BOX SCORE

ST. PETER, Minn. - Participating in their first ever MIAC women's hockey championship game, the Royals gave perennial conference leaders Gustavus everything they could handle. Bethel held the Gusties scoreless almost through 2 full periods before ultimately going down to Gustavus 3-0.

The final stats would show numbers that didn't truly reflect how close and hard fought the game was played. Sophomore Jess Newstrom (Cambridge, Minn.) stopped 31 of 33 shots for a save percentage of .939%. The Royals would only manage to accumulate 8 shots, but kept the pressure on Gustavus till the very end.

Gustavus's Allie Schwab scored the Gusties first goal at 17:53 in the second period, but Gustavus would not find the net again until just before the 11 minute mark of the 3rd period to go up by two. With 1:20 to play the Royals would pull Newstrom from the net to gain the offensive advantage on the ice. Though they managed to rack up 4 shots in the 3rd period the Royals were unable to score, and with the second winding down Gustavus's Schwab was able to break away and score on the empty net setting the final score in favor of the Gusties 3-0.

The loss ends a very impressive year for Bethel in which they end up with a final record of 15-10-2 overall and 11-5-2 in the MIAC. After playing in the conference playoffs 4 times the Royals got their first program playoff win to make it to the championship game.

Gustavus will now move on to the NCAA playoffs for the 8th consecutive year to represent the MIAC's automatic bid as awarded to the conference playoff champion.