It was a rough start to the season for the Hamline women’s hockey team. After opening the season with a tie and a loss on the road to Concordia (WI), the team suffered a tough loss at home to nationally-ranked UW-River Falls. None of that mattered this week, though. MIAC play was about to start, and the rest had just been preparation.

“I think the team is really looking to build on the skills and systems we have learned these first few weeks of practice and in our non-conference games and put them to the test against our first MIAC opponent,” junior forward Jena Kosley said.

Last week was a new beginning.

“After the tough loss against River Falls, I thought we responded well. It is never easy losing in your home rink in front of your home crowd but everyone came back on Monday ready to go and skated hard all week and focused on St. Olaf,” senior forward Chelsea Koehn said.

The team was focused all right. The Piper women got out to an early lead on Friday, before seeing it evaporate and needing a late goal by junior forward Jessica Goldberg to finish with a 4-4 tie. Saturday was the real reward, though, and sophomore Jaimee Nowicki made it so. She had the game-winner in the second period and an empty-netter with 55 seconds remaining to ensure the 4-2 win.

“The girls competed hard both games and are starting to apply what we are working on during the week in practice and implementing [it] into the games. It was great they were finally rewarded for their hard work versus St. Olaf to take three of four points on the weekend,” Coach Natalie Darwitz said.

The win was Darwitz’s first of her Hamline coaching career, giving the team something to build upon going forward.

“We build off each game. We work hard every practice and each day we get better,” Goldberg said.

The focus in practice won’t change much with the win, however, as improving skills is still the number one thing.

“Our goal each and every practice is to leave the rink a better hockey player than when they came…our focus is overall skill development and that will continue all season long; if our skills improve so will our overall play,” Darwitz said.

One thing the team has done a good job on this season is taking shots. Continuing to take shots even when they’re not converting to goals is tough, but the team has stuck to it, knowing the scoring would come.

“Every shot on net counts. You never know when one might go in. Keep shooting and be there for the rebound and hopefully we will start capitalizing,” Goldberg said.

That sentiment is shared with her teammates.

“The only way to score is to keep shooting. We have been working a lot in practices on crashing the net and putting away the rebounds and getting junk goals,” Koehn said.

It all comes back to skills, with the long season still ahead.

“We will continue to focus on skills…we have been taking way too many penalties either away from the play or in our offensive zone and that is very undisciplined. We need to correct that and continue to work special teams as in the past four games, special teams has played a significant role in the games,” Darwitz said.

The Pipers continue their MIAC campaign with a home-and-home series against St. Benedict’s this weekend. The matchup will begin on Friday, Nov. 20, at Oscar Johnson Arena at 7:00 p.m.