Kevin Sethre, Staff Writer

The Augsburg women’s hockey team extended their conference winning streak to ten straight games with a weekend sweep of St. Kate’s, beating the Wildcats 4-1 at Ed Saugestad Rink on February 7 and shutting them out 3-0 the following night in St. Paul.

In their home game on the seventh, Lanie Lobdell opened the scoring with just under two minutes left in the first period. Emily Ach scored two in the second and added a power-play goal in the third for her second career hat trick. Katie Flynn and Bridget Wagner had two assists each on the night. The Auggies controlled the game the whole way, outshooting St. Kate’s 34-17. The Wildcats scored their lone goal of the weekend 14:36 into the second period.

On Saturday night at Drake Ice Arena, Augsburg got a first-period goal from Kalli Prekker and third-period goals from Mikayla Jones and Mackenzie Molnar to cruise past St. Kate’s 3-0. The Auggie defense limited the Wildcats to only 15 shots, and Annie Juergens earned her third shutout of the season.

Thanks to their ten-game MIAC win streak, Augsburg has rebounded from a 1-3 start in MIAC play to reach a tie for third in the standings and clinch a fifth consecutive MIAC Playoff appearance. With four games remaining, the Auggies are two points behind both Gustavus and Hamline and tied with St. Thomas.

A major factor in the Auggies’ success this season has been the defense and goalkeeping. Juergens and Abby Bolling both rank in the top five in the conference for goals allowed average, and Juergens has a .931 save percentage, good for fourth in the MIAC.

Augsburg hosts both games of a weekend series against Concordia this weekend then plays two crucial games against the Tommies the following weekend. Although they have already secured a playoff spot, the remaining regular season games will be huge, as they will help determine the Auggies’ final playoff spot.