ST. PAUL, MINN – The St. Catherine University hockey team has been on the cusp of victory multiple times this 2017-18 season. However, in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play, the Wildcats never were victorious. At least, they weren't until Friday evening. St. Kate's nabbed its first MIAC win of the season thanks to a 5-3 victory over the St. Olaf College Oles.

The first period was no indicator of the scoring that was to come in the second and third. After the first 20 minutes of play, the Wildcats and Oles were knotted in a 0-0 draw, with St. Olaf leading with a 13-4 shot advantage. That was mostly due to the fact that St. Kate's spent six minutes of the initial period on the penalty kill, as Tori Thompson (Rochester, Minn. / John Marshall), Ashlyn Rakos (Waconia, Minn. / Holy Family) and Laken Muller (Inver Grove Heights, Minn. / Simley) were all called for minor penalties through the first period.

The Wildcat defense and senior goalie Kristen Pechacek (Park Falls, Wis. / Chequamegon) were outstanding the first period to keep the game scoreless. Pechacek made 13 saves in the first period, while St. Kate's defense stopped several shots to preserve the scoreless tie. Unfortunately, the Wildcats offense was unable to find a rhythm, as the team spent the majority of the period down a skater.

That all changed in the second period, as St. Kate's scored two goals less than a minute apartment to take a 2-0 advantage over the Oles. With one second remaining in the Wildcats first power play opportunity of the evening, Brede Postier (Byron, Minn. / Dodge County) scored her third goal of the season to jump start St. Kate's offense. Roughly 50 seconds later, first year Emilee Anderson (Chanhassen, Minn. / Chanhassen) scored her first goal of the game to give the Wildcats a 2-0 advantage with 16:43 remaining in the second period.

Both the Oles and St. Kate's had ample opportunities to score in the remaining 16 minutes of the period, but strong defensive play allowed the Wildcats to hold a 2-0 lead after two periods of play. However, in the third period, things got interesting, as both teams scored three goals in the final 20 minutes, resulting in the 5-3 final score.

St. Kate's kicked things off five minutes into the third period, as the team scored its second power play goal of the evening to take a 3-0 lead over St. Olaf. MacKenzie Ess (Burnsville, Minn. / Apple Valley) scored her second goal of the year off a tic-tac-toe play involving Anderson and Muller. The Oles, though, were not about to go gently into the night and ended up scoring their first goal of the game with exactly 10 minutes remaining in regulation. Jan Vezina beat Pechacek on a back door rebound, cutting St. Kate's lead to 3-1 midway through the period.

The Wildcats answered 44 seconds later, as Muller beat Mae Moris with a top shelf goal, regaining a three-goal lead for St. Kate's in the process. Two minutes later, Muller was involved in yet another scoring play, as Anderson scored her second goal of the game to extend the Wildcats lead to 5-1 with eight minutes remaining in regulation.

Of course, St. Olaf tacked on two more goals to make things interesting. The Oles scored on a power play goal at 17:14 after Allie Guzy (Blaine, Minn. / Spring Lake Park) was called for interference. Later, St. Olaf scored its third goal of the game shorthanded, as the Wildcats were on the power play at the time. However, St. Kate's prevailed and held off the Oles, winning by a final score of 5-3.

Both Anderson and Muller recorded multi-point games for the Wildcats. Anderson recorded her first multi-goal and multi-point game of the year, while Muller recorded her second. Pechacek faced 36 shots in the victory and made 33 saves.

With the win, St. Kate's overall record improved to 2-11-0, while the team nabs its first win in MIAC play to improve to 1-6-0. The Wildcats will return to the ice on Saturday when they face St. Olaf at 3 p.m. in Northfield, Minnesota.