Courtesy of Midland Athletics
MARLBOROUGH, Mass. – It was a battle of familiar foes on Sunday in the ACHA Women’s Division 1 Tournament as No. 2 Midland University took on No. 3 Minot State University in the semifinal round. The two conference rivals battled on the ice at the New England Sports Center and as had been the case in nearly all of their previous seven meetings this year, it came down to a single goal. Sunday’s semifinal went the way of the Beavers as they advanced to the national championship game on Monday with a 1-0 victory.
Neither side would budge defensively as they stopped shot after shot. In the first period, the Warriors pelted the Beavers’ goalie with 20 shots while Hannah Stone saw 10 shots come her way. Both goalies played at a high level, earning saves on all shots that came their way.
The second period saw Stone add 20 more saves to her tally while MSU’s Haylie Biever ran her save total to 29. They did so while facing power play chances as Midland was sent to the penalty box three times in the first 40 minutes and Minot State made seven trips.
Coming out of the final intermission, the stakes were high on both sides. Just over five minutes into the third, Jordan Kulbida scored off an assist from Sydney Spicer to put the Beavers on the board. Midland’s offense attempted to find the equalizer over the next 14-plus minutes but Minot State’s defense allowed just seven shots to reach their netminder in the final period.
“It was a hard-fought game today with two quality teams going at it,” said head coach Jason White. “We’ve seen each so many times over the past two seasons that we knew it was going to be a close game throughout. It was difficult for us, and most of the teams, to get any sort of rhythm going this week with more whistles than we’re accustomed to. Minot State was able to take advantage of a couple of miscues from our team today and got the win.”
“I’m so proud of this group and all they’ve accomplished this year,” added Coach White. “We were able to win our conference tournament, beating a lot of the teams of the same teams that were here this week. It’s a credit to our conference that three of the final four teams in the tournament and half of the teams here are from the WMCH.”
Midland finishes the season with an impressive 27-6-4 record. This year they won their second-ever conference championship and the first since joined the uber-competitive Women’s Midwest College Hockey league. Their 27 wins set a new program standard surpassing the 20-win seasons of 2018-19 and 2021-22.
