Falcons Freeze Finlandia on Friday

HANCOCK, Mich. – The Falcons officially clinched the fifth seed in the NCHA Slaats Cup Playoffs with a 3-0 road victory at Finlandia on Friday afternoon. CUW improves to 12-11-1 on the year and 7-7-1 in NCHA play with 23 points.

Freshman Brooke Gibson (LaSalle, Ont.) started the scoring in the first period when she dangled the puck past the Finlandia keeper on the power play, off an assist to junior Ali Eiden (Rosemount, Minn.) and senior Kaytlin Johnson (Black River Falls, Wis.).

Junior Colleen Gilligan (Colborne, Ont.) also scored on the power play in the final minute of the first period, when she tapped in a rebound off a shot from senior Sarah Pearson (South Range, Wis.) who was fed off a pass from freshman Olivia Kurtz (Plainfield, Ill.)

Freshman Amanda Bauer (Waunakee, Wis.) scored on a breakaway goal in the third period on assists to Brooke Gibson and Kaytlin Johnson.

Junior Annalina Van Hercke (Castle Rock, Colo.) was a brick wall on Friday afternoon with her third shutout of the season and the fifth of her career. Van Hercke collected 20 saves in the victory.

Senior Emily Reimche (Billings, Mont.) tamed the Lions with 25 faceoff victories on Friday.

CUW killed off all eight of Finlandia's power-play opportunities.   

The Blue and White posted 30 shots against the Lions. Emily Reimche led the attack with six shots.

The victory secures the fifth seed for the Falcons in the NCHA Slaats Cup Playoffs. Concordia will travel south for a quarterfinal series at Aurora.

The Falcons close the regular season on Saturday at Finlandia.