In the final two game series of the year, the Pipers faced off against the Gusties, once in St. Paul and once down the Minnesota River valley in St. Peter. The Pipers split that season ending series winning at home 2–1 on Friday, Feb. 21 and losing the next night at Gustavus, 4–3 in overtime.
A week later, they were right back down in Northfield to take on the Gusties in the first round of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) playoffs.
Although they would be battling a familiar foe, the Pipers knew it would be a tall order beating the Gusties on the road, in the first round of the playoffs.
From the second the puck was dropped at Don Roberts Ice Rink, the pace of the game was fast and furious. Hamline had a couple of great scoring opportunities in the first minute of the game, but were not able to capitalize.
Eventually, Gustavus locked down Hamline's offensive chances. With 5:54 minutes gone in the first period, Gustavus was able to get one past Hamline netminder Kendra Nordick when Lily Mortenson buried a backdoor pass from Kaitlyn Holland, for the first goal of the game.
The rest of the period remained fairly even and Gustavus took the 1–0 lead into the locker room for the first intermission.
We do not know what coach Colbert said to her team between periods, but whatever it was, Hamline came out on fire to start the second period.
An aggressive forecheck and a gritty mentality kept Gustavus bottled up in their end for the first eight minutes of the period. Unfortunately, in all that zone time, Hamline was unable to find the back of the net and the score still remained 1–0 Gustavus midway through the second stanza.
Later in the period, each team had power play opportunities, and just as Hamline killed off their penalty, Gustavus was able to score on a quick centering pass to Noelle Hemr, which made it 2–0 Gustavus at 16:21 minutes.
The third period saw a lot of back and forth action but unfortunately no goals for the Pipers. Hamline tried everything they could, including pulling the goalie, but Gustavus was able to score two empty netters, making it a 4–0 final.
It was an incredibly sad ending to the collegiate careers for graduating players Nancy Benedict, Jaime Hort, Morgan Wohlers, Nikki Olund, Erika Broten, Cailey McLaughlin, Haley Eder-Zdechlik and Emme Nelson. Group hugs and tears were shared on the ice after the game as this great 2024-25 season came to an end.
As unfortunate as the ending is, the future is bright for next season. The Pipers will have an upcoming six-player senior class including 17 point scorer Iyla Ryskamp and starting goalie Kendra Nordick. Adding to this crop of players is the program’s second leading scorer, first-year player Ashlyn Abrahamson.
With a strong recruiting class to complement the group of highly skilled returners, the expectation is Hamline will make a return to the playoffs next year.