By Michael Heilman

The Minnesota Whitecaps returned home to the Tria Rink Saturday night for game one against the Buffalo Beauts.

Ten minutes and fifty-one seconds into the first period, the Whitecaps committed a body-checking penalty against forward Emma Stauber putting the Beauts on the power play. However, the Beauts were unable to score. The Whitecaps took the 1-0 lead fifteen minutes and sixteen seconds into the first period on a goal by Audra Richards with assists from Lauren Barnes and Stephanie Anderson. The Whitecaps remained in the lead 1-0 at the end of the first period.

Four minutes and fifty-five seconds into the second period, a tripping call was made against Whitecaps forward Audra Richards putting the Beauts on the power play. This time, the Beauts made it count a minute and fourteen seconds later as they tied the game 1-1 on a goal by Corinne Buie with assists from Taylor Accursi and Marie-Jo Pelletier. Less than a minute later, The Whitecaps regained the lead 2-1 as Allie Thunstrom scored with an assist from Meaghan Pezon.

Over a minute later, the Whitecaps added another goal to make it a 3-1 lead as Audra Richards scored her second goal of the game with assists from Emma Stauber and Lauren Barnes. Buffalo was able to pull within one 3-2 seven minutes later on a goal by Becki Bowering with an assist from Iveta Klimasova. This was as close as the Beauts would get to the Whitecaps as the Whitecaps led 3-2 at the end of the second period.

From there on, it was all Whitecaps in the third period as they began to distance themselves from the Beauts ten minutes into the third period on a goal by Meaghan Pezon with assists from Jonna Curtis and Winny Brodt Brown to extend the Whitecaps lead 4-2. Twenty-nine seconds later, Nicole Schammel, with an assist from Meghan Lorence, scored to add to the Whitecaps lead 5-2. Less than three minutes later, Allie Thunstrom collected her second goal of the game with assists from Meghan Lorence and Jonna Curtis for a 6-2 Whitecaps lead. Frustration set in for the Beauts as they committed a tripping penalty on forward Becki Bowering just as the Whitecaps added another goal by Lisa Martinson with an assist from Nicole Schammel to make it a 7-2 lead. With under a minute left in the game, the Whitecaps added another goal by Sydney Baldwin with an assist from Nicole Schammel and it was an 8-2 Whitecaps lead.

The Minnesota Whitecaps defeated the Buffalo Beauts 8-2 as the Whitecaps finished the night with forty-one shots on goal while the Buffalo Beauts had twenty-nine. Whitecaps goalie Amanda Leveille made twenty-seven of twenty-nine saves, allowing two goals while Beauts goalie Mariah Fujimagari was thirty-three of forty-one save allowing eight goals.

The three stars of the game were Whitecaps forward Audra Richards with two goals, Whitecaps forward Allie Thunstrom with two goals, and Whitecaps forward Nicole Schammel with one goal and two assists. These two teams will go at it again for game two Sunday at 2 pm from the Tria Rink.