Women's hockey locks up fourth seed with 5-3 win

The Piper win coupled with St. Olaf's win over Bethel and St. Thomas' win over St. Mary's locked the Pipers  (14-8-2, 10-6-1 in the MIAC) into the fourth seed in the conference playoffs. They will host fifth-seeded St. Mary's on Tuesday night at Drake Arena.

Augsburg (8-12-4, 5-9-3) made clinching a home playoff game a chore, scoring 31 seconds into the game on an Andrea Toft goal.

But the Pipers responded to score the next three goals to take command. First-year Sophie Davidson scored her 10th of the year to knot the game at 1-1 heading into the first intermission.

Junior Marie Gross scored at 5:47 of the second period to give Hamline the lead. Later in the period, first-year Amanda Finstad score short-handed to make the score 3-1.

From there, the Auggies managed to cut the lead to a single goal on two occasions. Tiffany Magnuson scored her 21st of the season to make the score 3-2 after two periods.

Hamline answered with a Mindy Lein goal 46 seconds into the third period. Augsburg would draw to 4-3 on Toft's second tally of the game, but junior forward Sara Mickelson put the game away on the power-play at 10:59.

Hamline goaltender Crystal Testolin made 29 saves for the Pipers. Toni Menth stopped 26 shots for the Auggies.

The two teams will close the regular season Saturday night at Drake Arena. Game time is set for 7:15 p.m.