Men’s Hockey versus Saint John’s University (Mar 19, 2021)

L 3-2

The Hamline men’s hockey team lost to the Saint John’s Johnnies in their last home game of the 2021 season in an action-packed faceoff that could have gone either way. A scoreless first period, a quick back and forth in the second and a successful slap shot in the third gave the game to SJU. 

This was not without an intense fight by way of the Pipers. Sophomore goalie Kevin Lake recorded 33 saves in the three period game, with the Johnnies shooting 11 times in the first frame alone. The Pipers fought hard on offense, as well, getting off 10 of their own in the same period. 

With this drive, the Pipers were able to be the first on the board, with a goal from senior Austin Wisely assisted by senior Zak Lambrecht only five minutes into the second period. The Johnnies made it one after three minutes but in less than 30 seconds the Pipers capitalized on a power play and set the score to 2–1. Senior Kyle Wendorf scored this one with an assist from junior Jeron Hirschfeld. 

In the last five minutes of the second frame, SJU put it away again and the score was tied at twos. It was no surprise that this momentum led the Johnnies to score the game-winner early in the third period with a slap shot from a faceoff. From this, the Pipers struggled to recover and the Johnnies were able to maintain their lead.

The Pipers are not ending their season with this game, however, the seniors had a memorable send-off from the TRIA rink with their performance on the ice. 

Women’s Lacrosse versus Northwestern (Mar 17, 2021)

W 16-2

The women’s lacrosse team dominated Northwestern in their first home game of the season. The extremely successful home-opener saw the implementation of the mercy rule in the second half and the Pipers still scored three more goals without a stopping clock. 

The Northwestern Eagles put away their first goal in the first two minutes of the game, but the Pipers did not let this phase them and proceeded to score five consecutive goals and kept their defense strong. Five different players scored in this half and nine players scored in total from Hamline.

As if going into the half with a 5–1 lead over the Eagles wasn’t enough of a momentum boost for the Pipes, an early and final goal for Northwestern prompted Hamline to lock the game down for good. In the rest of the second half, 11 more goals were scored to end the game at 16–2.

The nine women’s lacrosse players who scored include seniors Ashley Hessler, Maria Lewis and Maya Hernandez, junior Tara DeLeo, sophomore Taryn Leonard, and first years Analisa Aragon, Lily Uhl, Emma Moe and Clare Chambers. 

Senior Alyssa Bryan-Jeffries made four saves in goal and contributed to the strong Pipers defense. The Pipers forced 31 turnovers as well as leading in shots, with 35 of 41 shots being on net for the Pipers compared to the six shots by the Eagles. 

Hessler was close to tying not one, but two school records. She had eight ground balls, only one away from the school record of nine. Her eight goals were only two short of the current school record of ten. She did set a new assist record with five assists in this single game and all records were personal highs for Hessler. 

The Pipers women’s lacrosse team played again on Saturday and unfortunately fell 9–6 to Illinois Wesleyan after a conversely intense matchup. 

For more updated stats and coverage, visit hamlineathletics.com. All games are broadcasted and have live stat links included.