outstanding 11 saves in the first period alone for CSS and her opponent Melissa Deardorff made four saves for the Falcons to send the teams into the first intermission deadlocked at zero.

In the second period both teams would have an offensive explosion with the Falcons getting on the board first when Alice Cranston put one in on assists from Alyssa Black and Kendal Evenson to give the Falcons a 1-0 advantage.

At the 6:54 mark of the period, just a minute and a half after UW-RF took the lead, St. Scholastica's Jordy Klimek (Hastings, Minn./Hastings HS) put in a goal of her own assisted by Monika Waidacher (Arosa, Switzerland/Wirtschaftsschule KV Chur (Swiss National Team)) to tie it up at one a piece.

However, 17 seconds later the Falcons' Allie Olson scored an unassisted goal to give UW-RF a 2-1 advantage. 

Olson's goal would be answered with 10:51 left in the second when the Saints leading scorer, Nina Waidacher (Arosa, Switzerland/Wirtschaftschule KV Chur (ZSC Lions/Swiss U18 National)) scored an unassisted goal of her own to tie the game back up at two.

The Falcons would break the tie less than two minutes later when Jami Weiss scored on an assist from Katie Flanagan to put the Falcons up 3-2.  The Falcons would go on to strike again in the second when Katie Batters put one in assisted by Judy Deleiden to give River Falls a 4-2 advantage going in to intermission number two.

The Falcons held the lead for the rest of the game and extended it by two goals in the third on Olson's second goal of the game and a Flanagan goal to make the final score 6-2 in favor of UW-RF.

Connolly made 29 saves in the loss as her record drops to 1-1-0 on the season.

N. Waidacher's goal gives her a team leading three goals and seven points.  M. Waidacher's assist moves her into second on the team with six points and Klimek's goal gives her three points on the season.

The Saints (2-1-0, 2-1-0 NCHA) will be back on the ice tomorrow afternoon to take on the Falcons in the second game of the double header at 3:30 at Mars Lakeview Arena.  The action can be seen on GameCentral at csssaints.com.