Forward Kathryn Larson scored two goals and had an assist as the St. Thomas women’s hockey team defeated Hamline 6-1 Thursday at St. Thomas Ice Arena to earn a date with Gustavus in the MIAC semifinals on Saturday.

The Tommies (12-10-4 overall, 9-5-4 MIAC) scored four goals in the second period against the Pipers (12-13-1 overall, 9-8-0 MIAC.)

“It’s definitely a huge win, and Hamline is one of our bigger rivals so we wanted to come out strong,” Larson said. “It gives us a lot of momentum into tomorrow, and that’s huge for us.”

St. Thomas coach Tom Palkowski attributed his team’s success to its preparation.

“We had an extremely good week of practice,” Palkowski said. “You could just see it in their eyes that they were focused.”

Forward Becca Zarembinski got the Tommies on the board at the 8:22 mark of the first period when she carried the puck from behind the Hamline net and fired a snap shot past Hamline goaltender Annie Juergens.

St. Thomas led 1-0 after the first period before the offense caught fire.

The Pipers committed a quick penalty to start the second period, and the Tommies took advantage when Larson scored on a rebound after a hard shot by Zarembinski less than two minutes in.

About a minute and a half after Larson’s goal Hamline applied pressure of its own, having multiple two-on-ones within seconds of each other, the last of which was saved by Tommie goaltender Kenzie Torpy, who finished with 28 saves.

Torpy’s save created a rush for the Tommies the other way, which resulted in a goal by Leah Schwartzman who shot into an open net after many in front of the net deflections gave her possession of the puck.

“We’ve been working all season to try to get our kids to battle in front of the net and be tenacious and be hungry and tonight we didn’t let up,” Palkowski said.

The score stayed 3-0 for much of the rest of the period until Larson was able to snap home a shot that ultimately put the game out of reach with just under five minutes to go in the second period.

On Larson’s second goal, the Tommies held possession for an extended time in the Hamline zone, tiring the Piper defenders.

“(The goal) was a lot of hard work with cycling,” Larson said. “I ended up with the puck on the goal line and threw it on net, and I’m glad it went in.”

Defenseman Demi Cooper and forward Kaylee Druk scored the other Tommie goals.

Druk finished with two assists while Larson, Zarembinski and defenseman Anna Williams each had one.

Next up for the Tommies is a matchup with top-seeded Gustavus in St. Peter on Saturday at 2 p.m.

The Tommies beat the Gusties 3-2 on Nov. 12 after tying on the previous night.

Gustavus has only lost one conference game since that loss and have won each of their last six games overall.

“Gustavus has been on quite a roll but I think if we use our team speed, we’ll be tough to beat,” Palkowski said.

Taylor Smith can be reached at smit9660@stthomas.edu.