Box Score No matter what was your point of view, Friday's 7-5 victory for the Hamline women's hockey team over St. Mary's at Oscar Johnson Arena had to qualify as one of the wildest games in school history. 

Here is a precis of what happened in a span of a little over two hours.

• Each team had a player record a hat trick. 
• Each team used two goalies.
• On two occasions, goals were scored by each team less than a minute part. On a third occasion, the time differential was 1:05. 
• There were seven goals in the third period alone.
• There were a total of 22 penalties in the game.
• Hamline penalty killers successfully fought off 12 of 13 player disadvantages.

Indeed, it was quite an eventful night.

The Pipers started fast. Bre Simon and Dani Wright scored 2:37 apart midway in the first period to give HU a fast 2-0 lead. The Cardinals halved the margin before the end of the period and tied the game at 1:53 of the second frame. Darby Dodds then started on what would be a big night with a goal 10 seconds later and the Pipers were back ahead. After such a fast start, that was the end of the scoring for the second period.

As it turned out, the teams were just waiting for the third period to get under way to start a barrage of goals.

Dodds struck for her second of the night at 2:30 of the third for a 4-2 lead but the Cardinals got that one back a minute later. Melanie Bartenstein made it 5-3 and Dodds' third of the night on a terrific feed from Simon at 11:42 seemed to make it look like a runaway at 6-3. Dodds' hat trick was the first by a Piper in two seasons. 

But SMU wasn't done. The Cardinals hit on a power play and, with the goalie pulled for a sixth attacker, made it 6-5 with 3:11 left in the game. The Pipers responded in kind on Sadie Baker's goal at 17:10 for what proved to be the final goal of the night.

There was more drama to come as HU took a penalty and the Cardinals pulled their goalie for a two player advantage in front of HU goalie Annie Juergens. But the Pipers held tough and skated off with their sixth win in nine MIAC games this season and an overall mark of 8-7-1. HU remains tied with Gustavus Adolphus for third place in the league. Each team has 12 points -- two behind second place Augsburg. 

Hamline doesn't have a lot of time to mull over the wild game. They face the Cardinals again in Winona on Saturday, January 21 at 2:00 p.m.