ST. PAUL – The Bethel University women's hockey team fell victim to a hat trick by Megan Killmer of St. Catherine's University in a 3-2 loss Friday night. The Royals scored the first and last goals of the game but in between the Wildcats senior forward scored three times, one in each period, to give SCU a critical MIAC victory. The loss for Bethel drops them into a tie with Augsburg for fifth place, which the Auggies would hold the tie-breaker over the Royals. St. Kate's sits just two points behind the Royals and Auggies and one point behind Saint Ben's in what is shaping up to be a very hotly contested battle for the five playoff spots.

Kalie Johnson wasted little time getting the Royals off to a good start as the senior connected off an assist from Caroline Kivisto just one minute into the game to give Bethel a 1-0 lead. Killmer scored her first goal at 14:18 in the first period to tie the game up heading into the first intermission. The only scoring of the second period was a power play goal by Killmer with just under two minutes remaining. The Wildcats have scored the fewest amount of goals per game in the MIAC, but half of those goals have come on the power play as they lead the MIAC at 20.6%. Killmer then stretched the SCU lead to 3-1 midway through the third period. Bethel's Kathryn Larson, the reigning MIAC Athlete-of-the-Week, scored with three minutes remaining with the assist to Lauren Kolak, to bring the Royals within one. The Royals chances of scoring the game tying goal took a major blow however when SCU was awarded a power play at 17:24. Bethel was still able to get two shots off down a skater, and pulled their goalie with just under a minute remaining, but they were unable to score the equalizer.

St. Kate's outshot Bethel 25-23, just the third time this season that Bethel has been outshot in a game. Michelle Klimstra made 22 saves in net for the Royals. Bethel was 0-2 on the power play, as SCU leads the MIAC in penalty killing as well at 89.1%. The Wildcats were 1-3 on their power play opportunities.

The Royals will welcome the Wildcats in near must-win game Saturday afternoon at Bethel University Arena. The puck will drop at 3 p.m. and live video/stats can be found here.